About 200 million Americans have credit histories on file with the three major credit bureaus, and these bureaus generate more than one billion credit reports each year.  Credit reports play a critical role in the economic health of American families.  A good credit history enables consumers to obtain credit, and at a fair price.  Credit reports are also used by employers, landlords, utility providers, and insurers. 

Despite their importance, inaccuracies and errors plague credit reports, with estimates of serious errors affecting up to 25% of reports.  The dispute process mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act has become a travesty, with the credit bureaus conducting perfunctory investigations by translating detailed written disputes into two or three digit codes and paying foreign workers as little as $0.57 to process each dispute.

NCLC played a key role in the passage of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and will continue to advocate for consumers to ensure that every American is treated with fairness by the credit reporting system.

Policy Analysis

Credit Reports Policy Briefs, Reports & Press Releases

• Press Release: NCLC Advocates Applaud CFPB for Enforcement Actions against Equifax and TransUnion for Deceptive Marketing of Credit Monitoring Products, Jan. 3, 2017
• Press Release: Advocates Urge Support for Comprehensive Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 2016, May 19, 2016
• Policy Brief: Past Imperfect: How Credit Scores and Other Analytics "Bake In" and Perpetuate Past Discrimination, May, 2016
• Report and Press Release: Account Screening Consumer Reporting Agencies Impede Access for Millions (Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, NCLC and Bank On), October 2015
• Press Release: Consumer and Labor Groups Urge Experian to Offer Free Security Freezes to T-Mobile Customers to Help Prevent Id Theft, Oct. 2, 2015
• Press Release: NCLC & NACA Statement re: the Consumer Reporting Fairness Act, July 15, 2015
• Full Utility Credit Reporting

   - Policy brief: Credit Invisibility and Alternative Data: The Devil is in the Details, June 2015
   - Issue Brief: Full Utility Credit Reporting: Risks to Low Income Consumers, July 2012 Updated August 2013
   - Presentation to National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions, June 2010
   - Risks to Low Income Consumers, Dec. 2009

• Press Release: CFPB Report and Hearing Show Urgent Need to Protect Consumers from Medical Debt Collection, Dec. 11, 2014
• Policy Brief: Introduction to Account Screening Consumer Reporting Agencies, October 2014
• Report: Strong Medicine Needed: What the CFPB Should Do to Protect Consumers from Unfair Collection and Reporting of Medical Debt, Sept. 10, 2014
• Statement Supporting U.S. Senate bill (Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting Act of 2014), April 9, 2014 
• Report: Big Data, a Big Disappointment for Scoring Consumer Creditworthiness, March 2014
• Press Release: Consumers win with CFPB credit report changes, Feb. 27, 2014
• Solving the Credit Conundrum: Helping Consumers' Credit Records Impaired by the Foreclosure Crisis and Great Recession, Dec. 2013
• Report: Automated Injustice: How a Mechanized Dispute System Frustrates Consumers Seeking to Fix Errors in Their Credit Reports, Jan. 2009

Credit Reports Comments and Testimony

• Testimony before the U.S. House of Representative Committee on Financial Services regarding "An Overview of the Credit Reporting System", September 10, 2014
• Comments to the Federal Trade Commission re Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?, Aug. 15, 2014
• Testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Subcommittee Re: Making Sense of Consumer Credit Reports, Dec. 19, 2012
• Testimony regarding "Examining the Uses of Consumer Credit Data", Sept. 13, 2012
• Comments to the CFPB re: defining the "larger" debt collectors and consumer reporting agencies, April 17, 2012
• Dodd-Frank Credit Score Disclosure: Consumer and Civil Rights Group Comments, Apr. 2011
• Use of Credit Reports in Employment and Restoring Consumer Rights for Adverse Action Disclosures, Testimony regarding Use of Credit Information beyond Lending: Issues and Reform Proposals, May 12, 2010
• Prevent Deceptive Marketing of Credit Reports, Consumer Group Comments, Dec. 2009

Credit Reports Letters

• Consumer and civil rights groups letter to credit reporting agencies requesting free credit and specialty reports in multiple languages for Wells Fargo customers affected by phantom accounts, Oct. 6, 2016
• Group letter opposing H.R. 4172, Credit Access and Inclusion Act, May 18, 2016
• Group letter to the CFPB and FTC re: Experian's T-Mobile data breach, Oct. 8, 2015
• Letter to Experian and T-Mobile re: Data Breach, Oct.2, 2015
• Letter opposing H.R. 3035, Credit Access and Inclusion Act, Sept. 8, 2015 
• Letter opposing H.R. 347, the misleadingly-named "Facilitating Access to Credit Act of 2015" by consumer, civil rights and advocacy groups, April 27, 2015, plus Q&A Fact Sheet
• Letter urges FHFA to insist that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac change its policies that require the use of FICO 04, Nov. 14, 2014
• Letter urges FHFA to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reverse policies that require manual underwriting if the applicant's credit report contains a dispute, Nov. 14, 2014.
• Letters expressing concern about the harm to consumers and the preemptive effects of HR 6363 (Renacci),  The Credit Access and Inclusion Act, which promotes full file utility credit reporting, Sept. 2012 
• Group letter to the CFPB re: FHA violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act's Anti-Retaliation Provisions, March 30, 2012
• Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009, H.R. 3421 (Kilroy), Consumer Group Letter, July 26, 2010

Policy Analysis Archive

Litigation

• Motion for Leave to file an Amicus Brief and [Proposed] Amicus brief in the Middle District of North Carolina (Brown v. Delhaize and Food Lion, Inc.), August 11, 2014
• Amicus brief of NCLC and NACA in Carvalho v. Equifax, Full text
• FCRA preemption and furnisher liability, Amicus Brief of NCLC and NACA in  Gorman v. Wolpoff & Abramson case, April 2009
• White v. Experian/TransUnion/Equifax, Class action lawsuit against TransUnion LLC, Experian Information Solutions, Inc., and Equifax Information Services LLC
• Amicus Brief of NACA, NCLC and others defending statutory damages provision of FCRA against constitutional attack

Consumer Information

• Disputing Errors in a Credit Report
• The Truth About Credit Reports & Credit Repair Companies (English, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese)
• Understanding Credit Scores
• What You Should Know About Your Credit Report
  
• Protect Yourself from Identity Theft