How often do you check your credit report? Have you utilized your free 3-bureau credit report to verify what information people are seeing? Just think about how powerful this information is. There’s a grand likelihood that many of the people you encounter would love to see your credit report. Recently, a lot of employers have started running credit checks to "verify" your good standing.
Did you know that the information contained in your credit report is protected by federal law? Sure you did. Do you know what the law says? You know there’s something about security, privacy, and "other stuff," but you’re not quite sure what that is. Or you might say, "I know they’re supposed to protect it," but what does that really mean?
Fortunately, the federal government has enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (see here, here, here, and here) as a mechanism to protect your sensitive and personal information. The act stipulates the requirements for disclosing information related to you (with some exceptions), and the penalties for violating the Act (see § 1681n and § 1681o).
Under the Act, you also have a remedy to correct innacurrate information. As I recently discovered, some information is often quite inaccurate, and can effect your future. In November, I used the free site and obtained my credit report. I discovered that one of my student loans, which had been in deferrment, and always paid on time, was being reported as default (never paid or extremely late). I quickly disputed the information on the report using the bureau’s dispute process, and was notified within about 2 weeks of the correction.
It’s important to dispute any inaccuracies because of the consequence they may have. The Act specifies that the reporting agency has 30 days from the time of notice to conduct their investigation. If the dispute (like mine) is valid, the agency must remove information, and more importantly, ensure that the inaccurate information remains off the report permanently. This second aspect can be an area where agencies run into trouble because of poor procedures and accounting measures.
If you haven’t already done so, visit annualcreditreport.com and get your free 3-bureau report. Also, spend an extra $25-30 and get your driving record and OSBI report. It’s extremely important to know what other people are seeing about you.
