What is the Fair Credit Reporting Act?
The FCRA is a Federal Law that regulates the disclosure of consumer credit reports by consumer/credit reporting agencies, gives consumers the right to see his or her credit report and establishes procedures for the correction of errors on a person's credit report.
Under
the Fair Credit Reporting Act:
Anyone who uses a credit report or any type of consumer report to deny credit,
insurance or employment, or take any other adverse action against you must tell
you and must give you the name, address and phone number of the agency that provided
the information.
You have the right to know what is in your file. Anyone can request and obtain a copy of their credit report that contains all current and up to date information at the time of your request. At the time of the request you will be required to provide proper identification, which may include your Social Security number.
You will be entitled to a free copy of your report if one of the following has occurred,:
- Denied credit.
- Denied employment
- Victim of identify theft and place a fraud alert in your file
- In accurate information as a result of fraud
Otherwise, you can obtain your free credit report every 12 months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau, Equifax, Trans Union and Experian. You can also request your credit score at the time you request your free credit report, however, their will be a charge for obtaining this information.
You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. If there is information on your report that is incomplete or inaccurate you can dispute it with the credit bureaus, they must investigate unless your dispute is frivolous. The investigation must be done by the credit bureaus within 30 days of receipt of the dispute.
Access to your credit history is limited; a credit bureau may provide information about you only to people or businesses with a valid need. The FCRA specifies those with a valid need for access, such as a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other financing institutions. In order for employers to obtain your credit history information, written consent must be given to the employer.
As you can see, having a good credit rating is extremely important these days, it depends on whether or not you get approved for a mortgage loan when buying your first house, getting any kind of credit (i.e. credit cards, car loans, business loans, etc), applying for car or homeowners insurance or being considered for employment.