The Fair Credit Reporting Act What You Need to Know

Описание: This legislation helps maintain fair practices for credit reporting, while offering privacy protections for consumers.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects your interests by governing how credit reporting agencies gather, protect and share your information. The FCRA includes provisions about who can request your credit report and how you can access it.

The legislation was created in 1970 to promote fairness, privacy and accuracy in the way credit was reported. Over the decades, it has been amended and expanded to provide more comprehensive credit-reporting protections, especially as identity theft concerns have risen. Given that it covers so many financial tools and services -- from loans to credit cards and mortgages -- it's helpful to understand how this law works.

"Two protections that are most helpful to consumers are the provisions related to ensuring that consumer information included in a credit report is accurate and a set of provisions that cover how a consumer can protect themselves in a case of identity theft," explains Adam Ragan, a partner with the law firm Fox Rothschild.