You have a responsibility when it comes to accurate credit reporting
- By Stuart Hunter
- Published 11/18/2009
- Credit
- Unrated
You have a responsibility when it comes to accurate credit reporting
Originally passed in almost 40 years ago, the Fair Credit Reporting Act was created with the goal of getting consumer reporting agencies to function in a way that is fair to individual consumers while still fulfilling the needs of lenders, employers, insurance companies and others who use your credit reports. The Act set out to accomplish this by putting in place mechanisms to ensure the personal and financial information recorded in credit reports is accurate, relevant, kept confidential, and only provided to others under specific circumstances. It is the Fair Credit Reporting Act that laid the foundation for consumer's ability to clean up their credit.
The area 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 bureaus that are accountable for the types of information they include 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 make sure information is accurate when it is initially included in your credit reports. Instead, the Act gives you as a consumer the ability to question the information in your credit reports, making it your responsibility to make sure the information the credit bureaus have added to your credit reports is an accurate and fair representation of your credit worthiness.
Many people, including a number of which count themselves among this nation's credit experts, miss this concept. They focus solely on the narrow definition of inaccurate reporting and can't see the broader idea of fairness that the Act is really about. They persist in preching that consumers are only able to work to remove listings that are patently inaccurate even though years of case law have 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 based on the data recorded in your credit file. If you do not feel this credit score is a fair depiction of your actual credit worthiness, it is your privilege and your responsibility to work to remedy this. Disputing the questionable negative items in your credit reports 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.
The area 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 bureaus that are accountable for the types of information they include 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 make sure information is accurate when it is initially included in your credit reports. Instead, the Act gives you as a consumer the ability to question the information in your credit reports, making it your responsibility to make sure the information the credit bureaus have added to your credit reports is an accurate and fair representation of your credit worthiness.
Many people, including a number of which count themselves among this nation's credit experts, miss this concept. They focus solely on the narrow definition of inaccurate reporting and can't see the broader idea of fairness that the Act is really about. They persist in preching that consumers are only able to work to remove listings that are patently inaccurate even though years of case law have 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 based on the data recorded in your credit file. If you do not feel this credit score is a fair depiction of your actual credit worthiness, it is your privilege and your responsibility to work to remedy this. Disputing the questionable negative items in your credit reports 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.
Stuart Hunter
Providing credit repair services since 1991, Lexington Law has helped over 500,000 clients legally take on their credit. Last year alone, Lexington Law helped clients remove over 600,000 negative items from their credit reports.
View all articles by Stuart Hunter