You have a right to dispute inaccurate information in your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly. However, neither you nor a "credit repair" company or credit repair organization has the right to have accurate, current and verifiable information removed from your credit report. The credit bureau must remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over 7 years old. Bankruptcy information can be reported to 10 years. You have a right to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. You may be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, however, if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days. The credit bureau must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report if you are unemployed and intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due to fraud. You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violated the Credit Repair Organization Act. This law prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations. You have the right to cancel your contract with any credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business days from the date you signed it. Credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable procedures to ensure that the information they report is accurate. However, mistakes may occur. You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau in writing that you dispute that accuracy of information in your credit file. The credit bureau must then reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate or incomplete information. The credit bureau may not charge any fee for this service. Any pertinent information and copies of all documents you have concerning an error should be given to the credit bureau. if the credit bureau's reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief statement to the credit bureau to be kept in your file, explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The credit bureau must include a summary of your statement about disputed information with any report it issues about you. The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus and credit repair organizations. For more information contact: The Public Reference BranchFederal Trade CommissionWashington, D.C. 20580 ...read more

We've just published a new edition of our newsletter! You can check it out on our website and get the latest information from Consumer Credit Counseling Service 1-800-254-4100. Let us know what you think! Read It Now Here ...read more

Fair Credit Reporting Act (Summary) Public Law 91-508 The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows a consumer to challenge the information on his credit report on the basis of "completeness and accuracy." If, after a reinvestigation by the credit bureau, the disputed information "is found to be inaccurate or can no longer be verified, the [credit bureau] shall promptly delete such information." The credit bureaus are required to complete the investigation within a "reasonable period of time." This period has been set at thirty days. The credit bureaus can ignore the consumer dispute if they have reason to believe that the dispute is "frivolous or irrelevant." The FTC commentary on the FCRA cites, as an example of a frivolous dispute, a dispute wherein the consumer challenges all negative items on his credit report without providing any allegations regarding specific items in the credit file. However, "A [credit bureau] must assume a consumer's dispute is bona fide, unless there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary." When a consumer challenges a negative credit listing on the basis of extenuating circumstances, such as health problems, divorce, job loss, etc., the credit bureaus are entitled to ignore that dispute. When a consumer submits a dispute which is neither frivolous nor irrelevant by credit bureau standards, the credit bureau must "at a minimum... check with the original sources or other reliable sources of the disputed information and inform them of the nature of the consumer's dispute." In some cases of consumer dispute, "Reinvestigation and verification may require more than asking the original source of the disputed information the same question and receiving the same answer." In other words, when a consumer files or re-files a valid dispute, the credit bureaus must contact the source of the credit information (the creditor) and confirm that the information is accurate, verifiable, and not obsolete. In some circumstances, the credit bureau is required to go beyond a simple verification of the creditor's own computer record. If, within 30 days, the credit bureau has not received verification from the creditor, then the credit bureau must promptly delete the credit listing. In theory and law, the process is deceptively simple, thus leading many people to think that they can easily handle this themselves "for the price of a few postage stamps." Most quickly discover that the credit bureaus have made it much more difficult than one would imagine. For help in this, we recommend using Lexington Law a professional credit report repair company.   bankruptcy OKC     credit repair Oklahoma     OKC     Oklahoma bankruptcy course     Oklahoma     CCCS OK     debt settlement Oklahoma     Oklahoma City     certified credit counselors OKC     Oklahoma City credit counseling service     consumer credit OKC     credit counseling service Oklahoma     Tulsa     Oklahoma Credit Counseling     Consumer Credit Counseling Oklahoma     credit counseling Oklahoma City   ...read more