A Summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Gary Gresham This summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act will explain what you can legally do if you want to repair your own credit report. No matter what you hear, you can dispute credit information on your credit report if you understand the legal rights you have under this law.

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1971. In summary, it says that the credit bureaus must investigate a consumer dispute if they want to challenge credit information on his or her credit report.

It also states that credit bureaus are required to complete the investigation within a 30 day period. If the credit bureau finds that the disputed information is inaccurate or cannot be verified, they must promptly delete that information.

But there are some cases when a consumer dispute can be ignored by the credit bureaus. If you challenge a negative credit listing on the basis of things like health problems, divorce or job loss, the credit bureaus are entitled to ignore those kinds of disputes. The information you dispute must be either old or incorrect.

You must file a valid dispute where the credit bureaus can contact the creditor and confirm that the new information you gave them is accurate and can be verified. If the credit bureau does not receive verification from the creditor within 30 days, the Fair Credit Reporting Act says the credit bureau must promptly delete that credit listing.

Even though the process sounds simple, the credit bureaus make it more difficult than you can imagine. The credit bureaus don't like the credit repair companies or anyone offering instruction on how to repair your own credit report. Why? Because it means more work for them.

The credit bureaus blast credit repair companies in the media and warn people against using credit repair services. The bureaus openly deny that any information can even be removed from your credit report.

It is reported that 79 percent of all credit reports contain some type of errors, and up to 25 percent of these errors could result in credit denials, hiked interest rates, and even lost employment opportunities.

If you have any amount of negative credit on your credit report it will cause the interest on all loans you apply for to be much higher. It will even become a barrier to your credit approval. That will cost you a fortune in unnecessary higher interest resulting in higher payments on anything you buy.

How you decide to address or dispute credit information is entirely up to you. But regardless of what you may hear in the news, thousands of people have restored their credit. You can choose to repair your own credit report or hire a professional service to do it for you.

The truth is you do not have to endure bad credit for seven to ten years if you want to challenge the accuracy of your credit report. This summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act shows you it is possible for you to repair your own credit report and the sooner you start the better.


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