CLAIM: A new law passed by Congress “allows you to permanently remove any negative debt” from your credit report that is over two years old.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The law referenced in the video to support that claim, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, has been around since 1970. The law requires that most negative information be removed from your credit report after seven years. Experts say there have been no legislative changes that allow consumers to simply remove negative, but accurate, information after just two.
THE FACTS: An Instagram video from a self-described “credit expert” is advertising letters that it claims can help users remove negative information from their credit reports and citing a made-up legal change in the process.
“Congress passed a new law (fcra law) which allows you to permanently remove any negative debt older than 2 years & is affecting your credit score,” text on the video reads. The video goes on to offer $20 letters to purportedly aid people in removing student loans, hospital bills and more.
But there has been no such change to the FCRA, according to experts and guidance available from federal agencies.
“I’m not aware of any law that comes close to this,” David Silberman, a former acting deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told The Associated Press in an email. Silberman said proposals to shorten the time period in which delinquent debts disappear have been put forth, but none have passed.
Likewise, Ariel Nelson, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said she was aware of no such change. “That would be a major amendment to the FCRA,” she added.
The FCRA, the country’s first consumer financial privacy statute, has in fact been around since 1970.
The CFPB referred the AP to its website, which notes that consumer reporting agencies are legally required to remove most negative information after seven years — though some information, such as bankruptcies, may remain longer. But prior to that consumers generally can’t have current, negative information removed from their credit reports if it’s accurate, the federal agency points out.
Consumer reporting agencies are expected under the law to have reasonable procedures to ensure accuracy, Nelson noted, and individuals are entitled to dispute inaccurate information.
The CFPB advises consumers to be aware of potential credit repair scams, including if a company “tells you it can get rid of the negative credit information, even if that information is accurate and current. No one can do this.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
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