The Fair Credit Reporting Act Benefits Credit Active Consumers
The Fair Credit Reporting Act Benefits Credit-Active Consumers The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) law went into effect in 1971 and was amended considerably in 1997 by Congress. The original FCRA protected your rights as a credit-active consumer by limiting who has access to your credit report. It mandated that, while you yourself may request a copy at any time, no one else may legally review your report unless they intend to: The 1971 FCRA also stated that your credit report may be accessed in response to a court order or federal grand jury subpoena. Fines up to $5,000 and imprisonment for up to one year are consequences of knowingly and willfully obtaining a credit report under false pretenses. The 1997 version of the FCRA further protects credit-active consumers and gives them more control over their credit information. Highlights of the updated version of the FCRA are summarized below: Credit Reports Credit Disputes Credit Accuracy Credit Offers Banks, retailers, and credit card issuers purchase pre-screened lists from credit bureaus and use them to identify qualified and interested consumers to whom they market credit cards and other retail loans. These pre-screened lists have also been affected by the FCRA amendment. Card issuers can deny credit if the consumer does not qualify for the pre-screening criteria. Credit Clinics Credit repair clinics will charge consumers up to thousands of dollars to allegedly “repair” less than perfect credit reports. Although these clinics claim the ability to dispose of negative credit information from a consumer’s file, if the negative information is accurate, it has to stay on the credit report for up to 10 years. This is federally mandated. If the consumer pays the credit repair clinic before the service is performed, the consumer can expect to lose a large amount of money. The new law prohibits credit repair clinics from collecting a fee before a service is performed.