Topic: Credit Reports
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Do we need to continue responding to repeated credit disputes that we believe are sent from a credit repair service? If we do, what should we say?
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Based on the facts in your question, we believe that the bank does not have a duty to conduct an investigation of these disputes. The CFPB’s Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), expressly provides an exception to the general rule requiring creditors to investigate disputes when the disputes are submitted by…
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Are you aware of any state or federal rules or guidance that would prohibit a bank from passing credit repair and credit rescore fees on to the customer?
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From what you have told us, the “credit repair and rescore” vendor offers two types of services. The vendor will (1) file disputes about inaccurate items to consumer reporting agencies and, (2) after a debt is paid, quickly obtain a new credit score (a “rapid rescore”). While we are not aware of any laws that…
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Our bank has received a plethora of disputes about a customer’s credit. All of the disputes were submitted by the same credit repair service. Can we safely ignore these repeated disputes, since they were submitted by a credit repair service?
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Based on the facts in your question, we believe that the bank does not have a duty to conduct an investigation of these disputes. The CFPB’s Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), expressly provides an exception to the general rule requiring creditors to investigate disputes when the disputes are submitted by…
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How should we report consumer real estate loan payments that have not been paid after the customer has filed for bankruptcy? We have been reporting the loan as “past due” to the credit bureau, is this correct?
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We believe that you should continue to report the loan as delinquent. The Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes a duty on entities that provide information to a consumer reporting agency (a furnisher) to provide accurate and complete information. 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(a)(1)(A). Unless you have received notice that the debt has been discharged, it remains accurate…
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Under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act credit report section, how is a “disabled person” defined? How could someone place a security freeze on the credit report of a person with Alzheimer’s disease?
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“Disabled person” is not a defined term in the provisions relating to credit reports in the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (CFDBPA). Nonetheless, the CFDBPA does provide that “a security freeze [may] be placed on the credit report of a disabled person” and authorizes two types of persons to place this type of…
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Are we required to run a joint credit report if a loan applicant is married?
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We believe that this question would depend on the bank’s underwriting standards, and we are not aware of any requirements to obtain joint credit reports for married (or unmarried) couples.
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We are interviewing a candidate for employment, and received authorization to examine the candidate’s credit report. Can we ask about collection items that appear on the report?
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We do not see any problems with asking an employment applicant about collections items on the applicant’s credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) expressly allows you to obtain a “consumer report” for any “employment purpose,” provided that you follow the disclosure and authorization requirements. 15 USC 1681b(b)(1). (Also, while not applicable here, note…
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Do you see any problems with reporting information on accounts held by minors to credit reporting agencies? Some parents have requested this as a way to build up a child’s credit score.
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We are not aware of any restrictions on reporting accurate credit information about a minor, but we note that there may be some reputational and other risks in reporting negative credit information about a minor. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V do not contain any references to minors or to the ages…