Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA deals with credit reports and credit bureaus or credit reporting agencies. As with debt collection rights, you also have many credit rights. Your credit rights are giving by the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What is the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act?

The Fair Debt Reporting Act summary is as follows. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act provides:

• the fee structure for credit reports, and
• situations where a consumer can obtain a free credit report if he or she is denied credit
• provisions for reinvestigation of the information on your credit report and deletion of incorrect information
• the length of time certain items must be included on your credit report

How to request my free credit report when my credit application is rejected?

Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, whenever your application for credit is rejected, you are entitled to a free credit report from the creditor who rejected your credit application. The free credit report must be requested within 60 days of the receipt of the denial or credit or employment.

What to do when my credit report contains errors or incorrect information?

Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, if you find an error or incorrect information on your credit report, you have the right to inform the credit reporting agency or credit bureau that has the incorrect information and they must reinvestigate the matter at no charge to you. The credit bureau must respond to you within 30 days. Note that, all you need to do is inform the credit bureau of the error, you do not need to tell the credit bureau what the correct information should be. The credit bureau will reinvestigate and find the correct information themselves or they must remove the item from your credit report.

The 30 day rule for credit bureaus

If you inform the credit bureau of one or more incorrect information on your credit report. The credit bureau has 30 days to respond. Within 30 days (hence the term the 30 day rule for credit bureaus), the credit reporting agency must either:

• correct the information on your credit report, or
• delete the incorrect information on your credit report

How long are inquiries kept on my credit report?

Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus must keep all inquiries on your credit report for 6 months. That means all your credit inquiries for the past six months will be on your credit report. However, some credit inquiries do not affect your credit report or your credit score so you won't have to worry about them. Other credit inquiries affect your credit report adversely and reducing your credit score, so you have to watch out for them.

What else must be included in my credit report under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act?

To comply with the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA Section 1681(g)) , credit bureaus must:

• include a listing of all people who purchased your credit report within the last 2 years for employment purposes, and
• include a listing of all people who purchased your credit report for other purposes for the last year

Fair Credit Reporting Act disclosure

Credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus are not, contrary to popular beliefs, required by law to disclose your credit score or credit risk rating. Credit scores are the credit bureaus' assessment of your credit worthiness based on your credit history as shown on your credit report. The credit scores are supplied to employers and creditors. Even though, the credit bureaus are not required to supply information on your credit risk or credit score, they often do any way. You can read about this Fair Credit Reporting Act Disclosure in FCRA section 1681 (g).