Do you know your rights?

The Fair Credit Reporting Actwas passed in the United States originally in 1970 to regulate collection, distribution, and use of consumer credit information. It is enforced by the US Federal Trade Commission.






Under this act, credit bureaus, such as Experian, Equifax and Transunion, have certain responsibilities:






1. They must provide a consumer with the information about him or her in their files and verify the accuracy of that info.




2. Negative info that has been disputed and removed may not be reinserted without notifying the consumer in writing within five days.




3. The Credit Bureaus may not keep negative info for an excessive period, such as more than seven years for late payments, collections or judgments. The only exceptions are bankruptcies (10 years) and tax liens (seven years from when they were paid).




Also under this act, information furnishers, such as credit card companies, collection agencies, auto financers or mortgage lenders, may only report to a consumer's credit as long as:




1. They provide complete and accurate information.




2. They must investigate disputed info and must respond within 30 days of notice of a dispute.




3. They must inform consumers of negative info that has been or is about to be placed on their credit report within 30 days.






It's important to be proactive in your own life and credit. Let United Credit Source educate you in the restoration process on how credit works as well as gaining a better understanding of your rights. We want to help you regain control of your finances, so that you can live the best quality life there is to offer.

More Bad news About Americans' Debt

Posted originally at Walletpop.com

Jan 5th 2010 by Martha C. White

For a while, it looked as if Americans were getting a better grip on their out-of-control credit card habits. Unfortunately, new data shows that we seem to be falling off the wagon once again.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, the rate of credit card charge-offs rose in November from 10% to 10.6% after declining for the past two months, and delinquencies continued a four-month rise, hitting 6.2% in November. Delinquencies are payments that are 30 days or more past due. Charge-offs are balances that the card company writes off as a loss and gives up on (generally, they sell the debt for pennies on the dollar to a third-party debt collector).

Moody's predicts that the charge-off rate will continue rising and eventually peak in the middle of this year. In other words, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Even more worrisome is data that shows Americans are paying down less of their collective principal than they were just recently. The payment rate fell nearly a full percentage point in November to 16.42%.

This is bad news for delinquent cardholders individually; it's also bad for the economy as a whole. While experts have recently mentioned some encouraging signs like lower unemployment claim filings and small growth in the manufacturing sector, this recovery still has a long way to go.

High rates of unpaid credit card debt affect both consumer spending ability and consumer confidence. Both of these, in turn, directly affect the unemployment rate, since companies won't hire people to make goods or staff stores if they perceive that spending is under siege.

If this sounds like a vicious cycle, it is. While we here at Walletpop hear on a regular basis from readers who have sworn off credit card balances and stick to buying only what they can pay for at the time, there are obviously many Americans still stuck in a downward spiral of debt. Until enough people can get out from under those crushing bills, this debt is going to drag on the nation's economic recovery.