The new Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) has been approved by both Houses of Congress and was signed by the President in Dec/03. It amends the current Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to "prevent identity theft, improve resolutions of consumer disputes, improve accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access to credit information, and for other purposes.
Beginning January 01, 2004 the new provisions makes it easier for consumers in all fifty states to deal with their credit files.
Among the new FACTA provisions are a free copy, annually upon request, of credit reports from each of the three credit reporting agencies (CRAs), disclosure of credit scores, which are used by lenders when making lending decisions and several identity theft measures including 'Fraud Alerts' in credit files.
Further, when requesting free credit reports, the law includes a provision whereby the CRA's must notify consumers of their right to get their credit scores and also include an explanation of factors that may have a negative affect on your score. Now consumers may dispute directly to the creditor and the CRA, plus creditors must notify a consumer whenever negative information is going to be sent to a CRA for inclusion in a credit file, reducing the number of inaccurate reports going into files because the consumer will know in advance. Now, consumers would know in advance if a lender was making a false report on a late pay or other delinquency, for instance, and therefore may dispute it directly before it hits a credit file.
Further, to help consumers who are actively shopping for a mortgage, automobile or other type of loan, avoid having an incredible number of inquiries on their credit reports as a result, would receive a special notification from the CRA that these inquiries are lowering the consumer's credit score. Here is a summary of the major amendments:
- Provide consumers with a free credit report every year.
- Give consumers the right to see their credit scores.
- Provide consumers with the ability to opt-out of information sharing between affiliated companies for marketing purposes.
- Ensure that consumers are notified if merchants are going to report negative information to the credit bureaus about them.
- Allow consumers to place "fraud alerts" in their credit reports to prevent identity thieves from opening accounts in their names, including special provisions to protect active duty military personnel.
- Allow consumers to block information from being given to a credit bureau and from being reported by a credit bureau if such information results from identity theft.
- Restrict access to consumers' sensitive health information.
- Provide consumers with one-call-for-all protection by requiring credit bureaus to share consumer calls on identity theft, including requested fraud alert blocking.
- Require creditors to take certain precautions before extending credit to those who have placed "fraud alerts" in their files.
- Stop merchants from printing more than the last five digits of a payment card on an electronic receipt.
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