Consumer's Free Credit Report Rights

Offers for you to get your own personal free credit report hits us from every direction. We see commercials on television; get unsolicited emails, brochures in the mail and ads on the Internet. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) passed by Congress gives us the right to get a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the three reporting bureaus Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Beyond this right what are our other rights under this act.

You have a right to know everything that is in your file. By using the site www.annualcreditreport.com you can get a free credit report to access the information and it is free. Other sites will charge or have you subscribe to a monitoring service that you can later cancel. It is much easier to get the free report.

You have the right to know if any of the information has been used against you. You may have been denied credit or been subject to a higher interest rate based on information in your file.
You have the right to know the name, address, and telephone number of any company that has provided the negative information about you.

You have the right to obtain your credit score. However, the credit score is not free with your free credit report. You will have to pay a small fee to get the score.

You have the right to challenge any information that is in error or incomplete. Once you obtain your free credit report and find erroneous information, you can request the consumer-reporting agency to correct it. Unless your request is petty, the firm must investigate your complaint.

Erroneous information, incomplete or unverifiable data must be removed or corrected by the credit reporting agencies within 30 days. Any information that is correct will stay in the report.

The credit rating bureaus must remove any negative information that is outdated. In some instances, it is to be removed after seven years and in others, it is 10 years.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits access to your credit report to those who have a valid reason to be checking your credit. Employers or potential employers have access only if you have given them permission.

You have the right to limit prescreened offers for insurance or credit based on the information contained in your credit card report. The FCRA requires any unsolicited prescreened offers include a toll free phone number you can call to have your name and address be removed from their mailing list.

You may be able to sue any credit-reporting bureau that has violated the FCRA

Active duty military personnel have the right to place an alert in their free credit report that requires creditors to verify their identity before issuing credit in their name. Likewise, identify theft victims can place an alert in their file to require creditors to contact them personally before giving them credit or making changes in their current file.