Protection under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that regulates credit reporting agencies and compels them to ensure the information they gather and distribute is a fair and accurate summary of a consumer's credit history. The FCRA requires credit reporting agencies and the companies that report your credit information (furnisher) to them to ensure that your information is fair and accurate. The FCRA provides consumers with the ability to correct any inaccurate information on their credit reports and provides for legal remedies if a credit reporting agency or furnisher violates your rights.

Some violations of the FCRA may include:

  • A credit reporting agency failing to correct any errors or explain why the credit report is correct within 30 days of receiving a notice of dispute by the consumer.
  • An entity pulls or checks your credit ("hard inquiry") when you never authorized them to do so.

There are more than 40 million consumers with errors in their credit reports. If you have an error, it can be difficult to get them corrected because credit reporting agencies devote little time to addressing errors and the investigations done are often inadequate. These uncorrected errors often lead you to be worse off. For example, errors on your credit report could result in higher interest rate on loans and higher costs of insurance. There is no reason that you should have to suffer the consequences of credit report errors.

Credit report inaccuracies.

If you are dealing with inaccurate information on your credit report, there are a few things you can do:

  • File a complaint about the credit reporting agency
  • File a complaint about the creditor
  • Complain to your state consumer protection agency
  • Consider suing the credit reporting agency
  • Consider suing the creditor
  • Contact your congressional representative or senator
  • Hire a credit report attorney to handle you case

If you’ve tried all of these things, you will need to take more aggressive action to clean up your credit report. Dealing with credit report errors can be frustrating and time consuming.

Hire a Credit Card Attorney.

Find a Gravis Law location near you. Our knowledge of consumer protection law will provide you with the quality and personalized help and tools you deserve. We’re here to assist you through your legal matters and beyond – making the process as smooth and uncomplicated as possible.