Your rights

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, Explained in Plain Language

What FCRA is

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law that has been around since 1970. It governs how credit reporting works in the United States.

The official text is in the U.S. Code at 15 U.S.C. section 1681. The actual statute is long and dense. This page covers the parts most relevant to consumers.

Why FCRA matters

Before FCRA, credit reporting was largely unregulated. Bureaus could report whatever they wanted, lenders could refuse to tell you why you were denied credit, and inaccurate information could stay on your report indefinitely.

FCRA changed all that by establishing specific rights for consumers and specific obligations for credit bureaus and the companies that report to them.

Your right to access your credit report

You have the right to request a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major bureaus. Originally this was once a year. As of 2023, you can request free reports weekly, permanently.

The official source is annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website specifically authorized by federal law for this purpose.

Beyond the regular free reports, you also have a right to a free report when:

You have been denied credit, employment, or insurance based on your credit report (within 60 days of the denial)
You believe you are a victim of identity theft or fraud
You receive public assistance
You are unemployed and looking for work in the next 60 days

Your right to an accurate report

Credit bureaus and the companies that report to them are required to follow "reasonable procedures" to ensure the accuracy of the information they report. The exact standard for what counts as "reasonable procedures" has been debated in courts for decades.

In practice, this means:

They must investigate when you dispute information
They must correct or remove inaccurate information
They cannot report information they cannot verify
They cannot report information they know to be inaccurate

Your right to dispute

When you find information on your credit report that you believe is inaccurate, you can dispute it. The dispute process is established under FCRA section 611.

The basic dispute process:

You file a dispute with the credit bureau (online, by mail, or by phone)
The bureau has 30 days to investigate
The bureau contacts the company that reported the information (the "furnisher")
The furnisher must verify the information or it must be removed
The bureau notifies you of the result

The 30-day investigation period can be extended to 45 days in specific circumstances, such as when you provide additional documentation during the investigation.

If the bureau verifies the information you disputed and you still disagree, you can:

Add a 100-word statement to your credit report explaining your position
Re-dispute with new information
File a complaint with the CFPB
Sue the bureau and/or furnisher under FCRA

The 7-year rule

This is one of the most important parts of FCRA for consumers.

Under FCRA section 605, most negative information must be removed from your credit report after 7 years. Specifically:

Civil suits and judgments: 7 years (these were largely removed from credit reports in 2017-2018 anyway)
Tax liens: 7 years (also largely removed)
Accounts placed for collection or charged off: 7 years from the original Date of First Delinquency
Bankruptcies: 7 years (Chapter 13) or 10 years (Chapter 7)

The 7-year clock starts at the original Date of First Delinquency with the original creditor. It does not restart when a debt is sold to a collector. It does not restart if you make a partial payment. The clock runs from the original delinquency, period.

This is in FCRA section 605(c), which is explicit:

The reporting period "shall begin on the date of commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded the action [collection or charge-off]."

This is the section that re-aging violations break. When a debt collector reports a debt with a more recent DoFD than the original delinquency, they are violating section 605(c).

What re-aging is and why it matters

Re-aging is when a debt collector reports a debt with a Date of First Delinquency that is more recent than the actual original delinquency. This makes the seven-year reporting clock appear to start later, keeping the negative information on your report longer than legally allowed.

Common forms of re-aging:

A debt buyer reports the debt with the date they acquired it as the DoFD
A debt buyer reports a recent contact attempt as a "new" delinquency date
The reporting date gets reset when a debt is sold from one collector to another

All of these are FCRA violations. Specifically, they violate section 605(c), which says the reporting clock cannot be reset by sale or assignment.

If you find re-aging on your credit report:

Document the actual original DoFD (from your records or the original creditor)
Document what is being reported (from your credit report)
File a dispute citing section 605(c)
If the dispute fails, escalate to the CFPB

More on re-aging including what to do about it

The 30-day investigation requirement

When you dispute information on your credit report, FCRA section 611 gives the bureau 30 days to investigate. The bureau must:

Notify the furnisher of the dispute within 5 days
Investigate and review all relevant information
Notify you of the result within 30 days (45 in some cases)
If the information cannot be verified, remove it
If the information is corrected or removed, notify you in writing

If a bureau fails to investigate or fails to remove information that cannot be verified, that is itself an FCRA violation that can result in damages.

What "verified" means in dispute responses

When you file a dispute and the response says the information was "verified," what does that actually mean?

Under FCRA, "verified" means the furnisher confirmed to the bureau that the information they reported is accurate. The standard for verification has been debated in courts for years.

In theory, verification should require the furnisher to actually check their records and confirm the information is accurate. In practice, many furnishers use automated systems that simply confirm "yes, that account is in our database with that information" without doing meaningful verification.

If you believe a "verified" response was inadequate, you can:

Re-dispute with new information or evidence
Demand the furnisher provide documentation supporting the verification
File a complaint with the CFPB
Sue under FCRA for failure to conduct reasonable investigation

The Reinvestigation requirement under FCRA section 611(a)(4) requires that the investigation be reasonable, not just that some response be provided. Documenting what you provided in your dispute and what you got back is useful evidence if you need to escalate.

Your right to notification of adverse actions

When a lender, employer, or insurance company takes "adverse action" against you based on information in your credit report (denying you a loan, refusing to hire you, increasing your insurance rate), they are required to notify you and tell you which credit bureau provided the report.

This is your trigger to request a free copy of that report and look for whatever caused the adverse action.

Your right to sue

FCRA section 616 allows you to sue for actual damages plus statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation, plus attorney fees, for negligent or willful violations.

This is why consumer protection attorneys often take FCRA cases on contingency. The attorney's fees are paid by the violator, not by you.

If a credit bureau, lender, or collector has violated FCRA in a way that has caused you harm, talking to a consumer protection attorney costs you nothing for the consultation and can result in recovery if there is a strong case.

CFPB enforcement

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforces FCRA and accepts consumer complaints. The CFPB has authority to:

Investigate violations
Issue enforcement actions and fines
Order companies to make consumers whole
Refer cases to the Department of Justice

CFPB complaints are forwarded to the company involved for response, and most companies respond within 60 days. The complaint and response become part of the public record (you can search the CFPB's complaint database).

File a complaint at consumerfinance.gov/complaint.

What FCRA does not cover

FCRA does not regulate:

The collection of debts (that is FDCPA)
What creditors can charge in interest
How you handle your credit (that is your responsibility)

FCRA also does not require credit bureaus to remove accurate negative information before the 7-year mark, even if you have paid the debt. Paying a charge-off does not make it disappear from your report - the account is updated to "paid" but stays on the report until 7 years from the original delinquency.