What is the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)?


“What is the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)?”

What is the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)?If you have done any research on fixing credit reporting problems, then you will have heard of the law called the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) which protects you from false credit reporting.

It governs credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion).

The FCRA controls “furnishers” which are those companies that actually provide (or furnish) information to the credit reporting agencies.  These include companies such as:

  • Capital One
  • Chase
  • Discover
  • LVNV Funding
  • Midland Funding/Midland Credit
  • Portfolio Recovery
  • etc.

Basically, the law says if you as a consumer dispute with the credit reporting agencies, then the agency must conduct an investigation (a real not bogus) and fix errors.  It has 30 days to do this reasonable and legitimate investigation.  So it looks at what you told them, what documents you provided, looks at information in its own files, and it contacts the furnisher to see what the furnisher says and what the furnisher has in its files.

If the credit agency and/or the furnisher don’t do a proper investigation, then you can sue for mental anguish damages, economic damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, etc.  You sue under the FCRA, normally in federal court.

This gets the attention of those who break the law.

While the agencies and furnishers want to gut your rights under this law, everyone on a jury and most judges have had credit report issues so these efforts to take away your rights have not been successful.  The way we maintain our rights is to bring good quality federal court lawsuits so the public sees the kind of games these jokers play and the way they abuse consumers who only want an accurate credit report, which is your right under the law.

If you have questions about the FCRA or your credit reports, please feel free to get in touch with us by calling us at 205-879-2447 or contacting us through our website.

-John G. Watts
Watts & Herring, LLC
Birmingham and Madison Offices in Alabama
We represent consumers from all parts of Alabama


4 Comments

  1. william bartlett says:

    I have a credit report that I have challenged because of illegal activity, they validated my letters. The law states that they must delete my record but they haven’t can you help.

    • John Watts says:

      William,

      If you are in Alabama give us a call at 205-879-2447 and ask for Randi. If there is false information on your credit reports, and you can show it is false, and if the credit reporting agencies did not fix it, then yes we should be able to help you.

      Thanks

      John Watts

  2. Mary Ann Heinrich says:

    I live in Georgia and just found out from a banker who was looking into a refi for our mortgage and he discovered that on my credit report(s) the first and second mortgage are being reported twice per month dropping my credit score by over 100 points because it showing an additional 750k in debt load preventing us from being able to refi our mortgage. This banker advised us that we have a case to sue and we could also may be entitled to punitive damages. At a minimum we were advised that we should at least be able to get the debt load for both mortgages removed permanently. Can you advise me on this or at lease point me in the right direction. Thank You

    • John Watts says:

      Mary,

      Be glad to chat with you about options on this including some good options in Georgia for you.

      Call my office at 205-879-2447 or email me at john@wattsherring.com and send me the documentation showing the double credit reporting.

      Thanks!

      John Watts

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