Fair Credit Reporting / FCRA
Fair Credit Reporting Act Violations: Undermining Your Financial Health
The information on your credit report impacts virtually every aspect of your financial life. It can determine whether or not you can obtain a car loan or a mortgage, whether or not you can rent an apartment, and even whether or not you get a job or promotion. Indeed, your credit score – calculated from a number of different factors – determines how much you’ll pay in interest rates and whether or not credit is even available to you.
You can experience dire consequences when your credit information is misused. Thankfully, you have protections under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FCRA regulates certain activities of employers, credit bureaus, and those that furnish information to credit bureaus. If you have experienced any of the following, you may be able to sue under the FCRA:
- You were not told that information in your credit report was used against you
- Your privacy rights were violated by someone illegally pulling your credit report
- A credit bureau did not investigate after you disputed information in your credit report
- A credit bureau did not notify creditors of a disputed debt
- A credit bureau did not remove or correct inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information
- Your credit report contains negative information that is outdated, such as late payments more than seven years old or a bankruptcy more than ten years old
- Your credit report contains debts that don’t accurately reflect your discharge in bankruptcy
- You closed a credit account, but your credit report listed it as active
- A creditor misreported a debt as charged off when you paid the debt
- A creditor misreported a payment as being late when it was on time
- Your credit file was intermingled with another person’s, such as someone with the same name
- Someone fraudulently obtained your credit report
- Your employer or potential employer obtained your credit report without your consent
- A credit bureau disclosed your credit report to someone not authorized to receive it