A couple of days ago, the U.S. House of Representatives took a step to help consumers when it passed the Protecting Your Credit Score Act of 2019. The bill is designed to help people get easier access to their credit reports. If the measure is passed by the Senate and then signed into law, it will also create new oversights for credit reporting agencies.
Proposed consumer protections
The bill’s authors say it will do the following:
- Enable consumers to get their credit score when they ask for their free annual credit report
- Require credit agencies to create an online portal where consumers can report and dispute errors, lift or place security freezes and get free credit reports and credit scores
- Require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to create a public-accessible registry of credit reporting agencies
- Require credit reporting agencies to give information to consumers about why there was a credit card pull (“pulls” commonly occur when lenders or credit card companies check your credit)
- Give the CFPB authority to supervise credit reporting agencies and establish data security standards for the agencies
- Allow courts to compel credit reporting agencies to observe credit report protections
- Task the Government Accountability Office with reporting on the feasibility of requiring credit reporting agencies to replace Social Security numbers with another federal identification
For and against
Minnesota’s members of the House were split on the measure: representatives Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, Betty McCollum and Ilhan Omar voted in favor, while representatives Jim Hagedorn, Collin Peterson and Pete Stauber voted against. Representative Tom Emmer did not vote.
The Protecting Your Credit Score Act now moves to the Senate.
