It’s A Reality: An Utterly Gratis Credit File Is Your Right By Law

May 17th, 2011 | Posted in Credit Card Debt

Yes, you have a right to receive an absolutely gratis credit profile from every one of the three credit history reporting agencies in the United States. Your right to receive an absolutely gratis credit report is a federal public law, precisely, public law 108-159. When trying to suss out used cars, this can be a valuable tool. The law which made an absolutely free credit record for customers a right was passed by The 108th Congress on December 5, 2005. It was in particular aimed at people trying to maintain good credit or going down the road of used cars. It’s called the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACT) of 2005, and it’s a Godsend for individuals for whom used cars is an awfully real concern.

The Act amended an earlier credit profile law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act. FACT amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act to contain a provision for the absolutely gratis credit record. In Title II of FACT, under section 211, which is entitled “Free buyer Reports”, all credit reporting organizations are required to give consumers their credit histories once during a 12 month period “upon the request of the customer without charge to the consumer”. This law reversed the practice of credit history reporting agencies to charge customers for their own credit file.

FACT goes on in Title II to state that the consumer may acquire the totally no cost credit file only if the customer makes that demand from a centralized source which a government commission would supervise in its growth. At minimum, credit history reporting organizations are needed to offer a toll gratis number consumers may call to make their request. It also states that credit reporting organizations have 15 days in which to offer the absolutely free credit record to the consumer after the customer has made the application.

FACT also states that customers may also ask for a reinvestigation of the particulars of their credit report after they get it and that credit history reporting agencies must finish that investigation within 45 days after a demand for reinvestigation. This assures that customers may use the totally no cost credit file after they get the results of the reinvestigation.

The three credit history reporting organizations in the U.S., Equifacts, Experian, and Transunion, together formed a centralized source that customers can use to ask for their credit profile as required by FACT.

Knowing how to get out of debt and stay out is process not something learned overnight. However there is a first step to any process and a good first step to learning how to get rid of credit card debt is finding what your credit report says and what you can do about it. To find out more about this and other credit issues, click here: how to get rid of credit card debt