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Para informacion en espanol, visite
www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
o escribe a la
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street N.W.,
Washington, DC 20552.
A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting
Act
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the
accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of
consumer reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer
reporting agencies, including credit bureaus and specialty
agencies (such as agencies that sell information about check
writing histories, medical records, and rental history records).
Here is a summary of your major rights under the FCRA. For
more information, including information about additional
rights, go to www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
or write
to: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street
N.W., Washington, DC 2055
2.
• You must be told 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.
• You have the right to know what is in your file. You may
request and obtain all the information about you in the files of
a consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). You will
be required to provide proper identification, which may
include your Social Security number. In many cases, the
disclosure will be free. You are entitled to a free file
disclosure if:
. a person has taken adverse action against you because
of information in your credit report;
. you are the victim of identity theft and place a fraud alert
in your file;
. your file contains inaccurate information as a result of
fraud;
. you are on public assistance;
. you are unemployed but expect to apply for employment
within 60 days.
In addition, all consumers are entitled to one free disclosure every
12 months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau and
from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies. See
www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
for additional information.
• 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 cred
it
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.
• 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. See
www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
for an explanation of
dispute procedures.
• 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.
• 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.
• You must give your consent for reports to be provided to
employers. A consumer reporting agency may not give out
information about you to your employer, or a potential
employer, without your written consent given to the
employer. Written consent generally is not required in the
trucking industry. For more information, go to
www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
.
• You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and
insurance you get based on information in your credit
report. Unsolicited “prescreened” offers for credit and
insurance must include a toll-free phone number you can call
if you choose to remove your name and address from the
lists these offers are based on. You may opt-out with the
nationwide credit bureaus at 1-888-567-8688.
• 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, you may be able to sue in state or
federal court.
• Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel
have additional rights. For more information, visit
www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore
.
Stat
es may enforce the FCRA, and many states have their
own consumer reporting laws. In some cases, you may
have more rights under state law. For more information,
contact your state or local protection agency or your state
Attorney General. For information about your federal
rights, contact: