|
Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction
(FACT) Act Compliance
|
| Updates made to the credit report in compliance with the
FACT Act effective Dec 1, 2004 |
| 1. "Notice to
Home Loan Applicant" |
| 2. Address
Mismatch Indicator |
| 3. New Alert
Message |
| 4. Addition of
Inquiry Key Factors |
| 5. Notification
of Legislative Recovery Fee |
| |
|
Q&A |
|
Common questions about the FACT Act are addressed by
Experian by topic. If you do not find a response to your
issue, please submit a question to
contact@thecreditbureau.com.
|
|
Alerts |
| Q.
Are we required to share Fraud or
Military Alerts with our clients? |
| A.
Yes, Experian must display the alert
whenever a credit report is ordered on the specific consumer
who requested the Alert. We currently have no plans to
notify the client when an alert is first added to the
consumer’s file. However, if the client subscribes to
Experian’s Notification Service product, there is a trigger
for alerts. |
| Q.
How many alert messages can there be on
one credit report? |
| A.
Only one alert message can appear on a
consumer’s report. If more than two messages are on file,
they will appear as a single unique code. |
| Q.
Why are the three national CRAs sharing
alert data? |
| A.
Congress felt that CRAs must make it easy
for a consumer to add an alert; therefore, we are sharing
the data so the consumer does not have to contact all three
agencies. |
| Q.
Are the three national CRAs processing
consumer alerts the same? |
| A.
The FACT Act defines specific
requirements for the CRAs to follow when the consumer
requests an alert. These include request methods, content,
maintenance, display, and retention. However, the internal
processes, exact verbiage and method of delivery may differ
between the three CRAs. |
| Q.
What does the data user do when the file
contains an alert? |
| A.
Requirements for verification using the
telephone number are outlined in Section 605A of the FACT
Act. Each client must establish its own policies and
procedures for forming a reasonable belief that the identity
of the person making the request is known. |
| Q.
Are data furnishers going to be required
to pass alert information on to Experian if a customer comes
to the data furnisher with this information? |
| A.
The FACT Act does not currently address
the issue of a client reporting alerts. If a client is made
aware by the consumer of ID theft or active duty, it should
refer the consumer to Experian so that we can follow the
proper procedures for adding an alert. |
| Q.
How many alerts does Experian’s File
One database contain today? |
| A.
As of November 2004, File One contains
approximately 200,000 extended alerts and approximately
580,000 initial alerts. |
| Q.
Have all of these initial or extended
alerts occurred since the FACT Act was enacted, or does this
include prior fraud victim alert history? |
| A.
FACT Act requirements for alerts go into
effect Dec. 1, 2004. All of the alerts on File One today
are pre-FACT Act and will remain on file. On-file Victim
Alerts will now be classified as Extended Alerts, statement
number 6. On file Temporary Security Alerts will be
classified as Initial Alerts, new statement number 26. |
| Q.
What is a CRA alert and how does it
differ from the other types of alerts included? Is it
characterized as either an initial alert or an extended
alert or something else entirely? |
| A.
The CRA alert is not consumer initiated.
This alert is added to a file when Experian has been
notified by another source that there has been a security
breach and consumer identification information was
compromised. This alert is added to the file and should be
treated as something similar to an initial alert. This alert
is on file for six months. If the consumer contacts Experian,
we will delete the CRA alert and add a fraud alert if the
consumer requests it. The fraud alert could be either
initial or extended, depending on the consumer request. |
| Q.
What is your process for establishing an
active-duty alert? |
| A.
Consumers will make the request through
our National Consumer Assistance Center Interactive Voice
Response process, which allows the alert to be placed in a
file immediately. |
| Q.
What is the National Consumer Assistance
Center Interactive Voice Response (NCAC IVR) process? Does
the consumer need to provide any documentation? Can someone
else put the alert on for the consumer (e.g., a spouse)? |
| A.
The NCAC IVR is Experian's automated
voice response system for consumer assistance. A consumer
can use the National Consumer Assistance Center Interactive
Voice Response system to add an initial alert or the
active-duty alert, to request a credit report and to receive
other consumer assistance. The consumer's identity is
verified through Experian's authentication process before he
or she is granted access to their credit history data. If
the consumer's identity cannot be sufficiently verified
through the system, instructions will be given to provide
additional authentication documentation. |
| Q.
What other contact information will you
be providing within the alert message — for example,
multiple telephones numbers, e-mail address, postal address,
personal representative name or other? |
| A.
None. At this time, Experian will be
adding only phone numbers for this contact. |
| |
|
Data Blocking |
| Q.
Is there any notation on a consumer’s
report when data is blocked? |
| A.
No, the data is suppressed from display.
However, the data furnisher is notified when the data is
originally blocked. |
| Q.
