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Fair Credit Reporting: 3.5.2.3 Obtaining Reports From Specialty CRAs, Smaller CRAs

Consumers cannot request their reports from a nationwide specialty CRA through the centralized source.393 Instead, specialty nationwide CRAs must provide a toll-free number where the consumer can obtain a free annual report.394 Presumably the same number can be used to obtain reports on other bases. Below is the contact information for a number of the specialized CRAs (subject to change; readers are advised to verify these addresses before using).

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.5.3.2 Regulation V Requirements

The FACTA amendments of 2009426 required regulations to be issued defining what constitutes appropriate proof of identity by a consumer for obtaining a consumer report and for fraud alerts.427 In turn, Regulation V requires that CRAs develop and implement reasonable requirements for such proof of identity.428 The information the consumer supplies must be sufficient to enable the CRA to match the consumer with its files and to make sure the consumer

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.5.3.4 Necessity of a Social Security Number

CRAs will routinely ask for the consumer’s Social Security number (SSN) to obtain a consumer report. Regulation V cites this as an example of a potentially reasonable request for information,443 and courts have also held it to be a reasonable requirement.444 However, the reasonableness of such a requirement could also depend on whether such information is necessary for the CRAs to match consumers with their files.445

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.5.4 Ability of a Consumer’s Representative to Receive a Report

The FCRA states that a CRA may furnish a consumer report in accordance with written instructions of the consumer to whom it relates.447 Without such an authorization or a permissible purpose, not even a spouse may obtain a report on a partner. However, the CRA is not required to make a disclosure to a third party based on the consumer’s authorization;448 only a request by the consumer obliges the CRA to provide the report.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.2 Disclosure Must be “Clear and Accurate”

The CRA’s disclosure of the consumer’s file must be made “clearly and accurately.”528 It must be “sufficient to allow the consumer to compare the disclosed information from the credit file against the consumer’s personal information in order to allow the consumer to determine the accuracy of the information . . .”529

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.3 Disclosure Does Not Depend on Location of Information

The consumer must be provided with information without regard to where the information is located.544 The CRA must also disclose information it reports on a consumer, even if the information is kept separate from the rest of its database. Otherwise, a CRA could evade the disclosure requirements of the FCRA simply by keeping information in different database.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.4.3.1 Introduction

The CRA must disclose the names of all recipients of consumer reports about the consumer that were furnished within one year prior to the consumer’s request for disclosure.580 Additionally, the consumer must be told the names of any persons who received consumer reports on the consumer for employment purposes within two years before the request.581 The CRA must also disclose the address and telephone number of the recipient, but only if specifically requested by the consumer.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.4.3.2 Exception for FBI counter-intelligence and government security clearance usage

The FCRA grants the Federal Bureau of Investigation secret access, for certain purposes, to information kept by CRAs.598 In these circumstances, CRAs may not reveal to the consumer, or any user, that the FBI obtained any information from the CRA, or even sought to obtain any such information.599 In addition, when the head of a federal agency or department provides a written finding600 that a consumer report will be used for security clearance purpo

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.4.4 Identification of Checks Upon Which Adverse Characterizations of the Consumer Are Based

The FCRA clarifies what information must be included in the report concerning consumer check-writing. The report must specify the dates, original payees, and amounts of any checks upon which is based any adverse characterization of the consumer, included in the file at the time of the disclosure.602 For example, if a CRA has information about a bounced check in the consumer’s file, disclosure of the contents of that file must include the date, payee, and amount of that bounced check.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.5.1 Credit Scores

The FCRA does not require disclosure of the consumer’s credit score as part of the file disclosure.603 Instead, the Act provides a specific separate right to a disclosure of the credit score for a fee.604 A more general discussion of the disclosure of credit scores is found at § 3.3.10, supra,

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.5.2 Audit Trail and Other Ancillary Information

