Fair Credit Reporting Act - What are your rights as a consumer?

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that is practiced in the United States of America. The act details how credit information of consumers should be used, collected or given out. As per FCRA, every US citizen should receive a free credit report annually. This is to ensure that each and every consumer is aware of what is there in their credit report. Apart from staying informed, it also helps them to get fair treatment and fight identity theft.

Your rights under the FCRA

Go through the following lines to make yourself aware of some of the rights under the FCRA.

You can know whether or not any information has been used against you

You have the right to know if anyone has used your credit report to deny your application for employment, insurance or any kind of credit. The concerned agency must give you the name along with the address and phone number of the CRA from which it has collected the information.

A CRA must take your consent before giving out information to your employer

As per FCRA, a Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) must take your written consent before giving out any of your information to either your employer or your potential employer.

You can delete or correct any inaccurate information

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to either delete or correct any information that is incorrect. Usually, it needs to be deleted within 30 days after you dispute it. When you dispute an item, The CRA has to check its accuracy and if it’s accurate, then it can continue reporting it. If it is incorrect or the CRA cannot verify the item, then the Credit Reporting Agency has to remove it from your file.

A CRA should not report any outdated negative information

As per FCRA rules, a CRA should stop reporting any outdated negative information about you. Usually, it should not report any negative information for more than 7 years. The time limit is 10 years in case of bankruptcy.

You can exclude your name from CRA lists

You may opt to exclude your name from CRA lists so as to stop receiving any insurance or credit offers that you don’t want to get. Once you opt for such an option, you’ll stop getting such offers for a minimum of 2 years.

You can take legal action against the violators of FCRA

You have every right to take legal action against a CRA that has violated FCRA rules. You can also sue your employer or a creditor in the federal or state court if they violate FCRA rules.

Apart from above, the Fair Credit Reporting Act also gives you the right to know what is there in your credit report. You can get a list of the persons and agencies that have requested for your report in the past 1 year and 2 years in case of requests related to employment.


Keyphrase: fair credit reporting act

Description: Gather knowledge about some of your rights, as a consumer, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).