You Have Rights As A Consumer When It Comes To Your Credit

Online, December 19, 2011 (Newswire.com) - If you've ever been a victim of identity theft, you know that sinking feeling you get when you first become aware of the theft. You felt a mix of anger and shame that the crime ever happened, along with a more than healthy dose of frustration that comes once you've started to try to recover.

Identity theft tends to be thought of as a financial crime, so the most important part of cleaning up the damage is to fix credit report errors or fraudulent charges and accounts in your name. The key is to move fast - the quicker you move the easier it will be to clean up the errors. But even though you catch the errors quickly, remember that disputing them may take time.

Consumers have the right to dispute inaccurate and unauthorized entries on their credit reports. The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that you are also entitled to a written explanation of the results of any investigation resulting from a dispute. If the result of an investigation is that an entry is in error, those changes must be made and you should receive a free copy of your credit report after the changes have been made.

You also have the right to request that a copy of the updated report be sent to every single creditor that has pulled your credit in the past six months, along with each employer that has pulled it in the past two years. You have to request this, however, and the request must be made in writing.

If an investigation finds that you are responsible for an entry on your report, you have the right to make another request in writing that the dispute be noted on your credit report and that your dispute letter be included each time your full credit report is requested.

You also have the right to a speedy investigation - within reason. By law the investigation should be completed within 20 business days of the date that your letter is received by the credit reporting bureau. You should get results within 30 to 45 days after submitting your letter of dispute.

If you don't get results before this slot of time has passed, you may have the right to have the disputed entry removed from your credit report, regardless of what the investigation shows. But you'll need to get a lawyer involved in that one.