The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that when a consumer sends a dispute to a credit bureau, it should forward that dispute to the creditor reporting the inaccurate information.
- The credit bureau must give the creditor all information related to the dispute
- The creditor must then review the information and conduct an investigation into whether the report is accurate
- If the creditor determines the disputed information is inaccurate it must correct the description of the account
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued reminders to creditors about their obligations:
The CFPB said it expects creditors to:
- maintain a system capable of receiving information about disputes
- conduct investigations using all information forwarded to them by the credit bureaus
- report the results of the investigation back to the credit bureau
- provide corrected information to all of the credit bureaus
- modify, delete or permanently block incomplete or inaccurate information that a creditor might have provided
The CFPB said it is monitoring complaints from consumers and will bring enforcement actions when necessary.
Pursuing a violation of the FCRA requires that specific steps be followed before relief can be sought in court.
