Return to the Home Page
Our editorial team is independent and objective. To help support our review work, and to continue our ability to provide this content for free to our readers, we receive compensation from the companies that advertise on the CreditMashup site. This site does not include all companies or products available within the market.

We also include links to advertisers’ offers in some of our articles; these “affiliate links” may generate income for our site when you click on them. The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content.

While we work hard to provide accurate and up to date information that we think you will find relevant, CreditMashup does not and cannot guarantee that any information provided is complete and makes no representations or warranties in connection thereto, nor to the accuracy or applicability thereof. Here is a list of our partners who offer products that we have affiliate links for.

How the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) helps consumers

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a useful tool to delete errors from credit reports.
fcra-revised-2022
fcra-revised-2022

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer credit information. Its primary purpose is to ensure the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumers’ credit information.

Under the FCRA, consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) are required to maintain accurate and complete information about consumers’ credit histories and to provide that information only to authorized parties, such as lenders and employers. The law also provides consumers with the right to access and dispute the information that CRAs maintain about them.

Consumer reporting agencies include the three major credit bureaus Experian, Transunion and Equifax but they also include specialty agencies like ChexSystems and Early Warning Services that maintains and sell information about consumers’ banking history.

The FCRA requires that CRAs provide consumers with a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months upon request, and also allows consumers to place fraud alerts or security freezes on their consumer reports to protect against identity theft.

The three major credit bureaus Experian, Transunion and Equifax will offer free credit reports once a week until Dec. 31. 2023.

In addition, the FCRA imposes certain obligations on users of consumer credit reports, such as lenders and employers, to ensure that they use the information fairly and for legitimate purposes. The law also provides for remedies for consumers who are harmed by violations of the FCRA, including the right to sue and obtain damages.

Summary of how the FCRA helps consumers

You have the right to know if information in your file has been used against you. Anyone who uses a credit report or another type of consumer report to deny your application for credit, insurance, or employment – or to take another adverse action against you – must tell you, and must give you the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the information.

Who can view your information. 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.

Errors in your credit report. 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. Consumer reporting agencies must only report accurate information. Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted. This is your main weapon against in repairing your credit. Learn how to dispute your credit. If you are unsatisfied with the investigation results or correction, you have the right to add a brief statement (100 words or less) about the issue to your credit report.

You have the right to know what is in your file. A consumer reporting agency must disclose your file to your upon request. You are entitled to a free report once every 12 months. To obtain a free credit report from Experian, Transunion and Equifax visit: www.annualcreditreport.com.

You have the right to ask for a credit score. Credit scores are numerical summaries of your credit-worthiness 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.

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.

Add identity theft and active duty alerts. Identity theft victims may place fraud alerts and active duty military personnel serving away from their regular duty station may place “active duty” alerts to help prevent identity theft.

Remedying the Effects of Identity Theft. If you are, or believe that you are, the victim of identity theft, you have specific rights under the FCRA. These rights will help you deal with the effects of identity theft.

Delete outdated information. In general, most negative information must be removed from credit reports after 7 years. But here is a more accurate breakdown of specific negative information:

  • Chapter 7 Bankruptcy: 10 years. If your case was dismissed (meaning you did not get an order discharging your debts), the ten years starts from the date of the dismissal.
  • Chapter 13 Bankruptcy: 7 years.
  • Repossession: 7 years.
  • Foreclosure: 7 years.
  • Charge-offs: The 7-year period begins 180 days after the delinquency (the first missed payment) that led to the collection activity or charge-off. The clock does not start ticking again if the account is sold to a collection agency.
  • Lawsuits and Judgments: 7 years from the date a lawsuit was filed and 7 years from the date a judgment was entered against you or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is longer. Paid judgments may be reported no more than seven years after the date of the judgment.
  • Paid tax liens: May be reported from the date of payment for up to 7 years.
  • Delinquent accounts: May be reported for 7 years after the date of the account first went delinquent and no other payments were made. Even if you later pay off the delinquent amount, the account may show on your credit reports that you were previously delinquent.
  • Student Loans: Student loans made, guaranteed, or insured by the U.S. government, or national direct student loans, may be reported for much longer than seven years. Perkins loans may be reported until they are paid in full.
  • Federal Family Educational Loans: These include guaranteed student loans, Stafford, SLS, and PLUS loans and Direct Student Loans may be reported for 7 years after the last of these three dates:
  1. Date the original lender or later holder of the loan, the guarantee agency, or the Department of Education first reported the account to the consumer reporting agency
  2. Date when the Department of Education took over the loan from a guarantee agency (usually years after you last made a payment)
  3. If you were previously in default, started repaying, and then went into default again, the date you went into default again

