Para informacion en espanol, visite www.ftc.gov/credit o escribe a la FTC Consumer Response Center, Room 130-
A 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.
A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in
the files of consumer reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer reporting agencies, including credit
bureaus and specialty agencies (such as agencies that sell information about check writing histories, medical records,
and rental history records). Here is a summary of your major rights under the FCRA. For more information,
including information about additional rights, go to www.ftc.gov/credit or write to: Consumer Response
Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.
You must be told if information in your file has been used against you. Anyone who uses a credit report or
another type of consumer report to deny your application for credit, insurance, or employment – or to take
another adverse action against you – must tell you, and must give you the name, address, and phone number of
the agency that provided the information.
You have the right to know what is in your file. You may request and obtain all the information about you
in the files of a consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). You will be required to provide proper
identification, which may include your Social Security number. In many cases, the disclosure will be free.
You are entitled to a free file disclosure if:
a person has taken adverse action against you because of information in your credit
report;
you are the victim of identity theft and place a fraud alert in your file;
your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud;
you are on public assistance;
you are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.
In addition, by September 2005 all consumers will be entitled to one free disclosure every 12
months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau and from nationwide specialty
consumer reporting agencies. See www.ftc.gov/credit for additional information.
You have the right to ask for a credit score. Credit scores are numerical summaries of your credit-
worthiness based on information from credit bureaus. You may request a credit score from consumer
reporting agencies that create scores or distribute scores used in residential real property loans, but you will
have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will receive credit score information for free from the
mortgage lender.
You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. If you identify information in your
file that is incomplete or inaccurate, and report it to the consumer reporting agency, the agency must
investigate unless your dispute is frivolous. See www.ftc.gov/credit for an explanation of dispute procedures.
Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable
information. Inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually
within 30 days. However, a consumer reporting agency may continue to report information it has verified
as accurate.
Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information. In most cases, a consumer
reporting agency may not report negative information that is more than seven years old, or bankruptcies that
are more than 10 years old.
Access to your file is limited. A consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to
people with a valid need -- usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or
other business. The FCRA specifies those with a valid need for access.
