Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is designed to promote accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every "consumer reporting agency" (CRA). Most CRAs are credit bureaus that gather and sell information about you-such as if you pay your bills on time or have filed bankruptcy-to creditors, employers, landlords, and other businesses. While TransUnion Interactive, Inc. is not a CRA, our parent company TransUnion, LLC is a CRA. You can find the complete text of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681-1681u, at the Federal Trade Commission's web site. The FCRA gives you specific rights, as outlined below. You may have additional rights under state law. You may contact a state or local consumer protection agency or a state attorney general to learn those rights.

You must be told if information in your file has been used against you.
Anyone who uses information from a CRA to take action against you-such as denying an application for credit, insurance or employment-must tell you, and give you the name, address, and phone number of the CRA that provided the consumer report.

You can find out what is in your file.
At your request, a CRA must give you the information in your file, and a list of everyone who has requested it recently. There is no charge for the report if a person has taken action against you because of information supplied by the CRA, if you request the report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. You also are entitled to one free report every twelve months if you certify that (1) you are unemployed and plan to seek employment within 60 days, (2) you are on welfare, (3) your report is inaccurate due to fraud, or (4) you reside in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Vermont. Otherwise, a CRA may charge you up to nine dollars.

You can dispute inaccurate information with the CRA.
If you tell a CRA that your file contains inaccurate information, the CRA must investigate the items (usually within 30 days) by presenting to its information source all relevant evidence you submit, unless your dispute is frivolous. The source must review your evidence and report its finding to the CRA. (The source also must advise national CRAs-to which it has provided data-of any error.) The CRA must give you a written report of the investigation, and a copy of your report if the investigation results in any change. If the CRA's investigation does not resolve the dispute, you may add a brief statement to your file. The CRA must normally include a summary of your statement in future reports. If an item is deleted or a dispute statement is filed, you may ask that anyone who has recently received your report may be notified of the change.

Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted.
A CRA must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information from its files, usually within 30 days after you dispute it. However, the CRA is not required to remove accurate data from your file unless it is outdated (as described below) or cannot be verified. If your dispute results in any change to your report, the CRA cannot reinsert into your file a disputed item unless the information source verifies its accuracy and completeness. In addition, the CRA must give you a written notice telling you it has reinserted the item. The notice must include the name, address and phone number of the information source.

You can dispute inaccurate items with the source of the information.
If you tell anyone-such as a creditor who reports to a CRA-that you dispute an item, they may not then report the information to a CRA without including a notice of your dispute. In addition, once you've notified the source of the error in writing, it may not continue to report the information if it is, in fact, an error.

Outdated information may not be reported.
In most cases, a CRA may not report negative information that is more than seven years old; ten years for bankruptcies.

Access to your file is limited.
A CRA may provide information about you only to people with a need recognized by the FCRA-usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business.

Your consent is required for reports that are provided to employers, or reports that contain medical information.
A CRA may not give out information about you to your employer, or prospective employer, without your written consent. A CRA may not report medical information about you to creditors, insurers, or employers without your permission.

You may choose to exclude your name from CRA lists for unsolicited credit and insurance offers.
Creditors and insurers may use file information as the basis for sending you unsolicited offers of credit or insurance. Such offers must include a toll-free phone number for you to call if you want your name and address removed from future lists. If you call, you must be kept off the lists for two years. If you request, complete, and return the CRA form provided for this purpose, you must be taken off the lists indefinitely.

You may seek damages from violators of the FCRA.
If a CRA, a user or (in some cases) a provider of CRA data, violates the FCRA, you may sue them in state or federal court.

California Residents
You have the right to obtain a copy of your credit file from a consumer reporting agency. You also have the right to receive a credit score developed by the reporting agency. You may be charged a reasonable fee not exceeding eight dollars ($8) for the credit file, and a reasonable fee for the credit score. There is no fee for the credit file, however, if you have been turned down for credit, employment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of information in your credit report within the preceding 60 days. The consumer reporting agency must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file.

You have the right to dispute inaccurate information by contacting the consumer reporting agency directly. However, neither you nor any credit repair company or credit service organization has the right to have accurate, current and verifiable information removed from your credit report. Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer credit reporting agency must remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over seven years old. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years.

If you have notified a consumer reporting agency in writing that you dispute the accuracy of the information in your file, the consumer credit reporting agency must then, within 30 business days, reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate information. The consumer credit reporting agency may not charge a fee for this service. Any pertinent information and copies of all documents you have concerning an error should be given to the consumer reporting agency.

If reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may send a brief statement to the consumer reporting agency to keep in your file, explaining why you think the record is inaccurate. The consumer reporting agency must include your statement about disputed information in a report it issues about you.

You have a right to receive a record of all inquiries relating to a credit transaction initiated in 12 months preceding your request. This record shall include the recipients of any consumer report. You may request in writing that the information contained in your file not be provided to a third party for marketing purposes.

You have the right to place a security alert in your credit report, which will warn anyone who receives information in your credit report that your identity may have been used without your consent and that recipients of your credit report are advised, but not required, to verify your identity prior to issuing credit. The security alert may prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. The security alert may delay or interfere with the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your credit information such as a new loan, credit, mortgage, insurance, rental housing, employment, investment, license, cellular phone, utilities, digital signature, Internet credit card transaction, and an extension of credit at point of sale. The security alert will remain on your credit report for 12 months. You have the right to obtain a free copy of your credit report every 90 days while the security alert is in effect. A security alert may be requested by calling TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Department Phone: 800-680-7289, Equifax Credit Information Services Consumer Fraud Division Phone: 800-525-6285, Experian National Consumer Assistance Phone: 888-397-3742 or it may be requested in writing by sending a request to:

• TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Department
  P.O. Box 6790
  Fullerton, CA 92834 Fax: 714-447-6034


• Equifax Credit Information Services
  Consumer Fraud Division
  P.O. Box 105069
  Atlanta, GA 30348


• Experian
  Experian's National Consumer Assistance
  P.O. Box 1017
  Allen, TX 75013

You have the right to place a security freeze on your credit report, which will prohibit a consumer credit reporting agency from releasing any information in your credit report without your express authorization. A security freeze must be requested in writing. A security freeze may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your credit report such as a new loan, credit, mortgage, insurance, rental housing, employment, investment, license, cellular phone, utilities, digital signature, Internet credit card transaction, and an extension of credit at point of sale. When you place a security freeze on your credit report, you will be provided a personal identifier to use if you choose to remove the freeze or authorize the release of your credit report. To provide that authorization you must contact the consumer credit reporting agency and provide all of the following:

1. The personal identifier
2. Proper identification to verify your identity
3. The period of time for which your credit report shall be available and, if you choose, the proper information regarding the third party who is to receive your credit report
   A consumer credit reporting agency must authorize the release of your credit report no later than three business days after receiving the above information.

A security freeze does not apply to a person or entity, or its affiliates, or collection agencies acting on behalf of the person or entity, with which you have an existing account, that requests information in your credit report for the purposes of reviewing or collecting the account. Reviewing the account includes activities related to account maintenance, monitoring, credit line increases, and account upgrades and enhancements.

A consumer credit reporting agency may charge a reasonable fee to a consumer who elects to freeze, remove the freeze or temporarily lift the freeze regarding access to a consumer credit report unless the consumer is a victim of identity theft who has submitted the appropriate substantiating proof to the consumer credit reporting agency.

1. If you are a victim of identity theft and provide to a consumer credit reporting agency a copy of a valid police report or a valid investigative report made by a Department of Motor Vehicles investigator with peace officer status describing your circumstances, the following shall apply:
   You have a right to have any information you list on the report as allegedly fraudulent promptly blocked so that the information cannot be reported. The information will be unblocked only if
1. The information you provide is a material misrepresentation of the facts,
2. You agree that the information is blocked in error, or
3. You knowingly obtained possession of goods, services, or moneys as a result of the blocked transactions. If blocked information is unblocked, you will be promptly notified.
2. Beginning July 1, 2003 you have a right to receive, free of charge and upon request, one copy of your credit report each month for up to 12 consecutive months.

Colorado Residents
If a CRA investigates the information in your report at your request, you will receive an updated credit report, and another copy of this notice, to indicate that the investigation is completed. The results of the investigation will be shown in that report. In addition to all the other rights listed, you may bring an action to enforce any obligation imposed on the CRA under Colorado Law in any court of competent jurisdiction or submitted to binding arbitration, after you have followed all dispute procedures in the Colorado law and have received this notice, in the manner set forth in the rules of the American Arbitration Association to determine whether the CRA has met its obligations under law. No decision of an arbitrator pursuant to this provision shall affect the validity of any obligation or debt. A successful party to any such arbitration shall be compensated for the costs and attorney fees of the proceeding as determined by the court or arbitration. No consumer may submit more than one action to arbitration against any consumer reporting agency during any 120 day period. The results of any arbitration action brought against a consumer reporting agency doing business in this state shall be communicated in a timely manner to all other consumer reporting agencies doing business in this state. If, as a result of an arbitration a determination is made in favor of the consumer, any adverse information in such consumer's file or record shall be removed or stricken in a timely manner, or the consumer may bring an action against the non-complying agency pursuant to this section, in spite of the 120 day waiting period. In addition to the rights discussed above, you also have a right to receive a credit score developed by the consumer reporting agency.

