Friday, July 10, 2009

Help for Disputing Credit Report Errors

Agencies that enforce the rules and regulations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have proposed new rules to promote the accuracy and integrity of information provided to consumer credit reporting agencies (CRAs or credit bureaus) and to allow customers to dispute errors directly with them.

Sometimes credit report errors can be major. Major errors can cause a consumer's credit score to drop anywhere from 50-150 points. Seventy-five percent of credit reports contain at least one major mistake. This will greatly help consumers who have been victimized by employers, mortgage companies and banking industry professionals due to errors on their credit report they were unable to get corrected.

Under the newly proposed rules, data furnishers to CRAs must develop practical policies and procedures to ensure that the information they are providing is accurate. The new rules outline instances when further details may be necessary to keep the information that CRAs provide from creating misleading impressions about a consumer's creditworthiness.

Under the new rules, instead of filing a dispute only with CRAs, consumers can now take their complaint directly to furnishers, and furnishers are required to investigate the complaint.

If you currently have errors on your credit report that you have not been able to resolve file a written complaint with the FTC against the CRA and data furnisher. Make sure you provide supporting documentation to support your complaint.

No comments: