Letter to my congressman...fyi

My correspondence is in regards to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.

These laws were created by Congress to protect consumers from unfair practices by creditors and collection agencies. These laws were also created so that consumers' credit reports are maintained accurately by credit reporting agencies.

However, from a personal experience, more often than not, collection agencies and the credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) violate these laws wilfully to the detriment of the ordinary consumer.

I myself have had a hard time with one particular collection agency whom I tried to contact to no avail. This is pretty much the standard operating procedures that the collection agencies are doing. They ignore calls and letters asking for proof of debt from consumers. But these collection agencies continue to report such alleged debt to the credit reporting agencies without any proof of debt. If they do communicate with you most times these companies harass consumers without proving that they are owed money. Such actions are against the law. Proof of this could be seen by researching cases by the Federal Trade Commission regarding collection agencies.

So far, I have not seen any major change how these collection agencies operate. We do have laws but nobody seems to care on enforcing them. That is probably why the laws are violated at will.

As far as the credit reporting agencies are concerned, most do not investigate at all when disputing erroneous and inaccurate information on consumers' credit report. I have an experience with this as well.

What I am asking for is for congress to enact laws or further enhance existing laws to make these agencies to comply with the law. Most of the time, the burden is left for the individual consumer to correct his/her own credit report. This takes painstaking effort and huge amounts of time to do with no guarantee of success, not to mention the money involved.

To the average and law abiding consumer, an accurate credit report is vital to surviving in our economy which is based on one's credit standing. No bank or company will be willing to finance one's car or house purchase if his/her credit report is spotty.

Statistics show that majority of Americans' credit reports have inaccuracies in them, just like mine. In fact, I have been denied credit because of such inaccuracies in my personal credit report. I say so because I am a victim of identity theft and because of that, my credit has been damaged. Would you not consider this as being deprived of one's rights under the law?

I have been since trying to repair my credit on my own, spending large amounts of effort and time to do so. It hasn't been easy and I am still not sure if I will be successful in this. I just hope that it will turn out fine in the end.

Again, I reiterate my request for your help regarding these matters. It is in our interest to enforce the laws to keep our economy going. Our economy is based on credit and if it is violated at will, how long can we survive as a country?

Thank you,
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