Your Credit File Rights

Effective 2026-08-08

Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law

You have a right to dispute inaccurate information in your credit report by contacting the credit bureau directly. However, neither you nor any credit repair company or credit repair organization has the right to have accurate, current, and verifiable information removed from your credit report. The credit bureau must remove accurate, negative information from your report only if it is over 7 years old. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years.

You have a right to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. You may be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, 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 credit bureau must provide someone to help you interpret the information in your credit file. You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report if you are unemployed and intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate information in your credit report due to fraud.

You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act. This law prohibits deceptive practices by credit repair organizations.

You have the right to cancel your contract with any credit repair organization for any reason within 3 business days from the date you signed it.

Credit bureaus are required to follow reasonable procedures to ensure that the information they report is accurate. However, mistakes may occur.

You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau in writing that you dispute the accuracy of information in your credit file. The credit bureau must then reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate or unverified information, usually within 30 days, unless your dispute is frivolous. Should the reinvestigation fail to resolve the dispute, your version of it must be noted in your file and included in future reports.

If you notify the credit bureau that you dispute the accuracy of the information, it must notify the person who furnished the information. That person must then investigate and report the results back to the credit bureau. If the person cannot verify the information, it must be removed.

The Credit Repair Organizations Act is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. If you believe your rights have been violated, you may contact the FTC at:

Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20580
reportfraud.ftc.gov

What this means in practice, from us

Two things in the statement above are worth repeating in our own words, because they are the two most commonly hidden facts in this industry.

• You can do this yourself, for free. You have the right to dispute directly with each bureau at no cost. What you are paying us for is that it gets done correctly, in full, every round, on schedule, for as long as it takes, rather than stopping in month two when life gets busy.
• Nobody can remove accurate, current, verifiable information. Not us, not anyone. If a company tells you they can, that is the moment to walk away.

Our commitments

• You will receive a written contract and this statement before you sign anything.
• You may cancel within 3 business days for any reason, with no penalty.
• We collect no payment for services that have not yet been performed.
• You will see every dispute that goes out and every response that comes back.
• We will never promise a score, a point gain, a specific deletion, or a timeframe.
• We will not participate in obtaining or using a credit privacy number or any other synthetic identity, and we will tell you plainly that doing so is a federal crime.

Contact

Eternal Consulting
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
(856) 526-1973
harry@eternalconsulting.agency