If you are concerned about the credit card interest rates you
are being offered, or any other terms or conditions that you
feel are unfair or less favourable than those to which you are
entitled to, you may wish to familiarise yourself with the Fair
Credit Reporting Act or FCRA as it is abbreviated. This law is
primarily aimed at ensuring that people's credit reports are
kept accurate and up to date, as well as protecting your privacy
in financial matters such as these. It is governed and enforced
by the Federal Trade Commission, which, takes on the role of
protecting consumers at a federal level.
Therefore if you feel that you are being cheated or there is
something afoul with the credit card interest rates you are
being offered, you may wish to get into contact with the Federal
Trade Commission to see what exactly your rights are in this
regard. You should always make a point of understanding and
being up to date with these rights whenever you are negotiating
for new credit, or an improvement in the terms of your existing
credit, since such knowledge and information will improve your
bargaining position and will help ensure that you are not taken
advantage of by the big credit providers and banks that you will
be dealing with.
With regard to your credit report, there is a free disclosure
rule in the Accurate Credit Transactions Act that gives you a
right to view your credit report for free. This right applies to
the credit reports compiled by each of the three nation wide
consumer credit reporting companies that operate on a national
basis. There is a web site and phone number that you can use to
get access to all three reports at the same time.
-
www.annualcreditreport.com is the website
- 1-877-322-8228 is the phone number.
- You may mail a request to Annual Credit Report Request
Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA, 30348-5281.
The companies must provide you with a copy of your report, free
of charge, at least every 12 months and you can then ensure that
all of the information contained in it is accurate and up to
date. You may then be able to use this information to protect
your right to receive the best possible credit card interest
rate offers that you are entitled to. Simply ensuring that your
credit report is accurate and being aware of your rights can
significantly improve your access to the best credit card
interest rates on the market so make sure you keep on top of
these issues if you are considering applying for new credit in
the near future.
About the author:
Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gb For additional
articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit
cards, please visit us at
http://www.creditcards-gb.
co.uk and
http://www.creditcards2go4.
com
