[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3518 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  2d Session
                                S. 3518

    To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new 
                         disclosure statement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 15, 2006

  Mr. Bennett introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new 
                         disclosure statement.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION. 1. REVISION OF DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.

    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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