CDIA Member Companies

FTC Says Creditors Must Reinvestigage Disputes from Resellers

In a letter to First American Real Estates Solutions (FARES) dated July 23, the Federal Trade Commission stated that creditor and other information providers must reinvestigate consumer disputes regardless of whether a reseller or credit reporting repository provided the information. "...the Commission wishes to use this opportunity to clarify its interpretation of section 623(b)of the FCRA. The Commission believes that section 623 requires that a creditor or other information provider that receives a notice of dispute from a reseller must investigate the item or items in dispute just as it must investigate a notice of dispute from one of the repositories. Therefore, creditors and other information providers should be investigating notices of disputes submitted by FARES."

The full text of the letter can be found at FTC Letter.  CDIA recommends that all creditors and other companies which provide information to consumer reporting agencies bring this important information to the attention of their legal counsel and compliance officers.

 Please understand that this is not a staff opinion letter, this is actually from the Commission and is considered binding.

CDIA further recommends that creditors and other data furnishers use the Automated Consumer Dispute Verification (ACDV) process to answer disputes from FARES and other companies.

For more information, see
• ACDV Information