II 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3662 

To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish a new disclosure 

statement, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 14, 2006 

Mr. BENNETT (for himself and Mr. JOHNSON) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Credit Repair Organizations Act to establish 

a new disclosure statement, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Credit Monitoring En5 hancement Act of 2006’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION RELATING TO CREDIT MONI7 TORING. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 403 of the Credit Repair 

9 Organizations Act (15 U.S.C. 1679a) is amended— 


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1 (1) by striking ‘‘For purposes of this title’’ and 

2 inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this 

3 title’’; and 

4 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub5 section: 

6 ‘‘(b) CLARIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN

7 CREDIT MONITORING SERVICES UNDER CERTAIN CIR8 CUMSTANCES.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2) 

10 the following shall not be treated as activities de11 scribed in clause (i) of subsection (a)(3)(A): 

12 ‘‘(A) The provision of, or provision of ac13 cess to, credit reports, credit monitoring notifi14 cations, credit scores and scoring algorithms, 

15 and other credit score-related tools to a con16 sumer (including generation of projections and 

17 forecasts potential credit scores of such con18 sumer under various prospective trends or hy19 pothetical or alternative scenarios). 

20 ‘‘(B) Any analysis, evaluation, and expla21 nation of such actual or hypothetical credit 

22 scores, or any similar projections, forecasts, 

23 analyses, evaluations or explanations. 

24 ‘‘(C) In conjunction with offering any of 

25 the services described in subparagraph (A) or 


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1 (B), the provision of materials or services to as2 sist a consumer who is a victim of identity 

3 theft. 

4 ‘‘(2) CONDITIONS FOR APPLICATION OF PARA5 GRAPH (1).—Paragraph (1) shall apply with respect 

6 to any person engaging in any activity described in 

7 such paragraph only if— 

8 ‘‘(A) the person does not represent, ex9 pressly or by implication, that such person— 

10 ‘‘(i) will or can modify or remove, or 

11 assist the consumer in modifying or remov12 ing, adverse information that is accurate 

13 and not obsolete in the credit report of the 

14 consumer; or 

15 ‘‘(ii) will or can alter, or assist the 

16 consumer in altering, the identification of 

17 the consumer to prevent the display of the 

18 credit record, history, or rating of the con19 sumer for the purpose of concealing ad20 verse information that is accurate and not 

21 obsolete; 

22 ‘‘(B) in any case in which the person rep23 resents, expressly or by implication, that the 

24 person will or can modify or remove, or assist 

25 the consumer in modifying or removing, any inVerDate Aug 31 2005 05:27 Jul 15, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3662.IS S3662

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1 formation in the credit report of the consumer, 

2 except for a representation with respect to any 

3 requirement imposed on the person under sec4 tion 611 or 623(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting 

5 Act, the person discloses, clearly and conspicu6 ously, before the consumer pays or agrees to 

7 pay any money or other valuable consideration 

8 to such person, whichever occurs first, the fol9 lowing statement: 

10 ‘‘ ‘NOTICE: Neither you nor anyone 

11 else has the right to have accurate and 

12 current information removed from your 

13 credit report. If information in your report 

14 is inaccurate, you have the right to dispute 

15 it by contacting the credit bureau di16 rectly.’; 

17 ‘‘(C) the person provides the consumer in 

18 writing with the following statement before any 

19 contract or agreement between the consumer 

20 and the person is executed: 

21 ‘‘ ‘Your Rights Concerning Your Con22 sumer Credit File: 

23 ‘‘ ‘You have a right to obtain a free 

24 copy of your credit report once every 12 

25 months from each of the nationwide conVerDate Aug 31 2005 05:27 Jul 15, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3662.IS S3662

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1 sumer reporting agencies. To request your 

2 free annual credit report, you may go to 

3 www.annualcreditreport.com, or call 877– 

4 322–8228, or complete the Annual Credit 

5 Report Request Form and mail it to: An6 nual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. 

7 Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348–5281. 

8 You can obtain additional copies of your 

9 credit report from a credit bureau, for 

10 which you may be charged a reasonable 

11 fee. There is no fee, however, if you have 

12 been turned down for credit, employment, 

13 insurance, or a rental dwelling because of 

14 information in your credit report within 

15 the preceding 60 days. The credit bureau 

16 must provide someone to help you interpret 

17 the information in your credit file. You are 

18 entitled to receive a free copy of your cred19 it report if you are unemployed and intend 

20 to apply for employment in the next 60 

21 days, if you are a recipient of public wel22 fare assistance, or if you have reason to 

23 believe that there is inaccurate information 

24 in your credit report due to fraud. 


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1 ‘‘ ‘You have the right to cancel your 

2 contract with a credit monitoring service 

3 without fee or penalty at any time, and in 

4 the case in which you have prepaid for a 

5 credit monitoring service, you are entitled 

6 to a pro rata refund for the remaining 

7 term of the credit monitoring service. 

