Reporting on credit reports
If you’re in the financial field, chances are you’re familiar with the FACT Act (sometimes called FACTA by friends and family). It’s the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which amended portions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Research just released by the FTC puts the word “accurate” under the microscope.
Some factoids of interest from the Report to Congress.
- One in four consumers spotted errors on their credit reports that might affect their credit scores;
- One in five had an error that was corrected by a credit reporting agency (CRA) after it was disputed;
- Slightly more than one in 10 people saw a change in their credit score after the CRAs modified errors on their credit report; and
- About one in 20 had a maximum score change of more than 25 points.
If credit reporting is a part of your business, you’ll want to read the full text. Facts 'n' figures aficionados will have a field day with the breadth of the data.
Everyone can use this a reminder of how important it is to exercise your right to get a free copy of your credit report. Watch this video to find out more or visit www.annualcreditreport.com.
When reviewing a credit report for inaccuracies, only the consumer knows what accounts should be on that report, the payment history of that account and what the balances should be. Consuemrs need to monitor their credit report the same way they monitor their credit card statements and checking account.
Given that you can only check your credit score for free one time a year and having to pay for the rest it really is unfair to expect the consumer to make sure the credit reporters do what they are being paid to do. Every person should never rely on proper reporting and should check their credit however there should be penalties to inaccurate reporting. Inaccurate reporting has only led to consumer headaches and money making opportunities for businesses who want you to pay to see your score.
Hi, BHardy. Under the law, consumers can check their credit reports once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus. That gives you the opportunity to stagger those three reports throughout the year. I mark it on my calendar to coincide with New Year's Day, a family member's April birthday, and another's August birthday. If consumers are planning a big life change (say, applying for a new job or buying a house), they'll want to take a look at their report before they start.
Of course, credit reporting agencies still have an obligation to comply with the law. So that's just a suggestion for how consumers can exercise their rights when they go to www.annualcreditreport.com.
It's not fair to expect consumers to correct their own credit reports. Consumers aren't in the credit reporting business and can't reasonably be expected to be anything but naive about how it works. It would be like selling a lot of merchandise known to be defective, on the theory that it's cheaper to let consumers discover the defects and dispute them, than to use quality control in the first place. That would effectively be hiring the consumers to do the quality control work, but neglecting to pay their salaries. Credit reporting agencies have a clear responsibility to do their own quality control. If they can't do it, they're in the wrong business.
To correct this unfairness, credit reporting agencies should be required to pay consumers for every error reported by the consumers, no matter how promptly the CRA's correct them. The payment would be to compensate the consumer for having had an error in the first place.
If the CRA's say they can't do that, because it would bankrupt them, they should think about all the consumers they bankrupt with their carelessness. The credit reporting business should be reserved for companies that are willing and able to take responsibility for their errors.
I would like to say first thank you for making this comment.you are so right, the CRA's should be held accountable for any miss conduct and missrepensintaion of how a consumers credit infomation is reported from any creditors to the CRA's. Credit rehabilitation cost should be reinburst by the CRA's. Reinburstment would cause the CRA's to hire the personel needed to properly surveillance the consumers credit report and display the credit report with out error.
It's about time this is criminal and should be investigated further we applaud the work of the FTC and think there should be more consumer recourse.
This kind of covert entity needs to be exposed the evidence is also strong enough to warrant legal action you cannot put a dollar amount on the damage this careless and without regard method of operating truly costs the individual.
Also on that note this is and we are citizens the United States and that information should stay in the United States is it any wonder that the White House is isssuing a cyber warning the outsourcing of private information is lethal and detremental to National Security
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