Credit reporting is a major issue and needs to be handled carefully. Companies that do credit reporting for lenders and creditors are called Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs). CRAs simply get information about your credits, job or loans from the information provider and sells it to the creditor. If a creditor is not satisfied with your credit report, or he feels that you will not be able to return the amount, he may refuse you a loan.



To make sure that the credit report that your creditor receives consists of correct information and there is no misguiding, the federal law has issued an act, using which you can defend your rights. It is called The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The Fair Credit Reporting Act can be used if you feel that your credit report is incorrect and depriving you of a loan from a creditor. In simpler terms, the Fair Credit Reporting Act encourages fair credit reporting.

As per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if you feel that CRAs have put in incorrect or false information about you, you can directly contact the CRAs. You can get the addresses of major CRAs like the credit bureau from the yellow pages. Major CRAs are Equifax, Experian and Trans Union, and their addresses are easily available. Once you have identified the CRAs who have sent your credit reports to the creditors, you can send them a letter mentioning that they have incorporated wrong information in the credit report. The information provider should also be intimated that there is incorrect information in the credit report. Once the CRA receives the letter, it can take 30 days to investigate your credit report as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Once the investigation is done and the CRA and the information provider confess that the credit information was wrong, they will have to correct the information and also bring that to notice to the creditors as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

It may also happen that your dispute with the CRA is not resolved. In such a case, you can ask the CRA to send your application of dispute to the creditor in future. However, if you want the CRA to send the application to the creditors they have sold credit report to in the recent past, then you will have pay certain fee to the CRA.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is made for customers who have doubts with their credit report. So, never be shy to use your right to have a fair credit reporting.