The basis of most credit repair is the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA.? This law was enacted back in 1970 to protect consumers from inaccuracies and inconsistencies on credit reports.? This law enables consumers to dispute untruthful or inaccurate listings on their credit report.? It also permits a consumer to receive one free credit report each year from each of the three main credit bureaus.
Most people who know about credit and credit practices and repair are familiar with this law.? However, there are two additional laws that affect you as a consumer and can be beneficial to you for credit repair and it is wise to learn about these laws also.
While the FCRA or the Fair Credit Reporting Act is the foundation which makes all credit repair possible, the FCBA or the Fair Credit Billing Act and the FDCPA or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are also critical to a solid credit repair plan.
The FCBA or the Fair Credit Billing Act requires creditors to bill completely and correctly.? It prohibits charges that have the wrong date or wrong amount, unauthorized charges, charges for goods or services that you did not accept or were not delivered as agreed upon.? It prohibits a company from failing to post payments or other credit and failing to send billing notices to your current address, provided that any changes of address were received by them 20 days prior to the billing cycle.? This law also allows a consumer to request written proof of purchase or requests for clarification.?
The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act was enacted to protect ordinary consumers from unreasonable and unfair collection agency tactics.? Many collection agencies engaged in despicable practices in the past in order to collect a debt.
The FDCPA specifies reasonable collection practices.? For example, a collection agency cannot contact any third party who does not owe the debt.? They cannot issue false threats of reporting it on your credit or referring your account to an attorney in order to intimidate you to pay.? They are only allowed to call within reasonable hours, which are typically between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm unless they have your specific permission to call at another times.? They are not allowed to call you at inconvenient or unusual times or places if you let them know what is unacceptable.
This law, the FDCPA is very extensive and it has a long list of restrictions and acceptable behavior for collection agencies.? Just be aware that you must specifically and just to be safe, you should probably do it in writing tell them when and where it is unacceptable for them to call you.? If you have any questions about the law you can do an Internet search and read it in its entirety.
These three laws are critical to you as a credit consumer.? You can use any of them as a beneficial measure when you need to complete credit repair so it is wise to be aware of them and know where to find further information if necessary.
