The Fair Credit Reporting Act: What You Need to Know

This legislation helps maintain fair practices for credit reporting, while offering privacy protections for consumers.

Why You Can Trust CNET Money

Laura Leavitt is a personal finance and wellness writer for CNET. Her work has been published at NextAdvisor, Bankrate, The Simple Dollar, MoneyGeek, Business Insider, and more.

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid.

Laura Leavitt is a personal finance and wellness writer for CNET. Her work has been published at NextAdvisor, Bankrate, The Simple Dollar, MoneyGeek, Business Insider, and more.

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid.

Why You Can Trust CNET Money

• How the Fair Credit Reporting Act works
• What do credit reporting agencies do?
• How the FCRA protects you
• FAQs

Laura Leavitt is a personal finance and wellness writer for CNET. Her work has been published at NextAdvisor, Bankrate, The Simple Dollar, MoneyGeek, Business Insider, and more.

CNET editors independently choose every product and service we cover. Though we can’t review every available financial company or offer, we strive to make comprehensive, rigorous comparisons in order to highlight the best of them. For many of these products and services, we earn a commission. The compensation we receive may impact how products and links appear on our site.