Your credit file rights
Required disclosure under the Credit Repair Organizations Act
Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law
You have a right to dispute inaccurate information in your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly. However, neither you nor any “credit repair” company or credit repair organization has the right to have accurate, current, and verifiable information removed from your credit report. The credit bureau must remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over 7 years old. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years.
You have a right to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. You may be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, however, if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days. The credit bureau must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report if you are unemployed and intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due to fraud.
You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act. This law prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations.
You have the right to cancel your contract with any credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business days from the date you signed it.
Credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable procedures to ensure that the information they report is accurate. However, mistakes may occur.
You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau in writing that you dispute the accuracy of information in your credit file. The credit bureau must then reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate or incomplete information. The credit bureau may not charge any fee for this service. Any pertinent information and copies of all documents you have concerning an error should be given to the credit bureau.
If the credit bureau’s reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief statement to the credit bureau, to be kept in your file, explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The credit bureau must include a summary of your statement about disputed information with any report it issues about you.
The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus and credit repair organizations. For more information contact:
The Public Reference Branch
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, D.C. 20580
What this means for how we work
We say the same thing throughout this site, and it is worth repeating here: we cannot remove accurate, current and verifiable information from your credit report, and neither can anyone else. Our work is confined to items that are inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, duplicated or that a furnisher cannot substantiate. Any company that tells you otherwise is describing something the law does not permit.
You are also free to do all of this yourself, directly with the credit bureaus, at no cost. You are paying us for the work and the follow-up, not for access to a right you already have.
Where to complain
The statutory text above names the Federal Trade Commission. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also takes complaints about credit repair organizations, at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, as does your state Attorney General.
Source: 15 U.S.C. § 1679c(a). See also our Notice of Cancellation, the service agreement and our state disclosures.