Posted on Wednesday, 30th December 2009 by admin
Originally passed in 1970, the Fair Credit Reporting Act was created with the goal of getting consumer reporting agencies to operate in a way that is fair and equitable to consumers while still fulfilling the needs of lenders, insurance companies and others who use your credit reports. The Act set out to make credit reporting more fair for consumers by making sure the information contained in credit reports is accurate, relevant, kept confidential, and only provided to others under certain circumstances. It is the Fair Credit Reporting Act that made possible a consumer’s ability to clean up their credit.
The part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act that credit correction primarily focuses on is the accuracy of information. This is the one aspect where the responsibility of ensuring fair credit reporting lies with the individual. With the other three, it is the credit reporting agencies that are responsible for what types of information get included in credit reports, how this information is kept secure, and which third parties have access to it. But with the issue of accuracy, the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not force the credit reporting agencies to prove that information is correct when it is initially added to your credit reports. Instead, the Act gives you as a consumer the ability to dispute any questionable information in your credit reports, making it your responsibility to make sure the information in your credit reports is a fair representation of your credit worthiness.
Many people miss this concept. They get caught up on the strict definition of inaccurate reporting and can’t see the broader concept of fairness that the Act is truly about. They continue to preach that consumers are only able to dispute items that are patently inaccurate even though modern case law has amended the definition of inaccurate negative items to also include items that are untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or unclear (collectively known as “questionable” items).
Your credit score is generated using the data in your credit reports. If you do not feel this score is a fair depiction of your true credit worthiness, it is your privilege and your responsibility to work to correct this. Disputing the questionable negative items with the credit reporting agencies is the method made available by the Fair Credit Reporting Act for you to enforce your right to fair credit reporting.
Lexington Law helps clients legally dispute the questionable negative listings in their credit reports as well as providing additional credit repair services extending beyond credit bureau disputes. In 2008, Lexington Law’s clients saw over 600,000 negative items removed from their credit reports.
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