[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3662 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3662

    To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new 
             disclosure statement, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 14, 2006

  Mr. Bennett (for himself and Mr. Johnson) 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, and for other purposes.

    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 Monitoring Enhancement Act of 
2006''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION RELATING TO CREDIT MONITORING.

    (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) the following 
        shall not be treated as activities described in clause (i) of 
        subsection (a)(3)(A):
                    ``(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 potential credit scores of 
                such consumer 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.
                    ``(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.
            ``(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 credit report of the consumer; 
                        or
                            ``(ii) will or can alter, or assist the 
                        consumer in altering, the identification of the 
                        consumer to prevent the display of the credit 
                        record, history, or rating of the consumer 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 the person will or 
                can modify or remove, or assist the consumer in 
                modifying or removing, any information in the credit 
                report of the consumer, 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.'; and
                    ``(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 notice of cancellation by the consumer, 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 notice of 
                cancellation from the consumer 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)) is amended, in paragraph (3)(B)(i), by inserting 
``and is not for its own profit or for that of its members'' before the 
semicolon at the end.
    (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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