Have you heard about the FCRA? If you have not then you are missing out.
There have been many changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act lately and it could affect the steps you take to fix your credit score and clean up your report.
Any time that you are going to embark on the credit report "cleansing" process, it is essential to know what you can use to your advantage, so here is a breakdown of what the Fair Credit Reporting Act can do for you.

• The Fair Credit Reporting Act has lots and lots of parts to it, but essentially, this is what protects the rights of your average consumer.
  This law dictates that a creditor cannot report false information about you to the credit bureau and also outlines a statute of limitations for which time a debt can be collected on.
  
• This is a really nice little law when you are working to repair or clean up your credit, though because the FCRA states that the "credit bureaus" must respond to you within 30 days of your dispute letter.
  

Not only that, but the "credit bureaus" are required by law to give you the information that they used when they say that they "verified" an account.
This gives you the right to contact the provider of the information used to put a listing on your credit report.

• The FCRA also says that an inquiry on your credit report must be done for a "permissible purpose".
  In other words, you have to give the person checking your credit permission to check your credit and you are supposed to have acknowledged that it will happen and give permission.
  Many times, this does not happen and if there is an inquiry on your credit report that you did not give permission for, the FCRA states that you are entitled to $1000 for that violation.
  
• If you are denied insurance, employment or credit because of what's on your credit report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report.
  You are also allowed to get a free copy of your credit reports once yearly under the FCRA.
  

So, maybe you are wondering how this information might be helpful to you and you should know that when you know as much as you can find out about the FCRA.
You will be better equipped to take on the "credit bureaus" and clean up your credit in the way that you really need.
For instance, what do you do if you send a dispute to a credit bureau and they take more than 30 days to get back to you? That's easy; you send them another letter letting them know that the FCRA states that you are entitled to a response within 30 days.
The point is that the more you know about laws which are meant to be helpful to you like the FCRA, the more able you will be to tackle your credit problems and get the score you seek.
Knowledge is key and now you have a little bit more of it!