The Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA gives consumers certain rights concerning their credit report and any type of credit repair that they may undertake.
1. You have the right to receive one free credit report one time per year from each of the 3 main credit-reporting bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can only get this free report from one source and that is www.annualcreditreport.com. Forget the jingles and other ads proclaiming you will get a free credit report because everyone else is just trying to sell you something. www.annualcreditreport.com is the only source for an absolutely free report.
2. Under the FCRA, if you are denied credit based upon what is in your credit report you are also entitled to a free report at that time. If you have been denied credit because of your report make sure you get the report and check it over thoroughly for items that you can repair. Anything that is inaccurate, misleading or erroneous in any way can be disputed and remember that up to 79% of all credit reports do contain errors. Get your report and repair what you can.
3. If you hire a professional to help you with credit repair, they cannot charge you before they do any work. They must go to work before they get paid, however, results cannot be guaranteed.
4. If you send in a dispute, the credit-reporting agency has 30 days in which to verify the accuracy of their information. If they cannot verify it, it must be deleted.
If you have problems on your credit, you are not alone and there are steps you can take to improve your credit.
