Fair Credit Reporting
Your credit report is your financial fingerprint, a detailed map of your financial history, work history, and the places you have worked. It is what many companies use to judge you and any errors can have a significant impact on your life. If it is important to make sure those reports have accurate information. If your personal, financial, employment or residence history are wrong, it could be giving someone the wrong impression.
Companies and employers report information to the three credit reporting bureaus who then make the information available to other companies trying to make determinations about you. The reports are not just used to help decide if you will be granted credit, they impact nearly all parts of your life. Credit reports are used to
- Determine if you will get new credit or keep existing credit accounts
- Determine if you will be hired for a job or promoted
- Determine questions about insurance coverage and premiums
- Make decisions about if you are eligible for a license granted by the government
- Determine how much you will pay in child support payments
- Determine if you will be allowed to lease an apartment, buy a car, or a house.
The FCRA enables you to get a free credit report from each of the credit reporting bureaus once a year. You can request your free reports from www.annualcreditreport.com and check anything you don’t think is correct.
Errors on your report can stay unnoticed for years and the impact can range from having to pay a higher interest rate, having to pay more in child support, to being eliminated from consideration for a job.
Errors can be caused by reporting errors, identity theft, and identity confusion, a “mis-merge.” If you spot an error and notify the credit agencies, they must remove the error from your credit report. If they do not follow the rules, we can go after them under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and sue them for any harm the inaccurate report may have caused you.
Contact us if you believe something on your credit report is unfair, inaccurate, or goes against the FCRA. Call us at (205) 322-1201 to speak to an attorney or send us a message through our contact page to schedule a free consultation.
