FCRA section 623: duties of creditors and collectors

Section 623 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, at 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2, sets duties for the companies that send information to the bureaus, called furnishers. These include lenders, card issuers, and debt collectors.

The main points

• Accuracy. A furnisher must not report information it knows or has reasonable cause to believe is inaccurate.
• Correcting errors. A furnisher that finds it reported something wrong must correct it and tell the bureaus.
• Reporting a dispute. If you dispute information directly with a furnisher, it may not keep reporting it without noting that you dispute it.
• Date of first delinquency. A furnisher that reports a delinquent account must report the date it began, so the reporting period can be counted.
• Direct disputes. Section 623(a)(8) and Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43, let you dispute directly with a furnisher in certain cases.
• After a bureau forwards a dispute. A furnisher must investigate, review the information the bureau sends, and report back. If the information is inaccurate, it must correct it with every bureau it reported to.

What to take from it

A furnisher has its own legal duties. When a bureau dispute does not fix the problem, a direct dispute can. See how to dispute directly with the creditor or collector.

Related

• Section 611: what bureaus must do
• Section 605: reporting periods that begin with the date of first delinquency

Sources

• Cornell LII: 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2 (responsibilities of furnishers)
• Cornell LII: 12 CFR 1022.43 (direct disputes)

Next steps

• How to dispute directly with the creditor or collector

  You can dispute credit report errors directly with the creditor or collector that reported them. Where to send it, what to include, and what they must do.

• FCRA section 611: how disputes are investigated

  FCRA section 611 (15 U.S.C. 1681i) sets the dispute process: 30 days, furnisher notice, results, reinsertion, method of verification. Plain English.

• The Fair Credit Reporting Act, section by section

  The five FCRA sections that matter for disputes (605, 605B, 609, 611, 623) in plain English, with the U.S. Code citation and a link to the official text.