Consumer Rights and Regulation

Debt Collection Rule means the CFPB rule framework that clarifies and implements federal FDCPA debt-collection requirements.

Debt collector means a person or company that regularly collects past-due debts owed to others.

Limited-content message means a Debt Collection Rule voicemail that gives only limited callback information without describing the debt.

Right-party contact means a collector has reached the consumer or authorized person connected to the debt rather than an unrelated third party.

Prescreened credit card offer means a card offer sent after softer screening of credit-report criteria rather than a full final application review.

Cease communication means a consumer directs a collector to stop most further collection contact.

Copy of a consumer's own reported information provided by a reporting agency for review, monitoring, and dispute purposes.

Reporting file covered by consumer-reporting law, including credit reports and some other decision-use records.

Federal reporting and collection rules readers hit in disputes, file access questions, and debt contact.

Consumer statement means a short note a consumer may add to a credit file to explain a disputed, unusual, or contextual situation.

Collector-verification process that gives a consumer enough information to understand and assess a claimed debt.

Direct dispute means a challenge sent to the furnisher of credit information rather than only to the credit bureau.

Outcome of a credit-report dispute showing whether challenged information was changed, removed, or left as reported.

Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) is the main federal law prohibiting certain kinds of discrimination in consumer credit decisions.

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the main federal law governing consumer credit-reporting accuracy, access, and dispute rights.

Main federal law governing how many third-party debt collectors may contact and pursue consumers.

No-cost access to a consumer's credit-report information through eligible channels provided under reporting rules.

Furnisher means a company or organization that supplies consumer credit information to a credit bureau.

Reporting life of certain negative credit items before they should age off a consumer report under reporting rules.

Permissible purpose means a legally valid reason for a company or institution to access a consumer credit report.

Prescreen opt-out means choosing not to receive many prescreened credit or insurance offers based on softer file-review screening.

Prescreened offer means a credit or card offer sent after a softer preselection process rather than a full application approval review.

Reinvestigation means the bureau's review of disputed credit-report information to determine whether it should stay, change, or be removed.

Inaccurate, incomplete, or wrongly attributed information appearing on a credit report.

Notice telling a consumer that credit terms were set using report information and may be less favorable than those offered to stronger borrowers.

Credit-score information provided to a consumer, often including the score, score range, date, and key score factors.

Consumer reporting company that focuses on a narrower data category than the big credit bureaus, such as tenant, employment, or check-writing history.

Specialty consumer report used in rental decisions, often combining rental-history, credit, and background information.

Validation notice means the collector's written notice identifying the debt and explaining the consumer's basic validation-related rights.