The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a piece of federal legislation that aims to protect consumers from unethical creditors. It places a high value on transparency. This is one of the reasons why this piece of legislation gives consumers the right to request a free credit report that they can review once a year. The FCRA can protect you if you identify incorrect information that has been placed on your report. This legislation also gives your creditors a limited amount of time to investigate such claims.
Your right to dispute any information contained on your credit report is protected by FCRA. Creditors are required to report any disputed claims immediately to credit reporting agencies. This may result in the entries on your report being marked as disputed for prospective lenders to see.
Creditors are given a limited amount of time to investigate claims. This federal law generally allows creditors 30 to 45 days to respond to disputed information inquiries. Creditors are given an additional five business days to follow up with you about their findings.
All creditors are required to report any inaccuracies that they uncover to the credit report agencies along with the correct information. Consumers need to request that any creditors put their findings of a dispute in writing. You, as the consumer, may need to send this into the credit bureaus to ensure that the data contained on your report is updated.
Creditors are supposed to submit accurate information to the credit bureaus, but there are a variety of reasons that they may not do so. Reporting errors may happen due to technology glitches or inaccurate bookkeeping. This doesn’t excuse the offense though.
The wrong information contained in your credit report may adversely impact your ability to purchase a car or home or land a job here in Minnesota. An attorney can help you get things straightened out if you’re having difficulty resolving differences with your creditors here in Vadnais Heights.
