Personal Credit Report

Para informacion en espanol, visite www.ftc.gov/credit o escribe a la FTC Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer reporting agencies, including credit bureaus and specialty agencies (such as agencies that sell information about check writing histories, medical records, and rental history records). Here is a summary of your major rights under the FCRA. For more information, including information about additional rights, go to www.ftc.gov/credit, or write to Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington. D.C. 20580.

You must be told if information in your file has been used against you.

You have the right to know what is in your file.

• a person has taken adverse action against you because of information in your credit report;
• you are the victim of identity theft and place a fraud alert in your file;
• your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud;
• you are on public assistance;
• you are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.

You have the right to ask for a credit score.

You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information.

Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information.

Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information.

Access to your file is limited.

You must give your consent for reports to be provided to employers.

You may limit "prescreened" offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report.

You may seek damages from violators.

Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have additional rights.

States may enforce the FCRA, and many states have their own consumer reporting laws. In some cases, you may have more rights under state law. For more information, contact your state or local consumer protection agency or your state Attorney General. Federal enforcers are:

Information Regarding State Laws
Georgia Residents
Georgia Consumers Have the Right to Obtain a Security Freeze

You have a right to place a "security freeze" on your credit report, which will prohibit a consumer reporting agency from releasing your credit report without your express authorization. A security freeze must be requested in writing by certified mail or by electronic means as provided by a consumer reporting agency. The security freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. If you are actively seeking a new credit, loan, utility, telephone, or insurance account, you should understand that the procedures involved in lifting a security freeze may slow your applications for credit. You should plan ahead and lift a freeze in advance of actually applying for new credit. When you place a security freeze on your credit report, you will be provided a personal identification number or password to use if you choose to remove the freeze on your credit report or authorize the release of your credit report for a period of time after the freeze is in place. To provide that authorization you must contact the consumer reporting agency and provide all of the following:

1. The personal identification number or password;
2. Proper identification to verify your identity; and
3. The proper information regarding the period of time or the specific party for which the report shall be available.

A consumer reporting agency must authorize the release of your credit report no later than 15 minutes after receiving the above information if the request is by electronic means or by telephone, or no later than three business days when a written request is submitted.

A security freeze does not apply to a person or entity, or its affiliates, or collection agencies acting on behalf of the person or entity, with which you have an existing account, that requests information your credit report for the purposes reviewing or collecting the account. Reviewing the account includes activities related to account maintenance.

You have a right to bring civil action against anyone, including a consumer reporting agency, who improperly obtains access to a file, knowingly or willfully misuses file data, or fails to correct inaccurate file data.

Unless you are a victim of identity theft with a police report or other official document acceptable to a consumer reporting agency to verify the crimes, or you are 65 or older, a consumer reporting agency had the right to charge you a fee of no more than $3.00 to place a freeze on your credit report.