Host: What are my credit rights under Federal Law?
Vikki Frank: Well, the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act known as the FCRA regulates the credit industry and the credit reporting agencies, what we know as Credit Bureaus. There are generally six basics rights that consumers have under the FCRA.
The first is access. Consumers have access to their credit report and credit scores at any time. The second is privacy. The consumers have the right to know that only businesses who have what is called the permissible purpose can actually access their credit reports and look at them, and the FCRA talks about who has permissible purpose.
The third is aging off on while good behavior and good information can stand a credit report for as long indeterminately negative behavior starts to come off after seven years with some coming up after 10 years and other coming up after 15 years.
The fourth credit right that consumer has is accuracy. They have the right to have accurate information on their credit reports, and when it’s not accurate they have the right to dispute that information and have the Credit Bureaus where the creditors respond to that within 30 days.
The fifth right is that consumers have the right to be told that information and their credit report has been used against them. So if a lender, an employer, or an insurance company has pulled the credit report and looked at it and used that information to either deny a loan or increase the cost of a loan. They need to tell that to a consumer and that a consumer has a right to look at their report.
The last right or the sixth right that I’ll talk about is the ability to seek damages. If a consumer believes that the Credit Bureau or a business that is providing information to a Credit Bureau has provided inaccurate information, has not been updating it. They can go straight to a Federal Trade Commission which is the organization that oversees the Fair Credit Reporting Act and complain there.
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