Fair Credit Reporting Act/Credit History
The Fair Credit Reporting Act was established in 1970. This act is in accordance on how a credit agency reports credit information. The Fair Credit Reporting Act serves to protect the privacy and integrity of clients. It allows individuals to adjust any inaccurate information in a credit report and provides a solution if a credit agency violates your rights. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (2014), “anyone with a "legitimate business need" can gain access to your credit history.” (2014). The businesses that have access to your credit report include, landlords, insurance companies, employers, Government agencies, child support agencies. Having a credit report on file is
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This information helps determine if the tenant is likely to pay their bills on time. Finding a job is an advantage to having a good credit record. Employers have the option to look at an applicant’s credit history to decide whether or not that person is reliable. If an employment agency is checking a credit report they usually check it for fraudulent activity. Other company’s check for derogatory information. If those types of things are found then the applicant may have some explaining to do. Not every job looks at credit history. However, some jobs do such as, accounting, finance, or a high ranking position in a company. A person with good credit history shows if this person is responsible and if that person is able to be trusted with their finances. On the other hand, there are certain drawbacks of having a credit record on file. Some offenses to a credit record are minor and others are major. Bankruptcy is a case where a consumer is unable to pay outstanding debts. According to Investopedia (2001), “Upon the successful completion of bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor is relieved of the debt obligations incurred prior to filing for bankruptcy” (2001). After the proceedings the individual is given another chance to pay off the debt. Bankruptcy is on file for ten years. During this time, the person or business responsible may struggle with the loss of property. Moreover, other losses may persist that include, loss of income, poor credit score,
Bad credit reports can affect ones’ life in several negative ways. With a bad credit report and a low credit score, it is harder to receive a credit card, an automobile loan, a mortgage, or possibly a job. It is important that one is always aware of the credit decisions made. Paying bills late, maxing out credit cards, and filling out too many credit applications in a brief period will also have a negative impact on the credit report. To keep a good credit report, one should pay bills on time and apply for credit sparingly. Last, but certainly not least, one should check their credit report annually! A free credit report is available from each of the three credit reporting agencies each year. This is something one should take advantage of since it will help them judge whether they are managing their credit wisely. It is imperative that one keeps a good credit score. If not, one could miss out on many opportunities. For example, one may find an opening for their dream job that they are qualified for, but the negative credit report causes them to not get the job. Do not let this happen! Maintain a good credit report and opportunities like this will not pass by!
( Experian Information Solutions, Inc., 2005). On the other hand the information being reviewed can help give the employer a general idea regarding the personality of the applicant for example if they are one who do or do not take care of their personal responsibilities by paying their bills and paying the bills when they are due. Also some of the information on the credit report can prove if the applicant has too many financial obligations, that will possibly disturb their job responsibilities and they do not want to risk hiring an applicant whom might steal from their company. ( Experian Information Solutions, Inc., 2005). Another worry for some businesses is they do not want to hire an applicant who cannot handle their personal obligations. (Rosen, 2000).
How to improve your bad credit over time, is by pulling your credit report. You can gain the knowledge needed to fix your problems. “Credit reports are available through one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Because of a change of law in 2005, each of the credit bureaus must provide you with a free credit report once a year, through www.annualcreditreport.com (Woolsey, B., 2016).
Making mistakes when it comes to your credit is a lesson that many people learn the hard way. Constant phone calls, mail, and threats can make a tough financial situation worse. Either how well or how poorly you manage your debts and finances are available to creditors to see when you apply for credit, such as for a retail store card, or even an auto or home
My grand mother had her identity stolen once. We found out the elderly are a common victim of identity theft. An entire year went by before she knew her identity was stolen and the only reason she found out was because she found out she was missing money from her account each month to the point that her mortgage payment was not being paid in full each month. She was under the impression the bank took care of everything, her husband was taking care of the finances but he passed away so everything started to unravel. Once she found out she owed the bank a lot of money toward her mortgage and was very behind on payments. She never found out who did it, had to get all new cards and numbers, and is still paying for it today.
17. What obligations are imposed on the employer by the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1968 ? The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1968 subject employers to certain disclosure obligations when they seek an investigative report from a consumer reporting agency on the job applicant, or in some instances on present employees. The employer must notify the applicant or employee in writing that such a report is being sought. And should employment be denied due to such report, the employer must notify applicant of this fact and give the name of the consumer report agency to the applicant or employee
Credit scores are numbers resulted from a statistical analysis of a person 's credit history. They represent the creditworthiness of that person. Credit scores are primarily based on credit report sourced from credit bureaus. Lenders use credit scores to a
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) provides borrowers with consumer rights and protections including the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the consumer-reporting agency or with the furnisher (Residential Credit Solutions, Inc.) directly. This law requires RCS to review the dispute including supporting evidence provided with the dispute. The furnisher must investigate the disputed information and provide its findings to the consumer-reporting agency or to the borrower.
3. Have you, a family member, or a friend been a victim of identity theft? How did it happen? Describe the resolution process- ex. how much time did it take, what credit damage was corrected?
The U.S. Federal government passed the Fair Credit Report Act in the 1970s to protect and ensure transparency and privacy between all U.S. Citizens in the systems of consumer reporting agencies. In other words, no one could just put information on us in these databases that are misleading or false and therefore, are obligated by law to change it when falsehood is discovered.
The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, establishes a code of fair information practices that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies. A system of records is a group of records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifier assigned to the individual.
This Act states that the information can be disclosed only to the covered entities upon individual’s authorization. Other laws like Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), strictly prevents universities from sharing information to parents without the consent of students. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act hinders the use of health details on credit reports. The privacy Act inhibits the disclosure of information to others without a written consent as it is maintained by the federal government (Steiner,
Consumer credit laws are a number of laws passed by the government to protect consumers from unfair credit practices. Consumer credit laws support consumers by placing a standard for how consumers are to be treated in their daily credit dealings. They support consumers by protecting them against credit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age. It also protects the consumer against billing errors, abusive collection practices, and misuse of their credit information. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act is one of the consumer credit law. This law was designed to protect consumer from discrimination when evaluating creditworthiness. This act specifies that creditors may not “discourage you
Please note, in the case of each of these accounts, the debt information has been entered into HUD’s nationwide database. Each housing agency reports into this database and checks all new housing applicants against it as a component of the program screening process. Those owing debts to housing authorities will be denied future assistance until their debt is paid off to the applicable housing authority.
Knowing what other outlying debts customers have could be helpful in determining high-risk customers. Along with past credit history this could be helpful in determining customers to reject.