Credit report errors and the Fair Credit Reporting Act
If a credit bureau, a lender, a collector or a background check company reports something false about you and will not fix it after you dispute it in writing, the Fair Credit Reporting Act lets you sue. A willful violation carries statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages, and the company pays your attorney's fees if you win. This page explains who owes you what, the dispute-then-sue sequence, and the deadline.
Your credit report decides whether you get the apartment, the car loan, the job and the interest rate. Three kinds of companies put it together: the consumer reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and the specialty companies that sell tenant and employment screening), the furnishers that send them data (banks, card issuers, lenders, collectors, debt buyers), and the users that buy the report and act on it (landlords, employers, lenders). The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 to 1681x, puts duties on each of them, and gives you a lawsuit when they break those duties.
Start with what went wrong. The checker sorts it in a minute, in your browser.
What the FCRA requires, company by company
Credit bureaus and screening companies
A consumer reporting agency is any company that, for a fee, regularly assembles or evaluates information about consumers to furnish reports to third parties (15 U.S.C. § 1681a(f)). That covers the three nationwide bureaus and it covers the tenant screening and background check companies too; the Act names tenant history and employment history among the files a nationwide specialty agency keeps (§ 1681a(w)). Four duties matter most:
- Accuracy. Whenever it prepares a report, the agency "shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates" (§ 1681e(b)).
- Reinvestigation. When you dispute an item, the agency must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, free of charge, within 30 days, and must pass your dispute to the furnisher within 5 business days (§ 1681i(a)(1), (a)(2)). It must consider everything you send (§ 1681i(a)(4)) and delete or correct what is inaccurate, incomplete or cannot be verified (§ 1681i(a)(5)(A)).
- Old information. Most negative items drop off after 7 years, and bankruptcies after 10 years (§ 1681c(a)).
- Permissible purpose. A report may go only to someone with a purpose the Act allows (§ 1681b(f)).
Lenders, collectors and other furnishers
A furnisher may not report information it knows or has reasonable cause to believe is inaccurate, and once you dispute with it, it may not keep reporting the item without noting the dispute (15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a)(1)(A), (a)(3)). Those duties are enforced only by government agencies, not by private suit (§ 1681s-2(c), (d)). The duty you can enforce yourself comes next: when a credit bureau notifies the furnisher of your dispute, the furnisher must investigate, review all relevant information the bureau sends, report the results, and correct or delete what is wrong with every nationwide bureau it reports to (§ 1681s-2(b)(1)). That is why the dispute goes to the bureau, not only to the lender.
Employers, landlords and other users
An employer must tell you in a stand-alone written disclosure, and get your written authorization, before it pulls a background report; and before it takes adverse action based on the report it must give you a copy and a summary of your rights (§ 1681b(b)(2), (b)(3)). Any user that turns you down based on a report must tell you which agency supplied it and that you can get a free copy and dispute it (§ 1681m(a)).
Find your problem
Each page below covers one pattern: what it looks like on the report, the law that applies, what you can recover and what to do this week.
Errors on your report
Wrong balances, late payments you never made, accounts that are not yours.
Credit report errors →You disputed and nothing changed
The core FCRA lawsuit: a bureau and a furnisher that "verified" an error.
Failed dispute →Someone else's file mixed into yours
Another person's accounts, name or address merged with your report.
Mixed files →Identity theft accounts
The 4-business-day block, and what to send to get it.
Identity theft →Paid debt still showing a balance
A debt you paid or settled that the report says you still owe.
Paid debt →Discharged debts still due
Accounts wiped out in bankruptcy that still report a balance or past-due status.
Bankruptcy errors →Reported as deceased
A death notation on a living person's file shuts down credit overnight.
Deceased notation →Job background check errors
A wrong criminal record or history that cost you a job offer.
Background checks →Tenant screening errors
Evictions, records or debts that are not yours on a rental screening report.
Tenant screening →How to dispute
What to send, how to send it, and how to count the 30 days.
Dispute steps →Equifax, Experian, TransUnion
The three nationwide bureaus and how a dispute travels to the furnisher.
The three bureaus →The FCRA, section by section
The statute itself: definitions, duties, remedies and the clock.
The FCRA →The dispute-then-sue sequence
Most FCRA cases that reach a lawyer follow the same path. The steps matter because each one creates a duty, and each duty creates a record.
- Get the report. You are entitled to a free copy from each nationwide bureau once every 12 months through the central source, AnnualCreditReport.com (15 U.S.C. § 1681j(a)(1)), and to a free copy within 60 days after a company turns you down based on a report (§ 1681j(b)).
- Dispute in writing with the bureau. Name the item, say why it is wrong, and attach proof. Keep a copy and proof of delivery. The dispute page has the checklist.
