Free Credit Report Rule Amendment (Credit CARD Act of 2009)
The Free Credit Report Rule pertains to the ruling that individuals were entitled to receive one free copy of their credit report per year. This was originally decided upon as of 2003.
Further legislation regarding this has recently followed. One major change is that of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which fights against deceptive so-called “free credit report” marketing tactics.
The purpose of this law was to help stop companies from offering what they say is a free credit report. However, what ends up happening is people end up paying for a monthly credit monitoring service or they end up being automatically billed before they can even cancel the free trial.
As a result of the CARD Act of 2009, this new Free Credit Report Rule as of April 2, 2010 now allows people to get their free credit report. By federal law people are required to get it before they even have to sign up for other services.
Along with that, the only website that is authorized by federal law to offer free credit reports is Annual Credit Report.com. Any company who is selling credit monitoring services must refer clients to the Annual Credit Report.com where they can get their free credit report.
Purpose of Amendments
The main goal of the CARD Act of 2009 is to help make it easier for people to receive their free credit report per authorization determined by previous legislation. This new amendment has helped address issues that the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) had not.
The CARD Act also helped clarify and define ways to re-enforce the distribution of the availability of consumer financial records. This was done to help individuals who want to protect themselves from identity theft and take control of their financial future.
Additional CARD Act legislation includes the following:
- Cardholders must be given 45 days notice of an interest rate increases.