Welcome to Credit Report resource site!

Credit report or credit history is a record of an individual's or company's past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. This information is used by lenders such as credit card companies to determine an individual's or entity's means and willingness to repay an indebtedness.

Credit Report Privacy

Who has access to your credit report

Anyone with a "legitimate business need" can gain access to your credit history, including:

• Those considering granting you credit
• Landlords
• Insurance companies
• Employers and potential employers (but only with your consent)
• Companies with which you have a credit account for account monitoring purposes
• Those considering your application for a government license or benefit if the agency is required to consider your financial status
• A state or local child support enforcement agency
• Any government agency (limited usually to your name, address, former addresses, current and former employers)

Generally, only an employer or prospective employer needs your written consent to obtain a report. An exception is Vermont where any user needs your oral or written consent. In practice, most potential creditors ask for your permission to review your report. Your permission is not required when inquiries are made in connection with a pre-approved credit offer.

Can the information in your credit file be used for any other purposes

Yes. The practice of generating and selling lists for use in "pre-approved" credit and insurance offers is allowed by law. TransUnion, Experian and Equifax all engage in selling lists of consumers who meet certain criteria in order to receive a "firm" offer of credit or insurance. This is the source of the many pre-approved credit offers most consumers receive in the mail.

"Pre-approved" and so-called "firm" offers of credit, however, can be somewhat misleading. If you respond, the creditor may access your report before you are actually granted credit. They can deny your credit application at that time. This is explained in the fine print on the pre-approved offer.

The law does not allow credit report agencies (CRAs) to compile and sell information from credit reports for the purpose of direct marketing. Although CRAs have engaged in this practice in the past, the Federal Trade Commission in March 2000 ruled that TransUnion violated the FCRA by the sale of personal credit information for target marketing purposes.

You can remove your name from any marketing list compiled by a credit card agency, whether the list is for pre-approved credit offers or direct marketing. To remove your name from mailing lists compiled by credit bureaus, call the CRAs toll-free numbers.

What can you do if your rights under the FCRA have been violated

You may sue a credit report agency or a company that provides data to a credit report agency in federal or state court. If you win, you may be entitled to recover an amount for damages you have actually incurred or a maximum of $1,000, whichever is greater. You may also recover court costs and attorney fees. In addition to filing your own lawsuit, you may complain to the FTC or your state Attorney General's Office. Although government agencies do not represent individual citizens, agencies charged with enforcing laws such as the FCRA do investigate reported violations. In most cases, an agency's primary source of information is complaints from the public.

While the FCRA is generally enforced on the federal level by the FTC, compliance by those who use or furnish information to a CRA may be enforced by other federal agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Comptroller of the Currency. Complaints of violations of the FCRA may also be filed with those agencies.