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Originally enacted in 1971, the
Fair Credit Reporting Act is administered by
the
Federal Trade Commission. The Act was created
as a way for consumers to keep track the
information that the major credit reporting
bureaus are telling (and selling to) authorized
third parties. Since the
credit bureaus sell quite a bit of your
personal information, the Act clearly defines to
whom your most personal information can be sold.
The credit bureaus can sell any or all of the
information that they put onto your credit report.
That includes your name, address and employer,
your payment history, any court orders you’ve been
involved in such as bankruptcies, the amount of
all your open
credit lines and more.
One especially important aspect of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act is the imposition of a hefty fine in
the event your personal information is sold or
given away to an individual or entity that is not
recognized by the FCRA as needing it. The Act also
states that employers, prospective employers and
those in the medical field cannot access your
information with first receiving prior written
consent from you.
Since the information on your credit report is
used to calculate your
credit score, the Fair Credit Reporting Act
also provides strict guidelines on what creditors
are and are not able to forward to the credit
reporting bureaus in the event you and a creditor
are involved in disputing an issue. This
protection is invaluable when you consider that a
single missed or late payment can wreak havoc on
your credit score and possibly even the
interest rates you are charged.
Should some portion of the information the credit
reporting bureau has on you be determined to be
inaccurate, the credit bureau that is involved
must delete that information at once. The Fair
Credit Reporting Act also states that the credit
bureau must immediately notify the other major
credit reporting bureaus of the deletion and that
those bureaus must update their information
accordingly.
There are other provisions in the Fair Credit
Reporting Act that help to protect consumers
including giving consumers the right to opt-out of
receiving future unsolicited offers and the
ability for consumers to initiate legal action
should such action be warranted. If you have an
issue with one of the credit reporting bureaus, be
sure to find out your rights by consulting the
full text of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
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