If you believe that somebody wrongfully pulled your credit report, you might be able to sue them in state or federal court for damages. Your state's laws may also offer additional relief and remedies.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has a strict limit on who can check your credit and under what circumstance. The law regulates credit reporting and ensures that only business entities with a specific, legitimate purpose, and not members of the general public, can check your credit without written permission.
For a debt collector to have the legal right to pull your credit report without your consent, you must owe the company a legitimate debt and it must stem from a voluntary credit transaction.
If a credit bureau, creditor, or someone else violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can sue. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have a right to the fair and accurate reporting of your credit information.
Yes, you might be able to sue a company for false credit reporting. However, before you seek a civil remedy through the courts, you should properly exercise your rights under the law. Begin by challenging the information with the credit bureau.
Credit slander is when agencies falsely or inaccurately make reports against your credit report. This can affect almost every aspect of your credit score calculations.
Creditors and potential creditors (including credit card issuers and car loan lenders). These people and businesses can review your report when you apply for credit or to monitor your credit once they have given you a loan or credit.
If you find an unauthorized or inaccurate hard inquiry, you can file a dispute letter and request that the bureau remove it from your report. The consumer credit bureaus must investigate dispute requests unless they determine your dispute is frivolous. Still, not all disputes are accepted after investigation.
A: No, you can't check your spouse's (or ex's) personal credit reports. In order to request a consumer report on someone else, you must have what's called a “permissible purpose” under federal law, and marriage or divorce is not one of them.
Common violations of the FCRA include:
Creditors give reporting agencies inaccurate financial information about you. Reporting agencies mixing up one person's information with another's because of similar (or same) name or social security number. Agencies fail to follow guidelines for handling disputes.
If you notice hard pulls on your credit that you did not consent to, you can demand the creditor remove the inquiry. If they do not do this, you can sue under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
You can opt out of prescreening. No one should request your credit report without a valid purpose allowed by the law. Anyone who uses or obtains a copy of your credit report under false pretenses may be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have a right to:
You must have proper identification. You have a right to a free copy of your credit report within 15 days of your request. Protected Access – The act limits access to your file to those with a valid need.
The answer to your question is “Yes”. You may sue your ex-husband for acts and omissions during the marriage and PERHAPS even after the marriage (or date of legal separation) which led to credit damage of your personal name. This type of case has been sued upon over and over again.
The first step to stopping debt collectors from calling you is telling them the 11-word phrase - “Please cease and desist all calls and contact with me, immediately.”
In short, yes, you can. Under the terms of the FDCPA, consumers cansue creditors who send accounts to collection agencies—especially if those collection agencies don't follow FDCPA guidelines or behave illegally.
Actual Damages
The damages that a consumer may receive are not subject to any limit; however, damages are generally between $100 and $1,000 without any proof that the consumer suffered harm from the violation.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects your interests by governing how credit reporting agencies gather, protect and share your information. The FCRA includes provisions about who can request your credit report and how you can access it.
Under the FCRA, an employer can be liable for willful non-compliance, 15 U.S. C. §1681n, or negligent non-compliance, 15 U.S.C. § 1681o. Claims of willful non-compliance carry possible statutory damages of $100 to $1000 per violation, attorneys' fees, and unlimited punitive damages.
If you spot a hard credit inquiry on your credit report and it's legitimate (i.e., you knew you were applying for credit), there's nothing you can do to remove it besides wait. It won't impact your score after 12 months and will fall off your credit report after two years.
One way is to go directly to the creditor by sending them a certified letter in the mail. In your letter, be sure to point out which inquiry (or inquiries) were not authorized, and then request that those inquiries be removed. You could also contact the 3 big credit bureaus where the unauthorized inquiry has shown up.
Credit inquiries, for example, can only be disputed if they are the result of identity theft, and legitimate personal information such as your name and address cannot usually be disputed. Information that is factually correct is unlikely to be removed.