January 2021 FCRA News

A couple of news outlets have recent stories on Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) issues.

First, Forbes has an article on how to handle identify theft issues. One part touches on what to do regarding inaccurate credit reporting:

You will need to handle your dispute a certain way if you want phony accounts from identity theft to come off your credit report quickly. A standard credit dispute likely won’t get the job done (at least not without a 30 day wait, or longer). Instead, you should file an identity theft report first, and include it with your dispute.

One additional point is that to do if the credit bureaus and furnishers fail to delete the phony information. That is when you may have take action and file suit under the FCRA.

Second, USA Herald has a quick tip on a recent problem called “debt parking”:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is active in warning consumers against unscrupulous debt collectors who are putting invalid or fake debts on credit reports.

The federal consumer protection watchdog is also aggressive in filing cases and shutting down the operations of abusive, corrupt, and phantom debt collectors.

Early this month, the FTC sued Midwest Recovery Systems for placing bogus debts into consumers’ credit reports. The scheme is called “debt parking,” or “passive debt collection.”

Oftentimes, a consumer only finds out that he or she is a victim of a debt parking scheme when his or her credit report is being checked in connection with a business transaction.

Debt parking is wrong because it includes false or misleading information. As the article points out, this often is discovered when the consumer is trying to obtain credit and has problems due to problematic information in the credit report.