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CREDIT REPORTING
There are three major credit reporting agencies which contain files of your credit history. They are TRW, Equifax/CBI and Trans Union.
These credit reporting agencies (credit
bureaus) have contracted with thousands of creditors (subscribers) for the purpose of obtaining, compiling and reselling your credit history.
The purpose is to allow your future creditors the ability to review your past and present credit history in evaluating your current "credit worthiness". Remember, it's your creditor who supplies your information to the bureaus, and it's your creditor who can change or remove any of that information.
Information on your credit reports must be accurate and verifiable. The accuracies must reflect the current status of the account, date it was opened, date of last activity, and the date which reflects
any derogatory status which may have occurred.
Subscribers report information to the credit reporting agencies by either sending it "Automated", being downloaded from the creditors database and sent
to the credit bureau for direct uploading, or by inputting the information "manually". Most Subscribers send your information to the credit bureaus on a monthly basis, but others may only report
every 60 to 90 days. Because of this, it's also important to remember that dollar values indicated on your credit report may not be accurate, but date of the balance, must be.
Adverse credit information may
stay on your credit reports for a period of seven years from the time the account went to a negative status.
This information includes late payments, charge offs, collections, tax liens and a bankruptcy "Chapter 13". A bankruptcy "Chapter 7" may be reported for a period of ten years. Credit inquiries are usually reported for a period of two years. There is no law which states that's this information must be reported for this period of time, or that it be reported at all! It only states that negative information cannot be reported longer than those time periods.
Along with the credit reporting agencies having access to your credit information, so do subscribing creditor grantors and yourself.
The law states that credit reporting agencies are permitted to provide your credit report to any creditor or employer having a "legitimate business need". It is never stated that these creditors require your consent to obtain your credit report.
Your personal credit information may be provided to virtually anyone, with or without your knowledge or consent.
A recent study demonstrated that up to 42% of the negative information reported by the three major companies, was found to be in error. Again, we encourage you to insist on your rights.
If you have
ever applied for credit your name probably exists on file with one or more of these bureaus. This is big business and together these agencies have more control over us than we realize.
The federal law
which regulates credit reporting is call the "Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970", (see FCRA in Appendix 5). As of this writing, three bills have been presented to amend the FCRA.
These bills favor both the reporting agencies and the consumer, in there own way. We encourage you to review the FCRA in Appendix 5, obtain copies of these bills from the Federal Trade Commission, then write to your state representatives with your convictions.
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