- The bureau notifies the furnisher. Within 5 business days, with all relevant information you sent (§ 1681i(a)(2)). This notice is what triggers the furnisher's enforceable duty under § 1681s-2(b).
- The 30-day reinvestigation. The bureau must finish within 30 days of receiving your dispute, or 45 if you send more relevant information during the 30 (§ 1681i(a)(1)), and send you the results in writing within 5 business days after it finishes (§ 1681i(a)(6)).
- The error stays, or comes back. If the bureau "verifies" the item without a real look, or deletes it and then lets it reappear without the furnisher's certification and notice to you (§ 1681i(a)(5)(B)), that is the fact pattern for a lawsuit. See failed dispute.
- Talk to a lawyer before the clock runs. Bring the report, every letter you sent, every result, and any denial letters from lenders, landlords or employers.
If a collector is behind the entry
A collector that reports a debt it knows you dispute, without saying so, can also violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. § 1692e(8)). If a collector has sued you on the debt, do not ignore the papers; the answer deadline is short. See sued by a debt collector.
What you can recover
| Violation | Damages | Fees and costs | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willful (knowing or reckless) | Actual damages, or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000; plus punitive damages as the court allows | Yes, in a successful action | 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a) |
| Negligent | Actual damages | Yes, in a successful action | 15 U.S.C. § 1681o(a) |
"Willful" includes reckless disregard of the Act's requirements, not only a knowing violation (Safeco Ins. Co. of America v. Burr, 551 U.S. 47 (2007)). Actual damages include a denied or costlier loan, a lost job or apartment, and the distress and damage to reputation that a false report causes. The FCRA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. This site does not estimate what any case is worth; the what you get page explains why.
Standing: the report has to have hurt you
To sue in federal court, you must show a concrete harm. In TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021), TransUnion had flagged thousands of consumers as a "potential match" to a government terrorism list by matching first and last names. The Supreme Court held that the 1,853 class members whose flagged reports were sent to businesses had standing, and the 6,332 whose files were never sent to anyone did not. The practical point: evidence that the false report was sent to a lender, landlord or employer, or that it cost you something, is part of the case from day one.
The clock
Two years from discovery, five years at most
An FCRA suit must be filed by the earlier of 2 years after you discover the violation or 5 years after the violation happened (15 U.S.C. § 1681p). Each failed reinvestigation can start its own clock, but waiting risks losing the earliest violations. The deadlines page compares the FCRA clock with the one-year FDCPA clock.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
The federal Act applies the same way in all three states. New York also has its own statute, Article 25 of the General Business Law, which "may be cited as the 'fair credit reporting act'" (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380). It bars an agency from reporting information it has reason to know is inaccurate, and from reporting medical debt (§ 380-j(a)), and it gives consumers a claim for actual damages, fees and costs for negligent noncompliance and punitive damages for willful noncompliance (§§ 380-l, 380-m). The federal Act limits some state credit reporting rules (15 U.S.C. § 1681t(b)), so which statute carries a claim is a case-by-case question.
In Florida, the Consumer Collection Practices Act bars any person collecting a consumer debt from disclosing a debt known to be reasonably disputed without disclosing the dispute (Fla. Stat. § 559.72(6)). In New Jersey, the federal Act is the main route. See New York, New Jersey and Florida.
You disputed and it stayed
How a bad reinvestigation becomes a lawsuit against the bureau and the furnisher.
Failed dispute →Dispute the right way
A written dispute builds the record a case is made from.
How to dispute →Who pays your lawyer
How fee-shifting works under the FCRA and the collection statutes.
Attorney's fees →Common questions
Can I sue a credit bureau for an error on my report?
Yes, if the bureau failed to follow reasonable procedures to keep your report accurate, or failed to reasonably reinvestigate after you disputed. The strongest cases start with a written dispute that the bureau got wrong. The FCRA allows actual damages for a negligent violation, and statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 plus punitive damages for a willful one, plus attorney's fees.
Do I have to dispute before I sue?
For a claim against a bureau for a bad reinvestigation, and for any claim against the lender or collector that furnished the data, yes. The furnisher's duty that you can enforce in court begins only when a credit bureau notifies it of your dispute. A claim that the bureau's procedures were inaccurate from the start does not strictly require a dispute, but the dispute record is usually the strongest evidence you will have.
How long do I have to sue under the FCRA?
The earlier of two years after you discover the violation or five years after the violation happened (15 U.S.C. section 1681p). Each failed reinvestigation can be its own violation, so keep every dispute letter and every result.
Who pays the lawyer in an FCRA case?
The FCRA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. That is true for both willful and negligent violations. The fee is awarded by the court at the end of a successful case.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.