The Credit Challenge

Do you know anything about the Fair Credit Reporting Act?  If you don’t, you really should because they are your rights.

For those of you that don’t know, you have certain rights as it pertains to a credit report.  Most of us think that the banks and lending institutions are the only ones with rights when it comes to your credit report, but that’s not true at all.

So, what should you know about the Fair Credit Reporting Act?  Here’s a couple things that are helpful to know.

• Your credit report has everything to do with your credit payments, credit history, and credit record and nothing to do with your age, race, marital status,  national origin, religion, or even if you receive public assistance.
• You MUST receive a decision on your credit inquiry within 30 days.  Whether you are approved or not, the lenders only have 30 days to notify you with their decision.  After 30 days they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  If you weren’t approved, they must include a detailed statement of why you were denied credit and also mention your rights, including access to a free credit report.
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act also gives you the right to a free copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus once every 12 months.  Go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com for your free credit report.  It is good to see your credit report and look for any errors or identity theft, among other things.
• You have a right to dispute any inaccuracies on your credit report, and creditors must respond to you within 30 days.  If you were right or the creditor cannot show proof, they must remove that negative account from your report.  If it cannot be removed, then you have a right to include a 100 word statement or explanation for consideration and clarification on the item that you disputed.

As you can see, there are many rights that you have under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  It’s important that you know them because you may be missing out on getting your credit report for free or even settling for a lower credit score that you really deserve.

If you are interested in finding out more tips like this, be sure to visit here Fix Your Credit Score to get a free audio interview on obtaining a credit score of over 700.