Common Violations of the FCRA

  • Failing to report that a debt was discharged in bankruptcy.
  • Reporting old debts as new or re-aged.
  • Reporting an account as active when it was voluntarily closed by a consumer.
  • Reporting and furnishing inaccurate information. Your creditor must not supply information to a credit bureau that
  • Reporting a debt as charged off when you settled it or paid it in full
  • Reporting incorrect balance due
  • Reporting late payments when you paid timely
  • Listing you as a debtor on an account when you were only the authorized user
  • Supplying credit information on an account where identity theft was previously reported
  • Failing to follow dispute procedures when you submit a written dispute about the accuracy of an item on your report
  • Failing to conduct a reasonable investigation of your dispute, correcting any inaccurate information, or even removing the disputed debt from your credit report.
  • Failing to notify a creditor that you dispute the debt that it has reported.
  • Failing to correct or delete any inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information within 30 days of the receiving notice of your dispute.
  • Failing to inform you of the results of its investigation within 5 business days after it completes the investigation.

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. Always consult an attorney but you may be able to sue in state or federal court.


Overview of the FCRA

  • Section 601 – The popular name of the law is the “Fair Credit Reporting Act” or the FCRA for short.
  • Section 602 – Why Congress found a need for the law, i.e. a credit reporting system that is fair and accurate to the consumer, and protects the privacy and specifies the permitted uses of consumer information.
  • Section 603 – Important definitions of key terms used in the Act. For example, a person is defined as an individual or an organization, but a consumer is defined only as a natural person. The law also defines what is a consumer report, a consumer reporting agency, consumer reports for employment purposes, and adverse actions.
  • Section 604 – This section is about the situations in which consumer reporting agencies may provide a consumer report. These situations are also called the “Permissible Purposes” to obtain a report. The section also lists some purposes where a consumer report may not obtain a report, e.g. marketing, curiosity, law enforcement.
  • Section 605 – Controls the time limit of when consumer information can be reported. In general that is 7 years for adverse data other than bankruptcy which can be up to 10 years. This section also controls when the time period limit starts running.
  • Section 605A – About Identity Theft including filing initial fraud alerts, extended alerts and active duty alerts.
  • Section 605B – In certain situations the Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRA’s) must block information as a result of Identity Theft.
  • Section 606 – One of the main point of this section on investigate consumer reports, like employment reports, is that there are required disclosures that must be made to consumers.
  • Section 607 – Compliance section, which means that CRA’s must maintain reasonable procedures to avoid violating Section 604 and 605 of the Act, such as providing obsolete information or furnishing reports for non permitted purposes.
  • Section 608 – When a government agency can see your report and what they can see.
  • Section 609 – What must be disclosed to consumers upon request.
  • Section 610 – To obtain your own report, consumers must provide identification, and disclosures must generally be in writing.
  • Section 611 – Procedures when the consumer disputes the accuracy or completeness of an item in their file.
  • Section 612 – Not all credit reports are free, some may incur a fee.
  • Section 613 – CRA’s must be careful about furnishing public records for employment reports.
  • Section 614 – Talks about investigative consumer reports and using information from an old report.
  • Section 615 – Users and others who obtain consumer reports have important responsibilities.
  • Section 616 – Dollar liability for those who willfully violate the Act.
  • Section 617 – Liability for those who are negligent in failing to comply with the Act.
  • Section 618 – Bring actions in US district courts within a specified time frame.
  • Section 619 – Fines and potential imprisonment for obtaining information under false pretenses.
  • Section 620 – Fines and potential imprisonment for the officers and employees of the CRA.
  • Section 621 – The Federal Trade Commission is the main enforcer of the Act.
  • Section 622 – Requirements regarding the reporting of overdue child support.
  • Section 623 – Companies that report your credit information have important responsibilities.
  • Section 624 – Governs affiliates who may have access to the report for marketing etc.
  • Section 625 – Does not exempt state laws except to extent state law is inconsistent with this law.
  • Section 626 – The FBI has special rights to see your file.
  • Section 627 – Counterterrorism has special rights to see your file.
  • Section 628 – Properly dispose of consumer information to protect the confidentiality of the information.
  • Section 629 – Prevents consumer reporting agencies from circumventing the law.

Source: Creditreporting.com View the entire Fair Credit Reporting Act Statutes (revised Aug. 2022).

Specialty Consumer Reporting Agencies

The FCRA covers all consumer reporting agencies that gather, retain, compile, issue, and use credit reports, that includes specialty consumer reporting companies like:

  • Insurance company reports used to determine rates
  • Medical record companies
  • Rental history companies
  • Employee background reports
  • Tenant screening
  • Consumer banking history
  • Lexis-Nexis which gathers public information like court records.

Consumers can request free copies of their consumer reports from these types of specialty consumer reporting companies too.

More Credit Repair Resources

Share:

Explore More

Send Us A Message

Get In Touch

6080 Center Dr, 6th Fl
Los Angeles, CA 90045

© 2024 All Rights Reserved.