Consumer Rights

A Summary of Your Consumer Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of consumer rights reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer reporting agencies, including credit bureaus and specialty agencies (such as agencies that sell information about check writing histories, medical records, and rental history records). Here is a summary of your major rights under the FCRA. For more information, including additional rights, go to www.ftc.gov/credit or write to: Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

We must explicitly inform you if we have used any information in your file against you. In addition, any entity that uses a credit report or any other consumer report to deny your credit application, insurance application, or employment application—or to take any other adverse action against you—must inform you and give you the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the information.

FTC Guidelines

Additionally, you have the right to know what is in your file. You may request and, furthermore, obtain all the information about you in the files of a consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). In order to proceed, you will be required to provide proper identification, which may include your Social Security number. In many cases, however, the disclosure will be free. You are entitled to free file disclosure if and only if:

• a person has taken adverse action against you because of information in your credit report;
• If you are the victim of identity theft, place a fraud alert in your file.
• or your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud.
• If you are on public assistance,
• You are unemployed, but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.

In addition, since September 2005, all consumers are entitled to one free disclosure every 12 months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau and from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies. See www.ftc.gov/credit for additional information.

Your Consumer Rights

You have the right to ask for a credit score. Credit scores are numerical summaries of your creditworthiness based on information from credit bureaus. You may request a credit score from consumer reporting agencies that create scores or distribute scores used in residential real property loans, but you will have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will receive credit score information for free from the mortgage lender.

You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. If you identify information in your file that is incomplete or inaccurate and report it to the consumer reporting agency, the agency must investigate, unless your dispute is frivolous. See www.ftc.gov/credit for an explanation of dispute procedures.

Consumer Reporting

Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information. Inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually within 30 days. However, a consumer reporting agency may continue to report information it has verified as accurate. Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information. In most cases, a consumer reporting agency may not report negative information that is more than seven years old or bankruptcies that are more than 10 years old.

Access to your file is limited. A consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to people with a valid need—usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business. The FCRA specifies those with a valid need for access.

Consent

You must give your consent for reports to be provided to employers. A consumer reporting agency may not give out information about you to your employer or a potential employer without your written consent. Written consent is generally not required in the trucking industry. For more information, go to www.ftc.gov/credit.

You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report. Unsolicited “prescreened” offers for credit and insurance must include a toll-free phone number you can call if you choose to remove your name and address from the lists these offers are based on. You may opt-out with the nationwide credit bureaus at 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688).

You may seek damages from violators. If a consumer reporting agency, or, in some cases, a user of consumer reports or a furnisher of information to a consumer reporting agency, violates the FCRA, you may be able to sue in state or federal court.

Identity theft victims and active-duty military personnel have additional rights. For more information, visit www.ftc.gov/credit.

States may enforce the FCRA, and many states have their own consumer reporting laws. In some cases, you may have more rights under state law.

The following is a supplement to any consumer rights included in our membership service agreement:

Consumer Credit File Rights

Consumer Credit File Rights Under state and federal law, you have a right to dispute inaccurate information in your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly. However, neither you nor any “credit repair” company or credit repair organization has the right to have accurate, current, and verifiable information removed from your credit report.

The credit bureau must, however, remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over 7 years old. Additionally, bankruptcy information can be reported for a duration of 10 years. Also, you have the right to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. Additionally, you may be charged a reasonable fee. Although there is no fee, you may still be eligible for assistance if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling due to information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days.

Credit Bureaus

Additionally, the credit bureau must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. If you are unemployed and intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, or if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due to fraud, you are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report. Furthermore, you have the right to sue a credit repair organization that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act. In addition, this law specifically prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations. Additionally, you have the right to cancel your contract with any credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business days from the date you signed it.

Requirements

Furthermore, credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable procedures to ensure that the information they report is accurate. However, it is important to note that mistakes may occur. Additionally, you have the option to independently inform a credit bureau in writing about your disagreement regarding the accuracy of the information in your credit file. The credit bureau must then, accordingly, reinvestigate, modify, or remove inaccurate or incomplete information. On top of that, the credit bureau may not charge any fee for this service. In order to ensure that the credit bureau receives all necessary information, please provide any pertinent information and copies of all documents concerning the error.

If the credit bureau’s investigation does not resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief statement to the credit bureau to be kept in your file explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The credit bureau must include a summary of your statement about disputed information with any report it issues about you. The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus and credit repair organizations. For more information, contact:

The Public Reference Branch

Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. 20580