The Fair Credit Reporting Act
The FCRA requires credit bureaus to report accurately, to reinvestigate your disputes, and to fix what they cannot verify, and it requires lenders and collectors to investigate once a bureau forwards your dispute. If a company willfully violates it, you can recover actual damages or $100 to $1,000 in statutory damages, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees. You have two years from discovering the violation, and never more than five.
A credit report is assembled by companies you never hired from information sent by companies you may no longer deal with. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 to 1681x) is the set of rules that holds both groups to accuracy, and it gives you a lawsuit when they fall short. The FCRA covers more than the three nationwide bureaus: background check and tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies too. This page covers the rules the lawsuits are built on. The credit reports section covers each kind of error.
The duties the lawsuits rest on
Accuracy: section 1681e(b)
Whenever a consumer reporting agency prepares a report, it must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information about you (15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b)). Mixed files, where another person's accounts land on your report, and reports that list you as deceased usually start here. See mixed files and credit report errors.
Reinvestigation: section 1681i
When you dispute an item, the agency must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, free of charge, and finish it within 30 days of receiving your dispute. The period can be extended by up to 15 days if you send relevant information during the 30 days (§ 1681i(a)(1)). Within 5 business days of receiving the dispute, the agency must notify the company that furnished the item (§ 1681i(a)(2)). A reinvestigation that just asks the furnisher to confirm its own data and changes nothing is the classic failed dispute.
Furnishers: section 1681s-2(b)
Once a bureau forwards your dispute, the furnisher (the bank, card issuer or collector that reported the item) must investigate, review all relevant information the bureau sent, report the results, and modify, delete or block information it finds inaccurate or cannot verify (§ 1681s-2(b)(1)). You can sue a furnisher for failing at this. You cannot sue it directly under § 1681s-2(a), its general duty to report accurately, which only government agencies enforce (§ 1681s-2(c), (d)). That is why the dispute goes through the bureau.
Identity theft, old debts and permissible purpose
An agency must block information resulting from identity theft within 4 business days after receiving proof of your identity, an identity theft report, your identification of the items, and your statement that they are not yours (§ 1681c-2(a)). Accounts placed for collection or charged off, and most other adverse items, may not be reported once they are more than seven years old; bankruptcies, more than ten (§ 1681c(a)). For a collection or charge-off, the seven years begin 180 days after the delinquency started (§ 1681c(c)(1)), which is why the date of first delinquency on your report matters. And no one may pull your report without a permissible purpose (§ 1681b(f)).
What you can recover
| Willful violation (§ 1681n) | Negligent violation (§ 1681o) | |
|---|---|---|
| Damages | Actual damages, or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 | Actual damages |
| Report obtained under false pretenses by a natural person | Actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater | Not applicable |
| Punitive damages | As the court allows | No |
| Costs and attorney's fees | Yes, in a successful action | Yes, in a successful action |
The FCRA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. It has one fee rule that runs the other way: if a pleading, motion or other paper is unsuccessful and was filed in bad faith or to harass, the court must award the other side its fees for responding to it (§§ 1681n(c), 1681o(b)). The FCRA sets no class-action cap in these sections.
Actual damages under the FCRA are not limited to money. The Second Circuit has held that they may include humiliation and mental distress even without an out-of-pocket loss, though the plaintiff in that case lost because no false report had reached anyone else (Casella v. Equifax Credit Info. Servs., 56 F.3d 469 (2d Cir. 1995)). A denied loan, a higher interest rate, a lost apartment or job, and the time spent fighting the error are the kinds of harm that show up in these cases.
Standing: the report has to matter
In TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021), the Supreme Court held that every plaintiff seeking damages must show a concrete harm. An inaccurate report that was disseminated to a third party qualifies. An error that sat in a file no one ever saw may not. Keep every denial letter, adverse action notice and screenshot that shows who saw your report.
Two years from discovery, five at the outside
An FCRA suit must be filed by the earlier of two years after you discover the violation or five years after it occurred (§ 1681p). Each failed reinvestigation is a new violation with its own date, so keep a copy of every dispute and every result. The deadlines page has the full table.
How a case usually starts
- Get the reports. Pull all three at AnnualCreditReport.com, the site the FTC says is the only one authorized to fill orders for the free reports.
- Dispute in writing. Send the dispute to each bureau reporting the error, with copies of proof. Keep the mailing receipt.
- Wait for the result. The bureau has 30 days, sometimes 45. Save the results letter.
- If the error stays, call a lawyer. A verified error after a documented dispute is the fact pattern most FCRA cases rest on.
The how to dispute page has the details and what to include.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
The FCRA is federal and applies the same way in all three states. When a collector is the furnisher, collection law can add claims: the FDCPA forbids communicating credit information without saying that a debt is disputed (15 U.S.C. § 1692e(8)), and New York's GBL § 601(5) prohibits disclosing a debt known to be disputed without disclosing that fact. In Florida, the FCCPA reaches original creditors collecting their own debts (Fla. Stat. § 559.72). See New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Common questions
Can I sue the bank that reported a false late payment?
Usually only after you dispute through a credit bureau. The FCRA lets you sue a furnisher for failing to investigate after the bureau forwards your dispute (15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(b)). The furnisher's general duty to report accurately (1681s-2(a)) is enforced only by government agencies, not by private suits. So dispute with the bureau first, in writing, and keep copies.
What is the difference between willful and negligent?
A negligent violation lets you recover your actual damages, costs and fees. A willful violation adds the option of statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 in place of actual damages, and punitive damages. Whether a violation was willful is often the most contested question in the case.
How long does a bureau have to answer my dispute?
Thirty days from receiving it, extendable by up to fifteen days if you send more relevant information during the thirty. The bureau must notify the company that furnished the item within five business days of receiving your dispute.
How long can negative items stay on my report?
Most adverse items, including collection accounts and charge-offs, must come off after seven years; for a collection or charge-off the seven years start 180 days after the delinquency began. Bankruptcies can be reported for ten years.
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.