Report to Congress Under Section 319 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, December 2010

摘要

As noted in an earlier report to Congress,1 this study of credit report accuracy is the first to directly engage the three primary groups that participate in the credit reporting process: consumers, lenders/data furnishers, and the national consumer reporting agencies (CRAs). The study design calls for 1,000 consumers to be randomly selected throughout the United States and to review their credit reports with an expert that helps them to identify potential errors. Study participants are encouraged to dispute, via the FCRA dispute process (see below), potential errors that the expert believes could have a material effect on a persons credit standing. Upon tracking the outcome of all disputes, the study computes the change in the consumers credit score for potential and confirmed material errors. These data will provide a basis to analyze credit report accuracy. Importantly, the study will estimate, within a stated margin of error, the proportion of consumers who would encounter one or more confirmed material errors over their three credit reports from the CRAs. The study will also reveal the main types of confirmed material errors, their relative frequencies, and the impact of such errors on a consumers credit standing.