Below is a summary of your major rights under the FCRA.

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

Anyone who uses a credit report or another type of consumer report to deny your application for credit, insurance, or employment – or to take another adverse action against you – must tell you, and give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that provided the consumer report.

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

You may request and obtain all the information about you in the files of a consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). You will be required to provide proper identification, which may include your Social Security number. In many cases, the disclosure will be free. You are entitled to a free file disclosure if:

• 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.

In addition, all consumers are entitled to one free disclosure every 12 months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau and from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies. See www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore for additional information.

You have the right to ask for a credit score.

Credit scores are numerical summaries of your credit-worthiness based on information from the credit bureaus. You may request a credit score from consumer reporting agencies that create scores or distribute scores used in residential real property loans, but you will have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will receive credit score information for free from mortgage lender.

You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information.

If you tell a consumer reporting agency that your file is incomplete or has inaccurate information, the consumer reporting agency must investigate the items, unless your dispute is frivolous.

Consumer Reporting Agencies must correct or delete inaccurate incomplete or unverifiable information .

A consumer reporting agency must remove or correct inaccurate, incomplete, or unverified information from its files, usually within 30 days after you dispute it.

Consumer Reporting Agencies can't report outdated negative information.

In most cases, a consumer reporting agency may not report negative information that is more than seven years old; ten years for bankruptcies.

Access to your file is limited.

A consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to people with a valid need recognized by the FCRA – usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business.

Your consent is required for reports that are provided to employers.

A consumer reporting agency may not give our information about you to your employer, or prospective employer, without your written consent.

You may limit "prescreen' offers of credit and insurance based on information in your credit report.

Creditors and insurers may use file information to send you unsolicited offers of credit or insurance. Unsolicited “prescreened” offers for credit and insurance must include a toll-free phone number you can call if you choose to remove your name and address from the list. You may opt out with the nationwide credit bureaus at 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688).

Consumers have the right to get a security freeze.

You have the right to place a security freeze on your credit report , which will prohibit a consumer reporting agency from releasing information in your credit report without your express authorization.