Fair Credit Reporting Act - Information Furnishers

Information Furnishers

An information furnisher, as defined by the FCRA, is a company that provides information to consumer reporting agencies. Typically, these are creditors, with which a consumer has some sort of credit agreement (credit card companies, auto finance companies and mortgage banking institutions, to name a few). However, other examples of information furnishers are collection agencies (third-party collectors), state or municipal courts reporting a judgment of some kind, past and present employers and bonders. Under the FCRA, these information furnishers may only report to a consumer's credit report under the following guidelines:

Lenders have an important role to play in ensuring credit reports are accurate:

1. They must provide complete and accurate information to the credit reporting agencies.
2. The duty to investigate disputed information from consumers falls on them, and they must correct an error, or explain why the credit report is correct within 30 days of receipt of notice of a dispute.
3. They must inform consumers about negative information which has been or is about to be placed on a consumer's credit report within 30 days.

(This notice doesn't have to be sent as a separate notice, but may be placed on a consumer's monthly statement. If sent as part as the monthly statement, it needs to be conspicuous, but need not be in bold type. Required wording (developed by the US Federal Treasury Department):

Notice before negative information is reported: We may report information about your account to credit bureaus. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report.

Notice after negative information is reported: We have told a credit bureau about a late payment, missed payment or other default on your account. This information may be reflected in your credit report.)