Specialty Consumer Reports - The Basics
What is a Specialty Consumer Report?
In addition to your credit report, another type of important report available to others about you is known as a "specialty consumer report". A specialty consumer report is a non-credit report compiled for decision-making processes that includes information such as certain medical treatments or diagnosis, insurance claims, residential or tenant history, deposit account and check writing history, criminal background, employment history, etc. These reports are culled from the thousands of public records databases nationwide that contain vast amounts of information about every American consumer, and may also be compiled from information reported about a consumer to a database network shared and utilized by organizations that are members of that information network.
Specialty consumer report companies make millions of dollars in revenue each year by compiling and selling reports on American consumers to others for use in decision processes such as employment screening, rental applications, insurance underwriting, and a host of other situations in which detailed background information on the applicant is used to make a final decision.
As an informed consumer, you should annually request and carefully review a copy of the reports compiled by these companies. If the information contained in these reports is inaccurate, it may cost you a great deal of time and frustration, expense in the form of higher premiums, or result in the denial of an application for rental housing, insurance, or employment. Reviewing these reports can also assist you in detecting unauthorized or fraudulent activity resulting from the actions of an identity thief, by exposing activity that would not normally be discovered through other means, such as through a credit report.
Your Right to Request a Free Annual Copy of Specialty Consumer Reports under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), you are entitled to receive a free annual copy of your specialty consumer reports, produced by data warehouse giants such as ChoicePoint and Lexis-Nexis, as well as by a wide variety of other companies.
Note: Similar to the free annual credit file disclosure, free copies of specialty consumer reports are available every 12 months, rather than on a calendar year basis.
Specialty consumer reporting companies and specialty consumer reports are covered under the provisions of the FACTA amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Because of this, in addition to your right to request a free copy of your specialty consumer reports once every 12 months, you also have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information that appears in these reports. The process is similar to disputing information that appears in a consumer credit report, though actual procedures for filing a dispute may vary somewhat between companies. If you are a victim of fraud or Identity Theft, you may also be entitled to file a fraud alert and/or a Consumer Statement with many of these specialty consumer reporting companies.
Though FACTA entitles consumers to a free copy of these reports, there are a great many companies that compile and sell these types of reports and most consumers are completely unaware of their existence. These companies do not always identify themselves or their activities to the general public, and the process of discovering who these companies are and how to request a copy of their report can be difficult at best.
How Can I Obtain Copies of My Specialty Consumer Reports?
Use the page links below to learn about many of the various types of specialty consumer reports, identify many of the major specialty consumer reporting companies that produce them, the impact that their reports may have on you, and instructions for requesting your free annual copies of these reports.
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