Consumer rights
Every right on this page is already yours, and exercising it is free.
This is the page a credit repair company has the least commercial reason to write well, which is exactly why it is worth reading. The statutory disclosure below is reproduced in the form the law prescribes.
Statutory disclosure
Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law
You have a right to dispute inaccurate information in your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly. However, neither you nor any credit repair company or credit repair organization has the right to have accurate, current, and verifiable information removed from your credit report. The credit bureau must remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over 7 years old. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years.
You have a right to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. You may be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, however, if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days. The credit bureau must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report if you are unemployed and intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due to fraud.
You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act. This law prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations.
You have the right to cancel your contract with any credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business days from the date you signed it.
Credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable procedures to ensure that the information they report is accurate. However, mistakes may occur.
You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau in writing that you dispute the accuracy of information in your credit file. The credit bureau must then reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate or unverified information, usually within 30 days unless you have additional information. The credit bureau may continue to report information it has verified as accurate.
You are entitled to receive a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. You may be charged a reasonable fee. However, you are entitled to a free credit report if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days.
The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus and credit repair organizations. For more information contact:
The Public Reference Branch
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, D.C. 20580
This is the disclosure statement required by the Credit Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. §1679c(a). It is reproduced here in the form the statute prescribes and is provided to every client in writing, separately, before any contract is signed.
Credit Repair Organizations Act · 15 U.S.C. §1679
What CROA requires of a company like ours.
These are obligations on us, not favours from us. Each one is a thing you can check before you sign anything, with any company.
No advance fees
No money may be charged or received before the promised services are fully performed.
A written contract
Signed and dated, describing the services, the total cost, the payment terms and how long performance will take.
The statutory disclosure
The "Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law" statement, in a separate document, before any contract is signed.
Three business days to cancel
Without penalty and without a reason, using a Notice of Cancellation form supplied in duplicate with the contract.
No untrue or misleading statements
To you, to a bureau, or to a creditor — including any statement about what a credit repair organisation can do to your file.
A right to sue
Any waiver of a CROA right is void. A consumer may sue for actual damages, punitive damages, costs and attorney fees.
Required notice
Your three-day right to cancel
You may cancel your contract with Uptick Credit, without penalty or obligation, at any time before midnight of the third business day after the date on which you signed it.
Your written contract carries a separate Notice of Cancellation form, in duplicate, printed in the same type size as the contract itself. You do not have to give a reason. You do not have to use our form — any written notice delivered to us by the deadline is sufficient. Nothing is charged.
Credit Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. §1679e.
Required notice
No fee before the work is done
No money is charged or received before the promised services have been fully performed. There is no setup fee, no retainer, no deposit and no “file audit” charge at Uptick Credit.
You are billed for a cycle of work after that cycle is complete, and you may stop at any time without owing anything for work not yet performed. A company that asks you for money before it has done anything is breaking federal law, and that is reason enough to walk away from it.
Credit Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. §1679b(b).
Fair Credit Reporting Act · 15 U.S.C. §1681
What you may require of a credit bureau.
Eight of these come up constantly. All of them are exercisable by you, in writing, without a fee and without our involvement.
- §1681g
You may see your file
A consumer reporting agency must disclose everything in your file to you on request, including the sources of the information and, in most cases, who has requested it.
- §1681j(a)
One free report from each bureau every 12 months
Requested through annualcreditreport.com, the only federally authorised source. Additional free reports are available if you are unemployed and job-hunting, on public assistance, or believe your file contains fraud.
- §1681i
A free reinvestigation of anything you dispute
Generally completed within 30 days of receipt, extended to 45 if you supply additional relevant information during the initial 30. If the agency does not complete it in time, it must delete the item.
- §1681i(a)(7)
The method of verification
Within 15 days of a reinvestigation result you may request a description of the procedure used to determine the accuracy of the item, including the business name and address of any furnisher contacted.
- §1681i(a)(5)(B)
Deleted items may not simply reappear
Information removed after a dispute may not be reinserted unless the furnisher certifies it is complete and accurate, and the agency must notify you in writing within five business days if it is.
- §1681c
Adverse information falls off
Most negative information may not be reported after seven years; Chapter 7 bankruptcy after ten. The clock runs from the original delinquency, and moving that date forward is unlawful.
- §1681m
Adverse action notice
If you are denied credit, insurance or employment because of a report, the person who denied you must tell you and name the agency that supplied it — and you may then get that report free within 60 days.
- §1681c-1
Free fraud alerts and security freezes
You may place a fraud alert, and since 2018 a security freeze and its lifting are free at all three nationwide bureaus.
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act · 15 U.S.C. §1692
What you may require of a debt collector.
These apply to third-party collectors, not usually to the original creditor. They are the most under-used rights on this page.
- §1692g
Written validation of a debt
Within five days of first contacting you, a debt collector must send written notice of the amount, the creditor, and your right to dispute. If you dispute in writing within 30 days, collection must cease until validation is provided.
- §1692c
Limits on when and how you are contacted
No calls before 8am or after 9pm, none at work once you have said your employer prohibits it, and none at all once you have told the collector in writing to stop — except to say what happens next.
- §1692d–e
No harassment and no false statements
A collector may not threaten action it cannot legally take, misrepresent the amount, or imply it is an attorney or a government body when it is not.
- §1692k
You may sue
A collector that violates the Act is liable for actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000, and costs and reasonable attorney fees.
If something goes wrong
Where to complain, including about us.
A credit repair company that tells you where to report it is a company that expects not to be reported. Use these regardless of who the problem is with.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — complaints about credit bureaus, furnishers, debt collectors and credit repair companies. consumerfinance.gov/complaint
- Federal Trade Commission — the regulator named in the statutory disclosure above. reportfraud.ftc.gov
- Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — state-level complaints about credit service organisations.
- Your free reports, from the only federally authorised source. annualcreditreport.com