As
a customer, the federal law allots you certain rights that help you
against injustice and errors made by credit bureaus or creditors.
You can use your consumer acts whenever you feel that the rejection
of your application to the creditor was not justified. You have various
acts as consumer that you can use for different situations. We will
discuss here the rights that are allotted to you under these acts.
The
Fair Credit Reporting Act
When you apply for credit, the creditor analyses your credit report.
A credit report is prepared by Credit Reprting Agencies (CRAs), like
the credit bureau. The credit report consists of all about your credit
history. It tells the creditor whether you have a good or bad credit.
It also informs him whether you have ever been bankrupt, sued or prosecuted
for frauds, or have any due credits. Based on the information in the
credit report, the creditor decides on your plea for credit. Sometimes
the credit reporting is not correct and may deprive you of credit
you are worthy of. In such a situation, you can use your consumer
rights under Fair Credit Reporting Act to investigate the errors in
your credit report. You can write a letter to the credit bureau asking
for investigation. Once the investigations confirm the error, under
the act, you can ask the credit bureau to send the report along with
clarifications to other credit bureaus and your recent creditors or
employers.
The
Equal Credit Opportunity Act
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) states that none should be
refused credit on the basis of his or her sex, religion, race, age,
marital status or any other issues that have nothing to do with credit.
The ECOA gives rights to aged people, who have a chance of being refused
credit because of their unemployment or low pension, to appeal for
credit. The ECOA also discourages racial discrimination. However,
other issues like good credit and neat credit report are still taken
into consideration.
The
Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA)
According to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) you can resolve
mistakes on credit billing and electronic fund transfer account statements.
The
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) states that the debt
collector cannot charge you unfairly when collecting debts.
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