[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5445 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5445
To provide clarification relating to credit monitoring services.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 22, 2006
Mr. Price of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Bachus, and Mr. Scott of
Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide clarification relating to credit monitoring services.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Credit Repair Organizations Act
Technical Corrections Act''.
SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION RELATING TO CREDIT MONITORING SERVICES.
(a) In General.--Section 403 of the Credit Repair Organizations Act
(15 U.S.C. 1679a) is amended--
(1) by striking ``For purposes of this title'' and
inserting ``(a) In General.--For purposes of this title''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(b) Clarification With Respect to Certain Credit Monitoring
Services Under Certain Circumstances.--
``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2)--
``(A) the provision of, or provision of access to,
credit reports, credit monitoring notifications, credit
scores and scoring algorithms, and other credit score-
related tools to a consumer (including generation of
projections and forecasts of such consumer's potential
credit scores under various prospective trends or
hypothetical or alternative scenarios);
``(B) any analysis, evaluation, and explanation of
such actual or hypothetical credit scores, or any
similar projections, forecasts, analyses, evaluations
or explanations; or
``(C) in conjunction with offering any of the
services described in subparagraph (A) or B, the
provision of materials or services to assist a consumer
who is a victim of identity theft,
shall not be treated as activities described in clause (i) of
subsection (a)(3)(A).
``(2) Conditions for application of paragraph (1).--
Paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to any person engaging
in any activity described in such paragraph only if--
``(A) the person does not represent, expressly or
by implication, that such person--
``(i) will or can modify or remove, or
assist the consumer in modifying or removing,
adverse information that is accurate and not
obsolete in the consumer's credit report; or
``(ii) will or can alter, or assist the
consumer in altering, the consumer's
identification to prevent the display of the
consumer's credit record, history, or rating
for the purpose of concealing adverse
information that is accurate and not obsolete;
``(B) in any case in which the person represents,
expressly or by implication, that it will or can modify
or remove, or assist the consumer in modifying or
removing, any information in the consumer's credit
report, except for a representation with respect to any
requirement imposed on the person under section 611 or
623(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the person
discloses, clearly and conspicuously, before the
consumer pays or agrees to pay any money or other
valuable consideration to such person, whichever occurs
first, the following statement:
`NOTICE: Neither you nor anyone
else has the right to have accurate and
current information removed from your
credit report. If information in your
report is inaccurate, you have the
right to dispute it by contacting the
credit bureau directly.'.
``(C) the person provides the consumer in writing
with the following statement before any contract or
agreement between the consumer and the person is
executed:
`Your Rights Concerning Your
Consumer Credit File
`You have a right to obtain a free
copy of your credit report once every
12 months from each of the nationwide
consumer reporting agencies. To request
your free annual credit
report, you may go to
www.annualcreditreport.com, or call
877-322-8228, or complete the Annual
Credit Report Request Form and mail it
to: Annual Credit Report Request
Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA
30348-5281. You can obtain additional
copies of your credit report from a
credit bureau, for which 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 the right to cancel your
contract with a credit monitoring
service without fee or penalty at any
time, and in the case in which you have
prepaid for a credit monitoring
service, you are entitled to a pro rata
refund for the remaining term of the
credit monitoring service.
`The Federal Trade Commission
regulates credit bureaus and credit
monitoring services. For more
information contact:
`Federal Trade Commission
`Washington, D.C. 20580
`1-877-FTC-HELP
`www.ftc.gov'.
``(D) in any case in which the person offers a
subscription to a credit file monitoring program to a
consumer, the consumer may cancel the subscription at
any time upon written notice to the person without
penalty or fee for such cancellation and, in any case
in which the consumer is billed for the subscription on
other than a monthly basis, within 60 days of receipt
of the consumer's notice of cancellation, the person
shall make a pro rata refund to the consumer of a
subscription fee prepaid by the consumer, calculated
from the date that the person receives the consumer's
notice of cancellation until the end of the
subscription period.''.
(b) Clarification of Nonexempt Status.--Section 403(a) of the
Credit Repair Organizations Act (15 U.S.C. 1679a) (as so redesignated
by subsection (a) of this section) is amended by striking clause (i) of
paragraph (3)(B) and inserting the following new clause:
``(i) any organization that is not for its
own profit or for that of its members;''.
(c) Revision of Disclosure Requirement.--Section 405(a) of the
Credit Repair Organizations Act (15 U.S.C. 1679c) is amended by
striking everything after the heading of the disclosure statement
contained in such section and inserting the following new text of the
disclosure statement:
``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 free copy of your credit
report once every 12 months from each of the nationwide
consumer reporting agencies. To request your free annual credit
report, you may go to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call 877-
322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and
mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box
105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can obtain additional
copies of your credit report from a credit bureau, for which
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 incomplete information. The credit bureau
may not charge any fee for this service. Any pertinent
information and copies of all documents you have concerning an
error should be given to the credit bureau.
``If the credit bureau's reinvestigation does not resolve
the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief
statement to the credit bureau, to be kept in your file,
explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The credit
bureau must include a summary of your statement about disputed
information with any report it issues about you.
``The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit bureaus and
credit repair organizations. For more information contact:
``Federal Trade Commission
``Washington, D.C. 20580
``1-877-FTC-HELP
``(877 382-4357)
``www.ftc.gov''.
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