8 ‘‘ ‘The Federal Trade Commission 

9 regulates credit bureaus and credit moni10 toring services. For more information con11 tact: 

12 ‘‘ ‘Federal Trade Commission 

13 ‘‘ ‘Washington, D.C. 20580 

14 ‘‘ ‘1–877–FTC–HELP 

15 ‘‘ ‘www.ftc.gov.’; and 

16 ‘‘(D) in any case in which the person offers 

17 a subscription to a credit file monitoring pro18 gram to a consumer, the consumer may cancel 

19 the subscription at any time upon written notice 

20 to the person without penalty or fee for such 

21 cancellation and, in any case in which the con22 sumer is billed for the subscription on other 

23 than a monthly basis, within 60 days of receipt 

24 of the notice of cancellation by the consumer, 

25 the person shall make a pro rata refund to the 


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1 consumer of a subscription fee prepaid by the 

2 consumer, calculated from the date that the 

3 person receives the notice of cancellation from 

4 the consumer until the end of the subscription 

5 period.’’. 

6 (b) CLARIFICATION OF NONEXEMPT STATUS.—Sec7 tion 403(a) of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (15 

8 U.S.C. 1679a) (as so redesignated by subsection (a)) is 

9 amended, in paragraph (3)(B)(i), by inserting ‘‘and is not 

10 for its own profit or for that of its members’’ before the 

11 semicolon at the end. 

12 (c) REVISION OF DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT.—Sec13 tion 405(a) of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (15 

14 U.S.C. 1679c) is amended by striking everything after the 

15 heading of the disclosure statement contained in such sec16 tion and inserting the following new text of the disclosure 

17 statement: 

18 ‘‘ ‘You have a right to dispute inaccurate infor19 mation in your credit report by contacting the credit 

20 bureau directly. However, neither you nor any ‘cred21 it repair’ company or credit repair organization has 

22 the right to have accurate, current, and verifiable in23 formation removed from your credit report. The 

24 credit bureau must remove accurate, negative infor25 mation from your report only if it is over 7 years 


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1 old. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 

2 years. 

3 ‘‘ ‘You have a right to obtain a free copy of 

4 your credit report once every 12 months from each 

5 of the nationwide consumer reporting agencies. To 

6 request your free annual credit report, you may go 

7 to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call 877–322– 

8 8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request 

9 Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request 

10 Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348– 

11 5281. You can obtain additional copies of your cred12 it report from a credit bureau, for which you may 

13 be charged a reasonable fee. There is no fee, how14 ever, if you have been turned down for credit, em15 ployment, insurance, or a rental dwelling because of 

16 information in your credit report within the pre17 ceding 60 days. The credit bureau must provide 

18 someone to help you interpret the information in 

19 your credit file. You are entitled to receive a free 

20 copy of your credit report if you are unemployed and 

21 intend to apply for employment in the next 60 days, 

22 if you are a recipient of public welfare assistance, or 

23 if you have reason to believe that there is inaccurate 

24 information in your credit report due to fraud. 


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1 ‘‘ ‘You have a right to sue a credit repair orga2 nization that violates the Credit Repair Organization 

3 Act. This law prohibits deceptive practices by credit 

4 repair organizations. 

5 ‘‘ ‘You have the right to cancel your contract 

6 with any credit repair organization for any reason 

7 within 3 business days from the date you signed it. 

8 ‘‘ ‘Credit bureaus are required to follow reason9 able procedures to ensure that the information they 

10 report is accurate. However, mistakes may occur. 

11 ‘‘ ‘You may, on your own, notify a credit bureau 

12 in writing that you dispute the accuracy of informa13 tion in your credit file. The credit bureau must then 

14 reinvestigate and modify or remove inaccurate or in15 complete information. The credit bureau may not 

16 charge any fee for this service. Any pertinent infor17 mation and copies of all documents you have con18 cerning an error should be given to the credit bu19 reau. 

20 ‘‘ ‘If the credit bureau’s reinvestigation does not 

21 resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may 

22 send a brief statement to the credit bureau, to be 

23 kept in your file, explaining why you think the 

24 record is inaccurate. The credit bureau must include 


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1 a summary of your statement about disputed infor2 mation with any report it issues about you. 

3 ‘‘ ‘The Federal Trade Commission regulates 

4 credit bureaus and credit repair organizations. For 

5 more information contact: 

6 ‘‘ ‘Federal Trade Commission 

7 ‘‘ ‘Washington, D.C. 20580 

8 ‘‘ ‘1–877–FTC–HELP 

9 ‘‘ ‘(877–382–4357) 

10 ‘‘ ‘www.ftc.gov.’ ’’. 

Æ 


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