[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3518 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
2d Session
S. 3518
To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new
disclosure statement.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 15, 2006
Mr. Bennett introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new
disclosure statement.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION. 1. REVISION OF DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.
Section 405(a) of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (15 U.S.C.
1679c) is amended by striking everything after the heading of the
disclosure statement contained in such section and inserting the
following new text of the disclosure statement:
```You have a right to dispute inaccurate information in
your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly.
However, neither you nor any ``credit repair'' company or
credit repair organization has the right to have accurate,
current, and verifiable information removed from your credit
report. The credit bureau must remove accurate, negative
information from your report only if it is over 7 years old.
Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years.
```You have a right to obtain a free copy of your credit
report once every 12 months from each of the nationwide
consumer reporting agencies. To request your free annual credit
report, you may go to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call 877-
322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and
mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box
105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can obtain additional
copies of your credit report from a credit bureau, for which
you may be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, however,
if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance,
or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit
report within the preceding 60 days. The credit bureau must
provide someone to help you interpret the information in your
credit file. You are entitled to receive a free copy of your
credit report if you are unemployed and intend to apply for
employment in the next 60 days, if you are a recipient of
public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe
that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due
to fraud.
```You have a right to sue a credit repair organization
that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act. This law
prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations.
```You have the right to cancel your contract with any
credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business
days from the date you signed it.
```Credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable
procedures to ensure that the information they report is
accurate. However, mistakes may occur.
```You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau in writing
that you dispute the accuracy of information in your credit
file. The credit bureau must then reinvestigate and modify or
remove inaccurate or incomplete information. The credit bureau
may not charge any fee for this service. Any pertinent
information and copies of all documents you have concerning an
error should be given to the credit bureau.
```If the credit bureau's reinvestigation does not resolve
the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief
statement to the credit bureau, to be kept in your file,
explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The credit
bureau must include a summary of your statement about disputed
information with any report it issues about you.
```The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus
and credit repair organizations. For more information contact:
```Federal Trade Commission
```Washington, D.C. 20580
```1-877-FTC-HELP
```(877 382-4357)
```www.ftc.gov.'''.
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