Your Credit Report and Consumer Rights

There are definite guidelines pertaining to what is on your credit report as well as consumer rights that affect whether you are given money. However, you have no automatic right to receive money from lenders.

Therefore, when applying for financing such as a loan or some type of unsecured debt remember you are not necessarily entitled to it. You have no right but rather a privilege to receive  financing from a bank, merchant, or other creditor.

This is true even if you have good credit. However, you do have rights pertaining to your credit report and/or pertaining to the application process:

• You have the right to appeal in the event you are denied credit.
• You have the right in many situations to see a copy of your credit report when denied a loan or other financing.
• You have a right to a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months in the United States.
• You can ask lenders questions about what their standards are for approving someone for a loan.
• You can apply to a different bank or institution for money if turned down by another.
• You can take advantage of available tools to help you monitor and fix your credit report.
• If you check out your credit report and you see on it that there are errors you have the right to see these removed.
• You can have alerts placed on your accounts when attempting to prevent identity theft.
• In certain parts of the world you may even be able to legally dissociate from any family members who are abusing your credit as well.

Further Info

A lender is not necessarily expected to by law give you a lengthy reason why they denied you credit. However, they may tell you the answers if you ask them. They may also let you know whether a computerized or manual calculation was used to figure out your score.

Some Advice

One suggestion to borrowers and consumers is to have your credit report checked at least once a year. If you can afford to have it monitored on a regular basis this is even better.

It helps keep your files error free and safeguards you from consequences of identity theft. By the way, if you have errors on your credit report it would be best to place an alert on you files/dispute the mistake as soon as you notice it.