A Summary of Your Rights
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is designed to promote
accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every
"consumer reporting agency" (CRA). Most CRAs are credit
bureaus that gather and sell information about you—such as
if you pay your bills on time or have filed bankruptcy—to creditors,
employers, landlords, and other businesses. You can find the complete
text of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. §§1681-1681u, at the Federal
Trade Commission's website (www.ftc.gov).
The FCRA gives you specific rights, as outlined below. You may have
additional rights under state law. You may contact a state or local
consumer protection agency or a state attorney general to learn
those rights.
- You must be told if information in your file has been used
against you. Anyone who uses information from a CRA to take
action against you—such as denying an application for credit,
insurance, or employment—must tell you, and give you the
name, address, and phone number of the CRA that provided the consumer
report.
- You can find out what is in your file. At your request,
a CRA must give you the information in your file, and a list of
everyone who has requested it recently. There is no charge for
the report if a person has taken action against you because of
information supplied by the CRA, if you request the report within
60 days of receiving notice of the action. You also are entitled
to one free report every twelve months upon request if you certify
that (1) you are unemployed and plan to seek employment within
60 days, (2) you are on welfare, or (3) your report is inaccurate
due to fraud. Otherwise, a CRA may charge you up to eight dollars.
- You can dispute inaccurate information with the CRA.
If you tell a CRA that your file contains inaccurate information,
the CRA must investigate the items (usually within 30 days) by
presenting to its information source all relevant evidence you
submit, unless your dispute is frivolous. The source must review
your evidence and report its findings to the CRA. (The source
also must advise national CRAs—to which it has provided the
data—of any error.) The CRA must give you a written report
of the investigation, and a copy of your report if the investigation
results in any change. If the CRA's investigation does not resolve
the dispute, you may add a brief statement to your file. The CRA
must normally include a summary of your statement in future reports.
If an item is deleted or a dispute statement is filed, you may
ask that anyone who has recently received your report be notified
of the change.
- Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted.
A CRA must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information
from its files, usually within 30 days after you dispute it. However,
the CRA is not required to remove accurate data from your file
unless it is outdated (as described below) or cannot be verified.
If your dispute results in any change to your report, the CRA
cannot reinsert into your file a disputed item unless the information
source verifies its accuracy and completeness. In addition, the
CRA must give you a written notice telling you it has reinserted
the item. The notice must include the name, address and phone
number of the information source.
- You can dispute inaccurate items with the source of the information.
If you tell anyone—such as a creditor who reports to a CRA—that
you dispute an item, they may not then report the information
to a CRA without including a notice of your dispute. In addition,
once you've notified the source of the error in writing, it may
not continue to report the information if it is, in fact, an error.
- Outdated information may not be reported. In most cases,
a CRA may not report negative information that is more than seven
years old; ten years for bankruptcies.
- Access to your file is limited. A CRA may provide information
about you only to people with a need recognized by the FCRA—usually
to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer,
landlord, or other business.
- Your consent is required for reports that are provided to
employers, or reports that contain medical information. A
CRA may not give out information about you to your employer, or
prospective employer, without your written consent. A CRA may
not report medical information about you to creditors, insurers,
or employers without your permission.
- You may choose to exclude your name from CRA lists for unsolicited
credit and insurance offers. Creditors and insurers may use
file information as the basis for sending you unsolicited offers
of credit or insurance. Such offers must include a toll-free phone
number for you to call if you want your name and address removed
from future lists. If you call, you must be kept off the lists
for two years. If you request, complete, and return the CRA form
provided for this purpose, you must be taken off the lists indefinitely.
- You may seek damages from violators. If a CRA, a user
or (in some cases) a provider of CRA data, violates the FCRA,
you may sue them in state or federal court.
The FCRA gives several different federal agencies authority to
enforce the FCRA:
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