FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)
Also known as: Fair Credit Reporting Act
The 1970 federal law that regulates how consumer reporting agencies collect, share, and report consumer credit information. The legal backbone of credit-report accuracy, dispute rights, and the 7-year reporting limit on most negative information.
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The Fair Credit Reporting Act, codified at 15 USC § 1681 et seq., established the legal framework for consumer reporting in the United States. The 1970 law (substantially amended in 1996, 2003, and several times since) governs three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion), specialty consumer reporting agencies (ChexSystems for bank account history, LexisNexis for insurance, etc.), and the businesses that furnish data to them (banks, credit card issuers, debt collectors, medical providers). The FCRA gives consumers specific rights: the right to know what is in their report (free annual disclosure, expanded to weekly since 2020), the right to dispute inaccurate information, the right to have negative information removed after specified time periods, and the right to sue for damages when their FCRA rights are violated.
The 7-year FCRA reporting limit is the most-cited provision in consumer credit: most negative information (late payments, collections, judgments — but NOT bankruptcies which stay up to 10 years) must be removed from credit reports after 7 years from the date of first delinquency. For charge-offs specifically, the statute allows 7 years plus 180 days from the first delinquency that preceded the charge-off (15 USC § 1681c(c)(1)) — about six months longer than the plain 7-year figure. The clock cannot be extended by re-aging the debt or selling it to a new collector. Bankruptcies have their own timeline (Chapter 7 stays 10 years, Chapter 13 stays 7 years from filing date). Positive information has no removal time limit.
The dispute right under FCRA § 611 is the consumer's primary remedy for inaccurate information. Filing a dispute with the credit bureau triggers a 30-day investigation (45 days in some cases). The bureau must contact the data furnisher (the bank or collector that reported the item), get verification, and either confirm or correct the information. If the furnisher cannot verify within 30 days, the item must be deleted. Disputes can be filed online at each bureau's portal (experian.com/disputes, equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services, transunion.com/credit-disputes), by mail, or by phone. The CFPB also maintains a complaint portal that escalates disputes the bureaus do not resolve within 30 days.
The 2003 FACT Act amendments added several substantive consumer protections including the annual free credit report (extended to weekly in 2020), the truncation of credit card numbers on receipts, and stronger identity-theft remediation rights. The 2018 Economic Growth Regulatory Relief Act mandated free credit freezes at all three bureaus. The 2025 CFPB rule removing medical debt from credit reports is the most recent major FCRA-related regulatory action. The Act continues to evolve as the credit reporting industry and consumer protection priorities shift.
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): What It Is and Your Rights What the FCRA requires from credit bureaus, the dispute timeline, 7-year and 10-year rules, permissible purpose, and how to enforce your rights.
- How to dispute an error on your US credit report — and win The Fair Credit Reporting Act dispute process — bureau portals, the 30-day investigation, documentation strategy, and how to escalate via the CFPB.
- Credit card charge-off: 180 days past due + 7 years (15 U.S.C. 1681c) Both clocks verified: charge-off at 180 days past due is an FFIEC bank rule the CFPB echoes; removal comes 7 years + 180 days after first delinquency (§1681c).
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