Free Credit Reports Online

You have the following rights under the FCRA:

• you must be told if negative information in your credit file has been used in denying your application for such things as a loan, employment or housing;
• if credit information is used to deny your application, you are to be given the name address and phone number of the reporting agency that supplied the report;
• you have the right to see what's in free credit reports online;
• you may obtain a free credit report every 12 months if you've had credit information used against you within the last 60 days or you're unemployed and you'll be looking for a job within 60 days or you're on welfare or your report is inaccurate due to fraud;
• you have the right to dispute errors in free credit reports online and the credit reporting agency is required to investigate all non-frivolous charges, usually within 30 days;
• on disputed information not corrected to your satisfaction, you can have a 100-word summary explanation added to the report;
• when an item is corrected or a summary explanation is included, you may ask the agency to notify anyone about the change who recently obtained your credit report;
• if you have a dispute with a creditor over an account, that creditor may not report information about the account to an agency without mentioning it's in dispute;
• most negative information must be removed within 7 to 10 years of its occurrence;
• only people with a legitimate business reason may have access to your credit report;
• your consent is required if your credit report is being requested by an employer or if the report contains medical information;
• and you have the right to have information in free credit reports online explained to you by the credit reporting agency.