FCRA

What This Law Covers

It controls how Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and other reporting companies collect, keep, and share your information. It also says who is allowed to pull your file. The legal phrase is permissible purpose, which just means a landlord or lender needs a real reason, like you applying for something, before they can look. And it makes the banks and collectors that report about you actually investigate when you dispute.

It does not decide whether you owe a debt or how much. That is between you and the creditor. It also does not control how a collector talks to you on the phone. That is the FDCPA. And a wrong charge on this month's statement goes through the FCBA instead.

What You Get

• A free report from each of the three big bureaus. You can get them weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com.
• The right to dispute anything wrong, incomplete, or too old. Most bad marks fall off after seven years. Bankruptcies run seven to ten.
• A notice when a company turns you down for credit, a job, or housing because of your report, telling you which agency gave it to them so you can get a free copy.
• The right to have anything removed that the company reporting it cannot actually back up.

How to Dispute an Error

1. Pull your report and pin down the exact item that is wrong.
2. Send a written dispute to the bureau, online or by mail, saying what is wrong and attaching what you have.
3. They generally have 30 days to look into it, up to 45 if you send more information mid-review.
4. The bureau passes your dispute to whoever reported the item, and they have to check it too.
5. If it is wrong, it gets fixed or deleted, and the bureau has to tell anyone who pulled your report in about the last six months, or two years for job checks.
6. If they say it is accurate and you still disagree, you can add a 100 word statement to your file, or take it to the CFPB or a consumer attorney.

For how to read your report and write the dispute letter, see our credit reporting guide.

If They Break the Rules

If a bureau or a furnisher blows off these rules, on purpose or through carelessness, you can sue for your actual damages. For willful violations you can also get $100 to $1,000, punitive damages, and attorney fees. Most people never have to go there because the dispute process fixes it. But that risk is a big reason the bureaus take a timely dispute seriously.

What This Looks Like in Real Life

You get turned down for an apartment over a collection account that is not even yours. Maybe identity theft. Maybe somebody with a name close to yours. This law is what lets you push back. Ask for the report the landlord used, which is free since you were denied, then dispute it with the bureau in writing. If it turns out to be identity theft, our identity theft guide covers the extra steps, an FTC identity theft report and an extended fraud alert.

Where People Get Caught

• "Disputing with the bureau also disputes it with the collector." Related, but separate. A written dispute to the collector under the FDCPA pauses their collecting. An FCRA dispute goes after what is printed on your report.
• "Paying a collection takes it off my report." Not on its own. Accurate information, paid or not, can sit there up to seven years.
• "Checking my own report hurts my score." It does not. That is a soft pull, not the hard inquiry a lender makes when you apply.