Connecticut Residents
In addition to the rights above: You may be charged a reasonable fee for a copy of your credit report not exceeding $5.00 for your first request in 12 months or $7.50 for any subsequent request in the same 12 month period. The credit reporting agency must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. If you make a dispute to the credit reporting agency and if you provide additional information to the credit reporting agency, the agency may extend the time it has to investigate your dispute by 15 business days. The credit reporting agency shall provide you with a toll-free telephone number to use in resolving the dispute. If you have reviewed your credit report with the credit reporting agency and are dissatisfied, you may contact the Connecticut department of banking. You have a right to bring a civil action against anyone who knowingly or willfully misuses file data or improperly obtains access to your file.

Maryland Residents
Your Commissioner of Financial Regulations is Mary Louise Preis. In the event you wish to file a complaint, please write or call the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation, Complaint Unit, 500 N. Calvert St., Suite 402, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. The telephone number is 410-230-6097. In addition to the rights above, you are entitled to request a copy of your file free of charge one time in a twelve-month period and thereafter for a $5 charge each time.

Massachusetts Residents
If a CRA investigates the information in your report at your request, you will receive an updated credit report, and another copy of this notice, to indicate that the investigation is completed. The results of the investigation will be shown in that report. In addition to all the other rights listed, you have the right to one free report upon request each calendar year. You have the right to deny permission for a CRA to include your name on mailing lists by writing the address listed above under "Mailing Preference" or by calling 1-888-567-8688.

Texas Residents
As of September 1, 2003 you have the right to place a security alert in your consumer file, which will warn anyone who receives information in your consumer file that your identity may have been used without your consent and that recipients of your consumer file information are advised to verify your identity prior to issuing credit. The security alert may prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. The security alert may delay or interfere with the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your credit information such as a new loan, credit, mortgage, insurance, rental housing, employment, investment, license, cellular phone, utilities, digital signature, Internet credit card transaction, and an extension of credit at point of sale. The security alert will remain on your consumer file for not less than 45 days after the date the security alert is placed on your file. You have the right to obtain a free copy of your consumer file every 45 days while the security alert is in effect. A security alert may be requested by calling:

• TransUnion
  Fraud Victim Assistance Department Phone: 800-680-7289
  Equifax Credit Information Services
  Consumer Fraud Division Phone: 800-525-6285
• Experian
  Experian's National Consumer Assistance Phone: 888-397-3742

Or, it may be requested in writing by sending a request to

• TransUnion
  Fraud Victim Assistance Department
  P.O. Box 6790
  Fullerton, CA 92834 Fax: 714-447-6034
• Equifax Credit Information Services
  Consumer Fraud Division
  P.O. Box 105069
  Atlanta, GA 30348
• Experian
  Experian's National Consumer Assistance
  P.O. Box 1017
  Allen, TX 75013

As of September 1, 2003 you have the right to place a security freeze on your consumer file, which will prohibit a consumer credit reporting agency from releasing any information in your consumer file without your express authorization. However your consumer file can be released without your express authorization if the intended use is one of those specified by Texas law as being exempt from security freezes. A security freeze must be requested in writing. A security freeze may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your consumer file such as a new loan, credit, mortgage, insurance, rental housing, employment, investment, license, cellular phone, utilities, digital signature, Internet credit card transaction, and an extension of credit at point of sale. When you place a security freeze on your consumer file, you will be provided a personal identifier to use if you choose to remove the freeze or authorize the release of your consumer file. To provide that authorization you must contact the consumer credit reporting agency and provide all of the following:

1. The personal identifier
2. Proper identification to verify your identity
3. The period of time for which your consumer file shall be available and/or the proper information regarding the third party who is to receive your consumer file.

As of September 1, 2003 a consumer reporting agency may charge a Texas consumer a fee not to exceed $8.00 for placing a security freeze on his or her consumer file. On January 1 of each year beginning in 2004, the security freeze fee may be increased. The increase, if any, must be based proportionally on changes to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers as determined by the United States Department of Labor with fractional changes rounded to the nearest 50 cents.