Florida Bankruptcy Services - Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Petition Preparation
House Calls
Available Upon Request
727-322-5881
Fair
Credit Reporting Act - Highlights
You must be told if information 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 identify 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, you are entitled to one
free disclosure every 12 months upon request from each nationwide credit
bureau and from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies.
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 credit 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.
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.
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Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated info.
In most cases, a consumer reporting agency may not
report negative information that is more than seven years old, or
bankruptcies & judgments 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 permission for reports 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.
You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance.
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.
Reference Materials
Frequently Asked Questions
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Got my Discharge of Debt
Copyright 2008 Florida Bankruptcy Services