An audit trail is internal information that the CRA adds to the file as actions are taken on that file, so that an auditor can later review those actions, to verify that they were proper.605 The FTC staff deems that such information need not be disclosed because the information is not furnished in consumer reports or used as a basis in preparing them.606 This, of course, will not prevent the consumer from seeking audit trail information through discovery if an action is filed in court.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.6.5.3 Truncation of Consumer’s Social Security Number

Upon the consumer’s request, the CRA must truncate the disclosure of the consumer’s file so that it does not include first five digits of the consumer’s Social Security number (SSN).612 However, the Act does not require the CRA to mask the entire SSN.613 If the consumer does not request truncation of the SSN and the CRA truncates it, there could be a claim for violation of section 1681g(a)’s requirement to disclose all information in the consumer’s file.614

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.7.1 Electronic and Mail Disclosures

Unless otherwise authorized by the consumer, the report provided to the consumer must be in writing.617 The consumer may authorize any other reasonable form of disclosure that is available from the CRA,618 including electronic disclosure.619 Another reasonable means of disclosure would be disclosure by mail.620 Disclosure by fax would seem to be another approach.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.7.2 In-Person and Telephone Disclosures

The consumer can specify disclosure by telephone, but must make a written request for such disclosure.628 (Note that Regulation V makes clear that a consumer can make a telephonic request for a written disclosure.629 Information on how to order a free annual disclosure by telephonic request is listed in

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.7.3 CRAs Must Provide Assistance to Help Consumers Understand the Report

The FCRA requires all CRAs to provide trained personnel to assist consumers in explaining consumer disclosures.633 CRA employees must be trained to provide a full account of all information that the consumer is entitled to receive, and to explain all items that are disclosed.634 The CRA’s employees must be prepared to make thorough and efficient disclosures and to answer questions concerning the items disclosed.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.7.4 Nationwide CRAs Must Provide Toll-Free Number with Accessible Personnel

Nationwide CRAs must provide a toll-free telephone number at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours.643 This toll-free number must be included in the FTC Summary of Rights that the CRAs must provide with any file disclosures to consumers.644 The requirement imposed on nationwide CRAs to provide a toll-free number with accessible personnel is separate from the requirement imposed on all CRAs to provide trained personnel to assist consumers in explaining consumer

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.8.2.1 A Report Is Just One Snapshot in Time

An important point in reviewing the consumer’s report is to realize that it is a snapshot in time. It is not the same report that a potential creditor or other user saw in the past, if for no other reason than new information about the consumer is continually being furnished to CRAs. It is also not the current state of the consumer’s accounts, because there is a time lag. If a creditor makes a monthly dump of information to a CRA, and the consumer makes a payment two weeks later, that payment will not show up on the report until the creditor’s next monthly dump.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.8.2.2.1 Information provided to users but not consumers

What the consumer sees is not always the same as what a user sees. For example, a user will often request a credit score, which will not be provided to the consumer unless the consumer specifically requests it and pays for it. Even then, the credit score that the user sees may be a different one than that shown to the consumer.650

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.8.2.2.2 Users provided with more information due to looser matching criteria

At least one of the nationwide “Big Three” CRAs sends out multiple reports on a consumer to some users, while only sending one report to the consumer. This occurs where the CRA is not sure whether information in its files belong to the consumer, so that it creates multiple files linked to that consumer, putting information it is unsure of in a second or even third file. Users are supplied reports on any file that may be a match, while the CRA provides consumers only one report that is the closest match.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.8.2.2.3 Reports provided to users are in a different format

The format of disclosures provided by the nationwide CRAs to consumers can be vastly different than consumer reports provided to users. As one court described it:

The vast majority of credit reports go to credit grantors, who read the information with computers . . . The information is therefore delivered in a computer-generated format “in segments and bits and bytes.” . . . Although this output is easily read by the computers of credit grantors with reference to Defendant’s technical manuals, it is essentially incomprehensible to human beings.

Fair Credit Reporting: 3.8.2.3 Reading the Report

The actual format of the substance of the report will vary from CRA to CRA, and may even vary depending on whether the consumer receives the report online or in the mail. Samples of the reports from the “Big Three” nationwide CRAs are found at Appendix I, infra.