Departments

Community Services

Consumer Protection

Consumer Tips

CREDIT - fair credit reporting

Your local credit bureau maintains a credit history on you which is available to creditors. According to the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act:

• You have the right to know what is contained in your credit file. If you have been denied credit, employment or insurance within the last 30 days, the credit bureau must show you your complete file free of charge. Otherwise you may be charged a reasonable fee.
• Your credit report can be shown to those who need such information for insurance or employment applications.
• Most information in your file can only be reported for seven years.
• If you inform the credit bureau of inaccurate information in your file, the information must be investigated, errors must be corrected and creditors who received the incorrect information must be advised of the changes.
• If there is a dispute about information in your file which cannot be resolved, you may have your version of the dispute placed in the file for future credit reports.
  

For free brochures on the Fair Credit Reporting Act,
call the Office of Consumer Protection at (800) 942-2669