Fair Credit Reporting

The treatise on credit reporting, with new changes required by Dodd-Frank, new CFPB rules, FTC staff interpretations, and recent case law.

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About 200 million Americans have credit histories on file with the three major credit bureaus, and these bureaus generate more than one billion credit reports each year. Credit reports play a critical role in the economic health of American families. A good credit history enables consumers to obtain credit, and at a fair price. Credit reports are also used by employers, landlords, utility providers, and insurers.

Despite their importance, inaccuracies and errors plague credit reports, with estimates of serious errors affecting up to 25% of reports. The dispute process mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act has become a travesty, with the credit bureaus conducting perfunctory investigations by translating detailed written disputes into two or three digit codes and paying foreign workers as little as $0.57 to process each dispute.

NCLC played a key role in the passage of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and will continue to advocate for consumers to ensure that every American is treated with fairness by the credit reporting system.

Policy Analysis

Credit Reports Policy Briefs, Reports, Articles & Press Releases

• Policy Brief: 2021 Credit & Consumer Reporting Priorities to Promote Economic Recovery^[2], Dec. 2020
• Press Statement: Consumer Advocates Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act^[3], Oct. 26, 2020
• Press Release: Consumer and Faith Groups to CFPB Director: Stop Letting Industry Violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act,^[4] Sept. 24, 2020
• Issue Brief: Salt in the Wound: How Eviction Records and Back Rent Haunt Tenant Screening Reports and Credit Scores^[5], August 2020
• Article: Enforcing the CARES Act Credit Reporting Protections,^[6] May 2020
• Press Release: NCLC Advocate Slams Trump Administration Credit Reporting Guidance for Giving Relief to Creditors and Credit Bureaus But Not Consumers During COVID-19 Pandemic^[7], April 1, 2020
• Issue Brief: Protecting Credit Reports During the Covid-19 Crisis^[8], April 2020
• Issue Brief: Credit Reports and the Covid-19 Crisis: What States Should Do to Help Consumers^[9], March 2020
• Press Release: Advocates Applaud Halt to Foreclosures and Bills to Stabilize Homeownership and Protect Credit Reports but Highlight Need for Further Relief During Pandemic^[10], March 19, 2020
• Press Release: Consumer Advocates Praise Passage of Landmark Bill in U.S. House to Reform Credit  Reporting Industry^[11], Jan. 30, 2020
• Report: Broken Records Redux: How Errors by Criminal Background Check Companies Continue to Harm Consumers Seeking Jobs and Housing^[12], Dec. 2019
• Press Release: Statement Regarding Bank Regulators’ Guidance on Alternative Data^[13], December 4, 2019
• Report: Don’t Add Insult to Injury: Medical Debt & Credit Reports^[14], November 2019
• Press Release: Consumer and Civil Rights Advocates Condemn Credit Bureaus for Suing Over Language Access Law^[15], October 21, 2019
• Press Release: Legal Experts Decry Credit Bureaus’ Lawsuit to Invalidate Maine Laws Protecting Consumers from Medical Debt and Economic Abuse^[16], Oct. 4, 2019
• Press release: Statement Regarding Credit Report/Score Requirement in DHS Public Charge Regulation^[17], Aug. 12, 2019
• Press Statement Regarding Capital One Data Breach^[18], July 30, 2019
• Press release: National Consumer Law Center Chi Chi Wu to Testify on July 25 before U.S. House on Use of Alternative Credit Data to Expand Access to Credit,^[19] July 24, 2019
• Issue Brief: Credit Invisibility and Alternative Data: Promises and Perils^[20], July 2019
• Statement re: Settlement with Equifax over its 2017 Data Breach^[21], July 22, 2019
• Report: Automated Injustice Redux: Ten Years after a Key Report, Consumers Are Still Frustrated Trying to Fix Credit Reporting Errors, Feb. 25, 2019 Press Release^[22][23]
• Press release: Advocates Decry Lack of Compensation in Consumer Bureau Settlement,^[24] Dec. 7, 2018
• Issue brief: The Wrong Tool for the Wrong Purpose: Why the Credit Scoring Provision in the Immigration Public Charge Proposal Is Illogical and Ill-Advised^[25], Oct. 2018
• Press release: U.S. House Financial Services Committee Votes to Reduce Credit Bureaus Consumer Protections (H.R. 435)^[26], Dec. 13, 2017
• Press release: National Consumer Law Center Attorney Chi Chi Wu to Testify on October 25 before House Financial Services Committee on Equifax Data Breach^[27], Oct. 24, 2017
• Issue Brief: Credit Reports and Forced Arbitration: Will Congress Strip Americans of Their Day in Court?^[28], September 2017
• Policy brief: Past Imperfect: How Credit Scores and Other Analytics “Bake In” and Perpetuate Past Discrimination^[29], May, 2016
• Report^[30] and Press Release^[31]: Account Screening Consumer Reporting Agencies Impede Access for Millions (Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, NCLC and Bank On), October 2015
• Solving the Credit Conundrum: Helping Consumers’ Credit Records Impaired by the Foreclosure Crisis and Great Recession^[32], Dec. 2013
• Report: Automated Injustice: How a Mechanized Dispute System Frustrates Consumers Seeking to Fix Errors in Their Credit Reports^[33], Jan. 2009

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