As a consumer, if your credit report contains negative information, you may find it difficult to borrow money, rent an apartment, obtain a mortgage, or even get a job. Unfortunately, sometimes the information on your report is incorrect. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is designed to help protect consumers when so much is at stake with regard to their credit file. Under the law, any entity that supplies information about your debt to a credit reporting agency has certain specific obligations to consumers.
Obligations of Information Suppliers Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Examples of the information suppliers who are held accountable under FCRA include creditors such as banks or credit card companies and other agencies to whom you owe money, such as government agencies or healthcare suppliers. These creditors and information suppliers are subject to the following obligations:
- They cannot report to a credit reporting agency any information that it knows or has reasonable cause to know is inaccurate.
- They have a duty to promptly update and correct inaccurate information previously supplied to a credit reporting agency.
- They must tell you if it reports any negative credit information about you to a credit reporting agency within 30 days of reporting the negative credit information.
- They must notify the credit reporting agencies whenever you close an account with the information supplier.
- They must maintain a reasonable procedure for responding to identity theft notices from a credit reporting agency.
- They must avoid reporting information about an account that you notified the information supplier was the result of identity theft.
- If you dispute inaccurate information to your creditor, it cannot continue reporting the erroneous information to a credit reporting agency until an investigation has been conducted.
If you are facing an issue with regard to an information supplier reporting inaccurate information about your credit file, we can help. To learn more, we encourage you to view the feedback from our many satisfied clients on our client testimonials page today.
| Related Links: |