The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a Federal Legislation in United States which vows to bring accuracy, fairness and privacy within the data that is used by the consumer reporting agencies. Credit bureaus and financial agencies alike, are all included in the group of Consumer reporting agencies, which has access to consumers detailed information.These agencies sells the collected information on the clients rental history records.

Consumer rights under the FCRA:

• Consumer must be made aware when personal information in his file has been used by other agencies against him. Any organization that uses a credit report of an individual or another type of consumer report to decide on a consumer`s application for credit, insurance or job must inform the consumer and provide him with the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the respective information. With wrong information being leaked, the consumer has the right to prosecute the agency that had supplied the information.

• Fair credit reporting act gives the consumer the right to know the contents in his or her file. On providing proper identification, the consumer gets the opportunity to request and obtain all the information about him in the files of a consumer reporting agency. It is the right of the consumers, to obtain one free disclosure in every twelve months.

• The credit score of the consumer should be revealed on request. Credit scores are quantitative summaries of credit-credibility of the consumer, based on the data stored by the credit bureaus. On the basis of this credit score, the consumer is granted loan.

• Fair Credit Reporting Act, gives the consumer the right to fight for incomplete or inaccurate information which would have affected his credit score and the possibility of being deemed as credit unworthy.

• FCRA,in identifying an error, directs the credit agencies to correct these inaccuracies within thirty days of the consumer filing these litigations. Reporting agencies, cannot report discrepancies that are more than seven years old.

• To prevent the personal information of consumers being used fraudulently, the Fair credit reporting act has directives which ensures that only credible agencies is given these reports.

The FCRA laws might vary from state to state, however, they are always in accordance; which, is to protect the rights of the consumers` personal information from getting misused.

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