Do our clients have a requirement to
block data due to Identity theft? |
| A.
The FACT Act only places specific ‘block’
requirements on CRAs. However, the FACT Act also has
requirements for data furnishers. If a data furnisher
receives a notice that we have blocked data, or a consumer
submits an identity theft report to a data furnisher that
states information maintained by the data furnisher resulted
from identity theft, the furnisher may not provide the
information to any bureau, unless the furnisher subsequently
determines or is informed by the consumer that the
information is correct. |
| Q.
Can a client request a review of their
consumers who have had data blocked. For example, can ABC
bank request a review of its data that has been blocked on
specific consumers? |
| A.
Since the data is blocked, the consumer
no longer has a relationship with the data furnisher;
therefore, we cannot supply this information about the
blocked data, as the data furnisher does not have a
permissible purpose to access this information. There is,
however, ongoing notification when the data is first
blocked. |
| Q.
Are there any special requirements for
debt collectors? |
| A.
Yes, debt collectors acting on behalf of
a third party that is the creditor, must notify the third
party that the information may be fraudulent or may be the
result of ID theft. Please review Section 615(g) for all
requirements. |
| |
|
Medical Data |
| Q.
Does the protection of medical data
impact score calculation? |
| A.
No, the original credit grantor field is
not used in score calculation. Therefore, it will not affect
the score display. |
| Q.
Can the consumer dispute medical data? |
| A.
Yes, the exact medical data term will
appear on a consumer disclosure and can be disputed by the
consumer. |
| Q.
Are the three national CRAs displaying
this data the same? |
| A.
Experian’s verbiage and method of
delivery may differ from TU and Equifax. |
| Q.
Are there other specific rules for
creditors concerning medical information? |
| A.
Yes, please review section 604(g) of the
Act |
| |
|
Notification of Modified or Deleted Data |
| Q.
How will this affect my volume? |
|
A. Dispute data received from Experian will increase due to
this requirement. Following is an example that illustrates
the increase.
Example – a client receives 400 disputes from Experian
per month. They respond to all of them and want to make
changes or delete 200 disputed trades. We will, after
maintenance, send 200 ‘notifications’ to the client via the
E-Oscar system confirming the change or deletion made.
In addition, anytime we maintenance identification
information data based on a consumer dispute or perform
internal maintenance from a consumer’s documentation or our
internal policies, we will send a change/delete notification
to the furnisher of the data.
Although the law is silent on what the data furnisher is
to do with the notification, we advise that action be taken
to maintain accuracy. This requirement significantly
increases the number of notifications that the client will
receive from Experian. In addition it may dramatically
increase a client’s workload.
Any correction based on the notification must be handled
through the AUD process. Exact procedures will be
communicated through Experian’s National Consumer Assistance
Center. |
| |
|
Address Discrepency |
| Q.
Where will I find the address miss-match
indicator? |
A. Experian System Address Miss-match Output
indicator:
TTY reports asterisk displays to the left of the address
ARF version 6 & 7 segment 336 Origination Code 1, 4, 6 or 7
ARF version 8 segment 3360 Origination Code 1, 4, 6 or 7 |
|
Q. Are the three national CRAs handling
address miss-match indicators the same? |
|
The FACT Act defines requirements for the CRA to follow.
However, the internal processes, exact verbiage, and method
of delivery may differ between the three CRAs. Experian
displays up to three addresses on a regular credit report.
The data user can then make a more sound decision concerning
the accuracy of the addresses. If the client is using
numeric inquiry, the asterisk will always display, as an
exact match is uncertain. |
|
Q. What circumstances determine a
"substantial address discrepancy" exists between the address
on the report request and the addresses in the file of the
consumer? |
| A.
The criteria for generating the mismatch
indicator is contained in Experian proprietary logic. The
logic uses matching algorithms to determine conflicts in
numeric components of the address as well as differences in
the street name, allowing for minor spelling differences. |
| |
|
Inquiry Indicator Score Key
Factor |
|
Q. Where will the message appear indicating
that the number of inquiries was a key factor that adversely
affected the score? |
| A.
On a standard report it will display in
the message segment – Version 6 and 7 segment 361. A message
will appear for each model requested if negatively impacted
by the inquiry. |
| Q.
Which risk models will deliver the
inquiry indicator score key factor? |
| A.
Experian will deliver the 5th
factor on all credit reports accessed on mortgage related
inquiries when one of the following risk models is
requested: |
|
Risk Model |
Factor
Code and Description |
| Experian/FICO
V-1 |
08 – Number
of Recent Inquiries |
| Experian/FICO
V-2 |
08 – Number
of Recent Inquiries |
| Scorex Plus |
81 – Number
of Recent Inquiries |
