Credit Bureaus
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA),15 U.S.C. § 1681-1681x, creates requirements pertaining to how credit bureaus can accurately and fairly prepare your credit reports, to whom they can release your credit reports and for what purpose, how long they can report certain information, and how to properly handle disputes, among others.
Furnishers of Information
The FCRA also creates rules for how a company can report information to credit bureaus, what information is proper to report, and how to properly handle disputes. It is surprising how often information on credit reports is just flat-out WRONG, and how your disputes result in absolutely nothing being done to correct the wrong information. In fact, 60 Minutes released a report on how common mistakes are made in the credit reporting industry called “40 Million Mistakes”, which aired on February 10, 2013 (see the video on our blog under the post “Fair Credit?“).
Private right of action
Specifically, 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b) gives consumers a private right of action to sue when the consumer disputes the line of credit and the credit agency fails to mark it as disputed. Further, if no investigation was conducted within 30 days, a claim may be made. (Two year statute of limitation for Fair Credit Reporting Act).
What to do
If you are being contacted in connection with a debt (whether being contacted by a third-party debt collector or the original creditor), then there is a very good chance that they have already violated the FCRA concerning the information they have already furnished to the credit reporting agencies. 15 U.S.C. § 1681p gives a consumer two-years to bring a claim for violation of this section.
Contact us
Contact us TODAY so we can obtain and review your credit reports to determine whether you have been victimized by their unfair and deceptive practices. All consultations are free and confidential, and if we win a lawsuit on your behalf then our attorney’s fees and costs of litigation are guaranteed to be paid by the defense, so you can rest assured that there is NO COST TO YOU!
