2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART III - Other Financial Institutions (§§ 551 — 1390) › Chapter 64 - Reestablishment of Credit Agencies (§§ 630 — 630x) › § 630o - Prohibited practices

Credit repair agencies shall not engage in the following:
(1) Operate or do business as a credit repair agency without first obtaining a license from the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
(2) Solicit, receive or collect in advance the total or partial payment for any commission or charge for the services to be rendered, with the sole exception of the cost of the consumer’s credit reports.
(3) Collect charges additional to the payment agreed upon in the contract.
(4) Advertise, show, distribute, broadcast or allow to be advertised, shown, distributed or broadcast information regarding the services to be rendered in a false and deceitful manner.
(5) Make statements or offer advice or orientation for a consumer to give false or inaccurate information knowingly or which he/she should reasonably know regarding the classification of his/her credit and the manner and capacity to pay.
(6) Give the impression that steps are being taken to expunge exact, current, real and verifiable information from a credit report.
(7) Create or assist in the creation of, or advise the consumer to create, a new credit report using a different name, address and social security or employee identification number.
(8) Become involved in any action, practice or plan that either constitutes or results in committing or attempting to commit fraud or deception.
(9) Give a false, inaccurate or erroneous impression to induce potential customers to acquire services, including the following:
(a) Guarantee or otherwise establish that the credit repair agency is capable of expunging an adverse credit record, unless such an impression clearly reveals in an overt manner equal to the guarantee that such an action can be performed solely if the adverse credit record is inexact or obsolete and that the creditor who has submitted the information does not claim and prove that the information is true and exact.
(10) Become involved, directly or indirectly, in any credit repair services activity, practice or business that operates or is to operate fraudulently.
(11) Assign or transfer the license granted by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
(12) Submit any consumer information under dispute to the agencies that issue credit reports without the authorization of the consumer.
(13) Conduct consumer credit investigations without the authorization of the consumer.
(14) Refuse to return to the consumer, at his/her request, any document or writing prepared in the course of performing their tasks.
(15) Use the telephone system of the agencies that issue credit reports and give the impression that the caller is the consumer and that he/she is interested in challenging certain information, or requesting a disclosure without due authorization from the consumer.
(16) Unduly withhold any amount of money and/or document relating to any transaction or fail to inform customers of their rights or of any money or documents that constitute part of a transaction.
(17) Falsify documents that constitute part of a transaction.
(18) Render, publish or make false reports or entries to defraud any person or agent authorized by the Commissioner to investigate their business.
(19) Incur unfair or illegal competition practices.
Moreover, any person who participates, instigates or cooperates in the commission of the aforementioned actions shall incur a violation whether or not the person obtained personal financial profit.
History —Aug. 31, 2004, No. 236, § 17, eff. 60 days after Aug. 31, 2004.