No matter how great of a card holder you think you are or what your credit history/ scores are there may be a time in your financial life when you have to file a credit complaint. A credit complaint is defined as being the direct dispute between you and your lender/ credit card company/ bank. You file the complaint with any federal enforcement agencies that help enforce consumer protection laws. Whenever you have a serious complaint it is important to try and resolve it immediately with the bank or creditor directly. Most disputes that you have can be solved pretty easily between you and the creditor because they are going to want to stay on good standing with you and the federal agencies. However, if you are unable to resolve your issues with the bank/ creditor, it is time to involve the federal enforcement agencies. The federal enforcement agencies basically consist of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve System delves into all the consumer complaints against the banks that are run through the FDIC. The Federal Reserve looks into all the relevant cases that they receive and pass on all other cases to one of the federal agencies in the United States. By writing to these agencies you will have the best chance to uphold your rights in a credit complaint. Protecting credit score and history against the creditor who wronged you
Sometimes the only thing that you can do is take legal issue against a creditor yourself. If you aren’t getting anywhere talking with them directly you may want to consider taking legal action in one of these ways:
Equal Credit Opportunity Act: This Act is one of the most popular actions that the Federal Reserve has come up with in order to protect the rights of card holders. The Act is for those people who believe that a creditor is discriminating against you on terms of age, gender, occupation, marital status or religion. You will be able to sue for actual damages, punitive damages (up to $10,000) and court costs. Truth in Lending/ Consumer Leasing Acts: If you feel that a creditor has damaged your credit score by disclosing improper information about you or has inaccurately assessed your situation then you can sue for actual damages, punitive damages and any other financial losses you may have undergone. You can also sue for twice the interest charges and court costs.
Electronic Fund Transfer Act: This Act deals primarily with those financial institutions that intentionally stops a payment or an electronic fund transfer, causing you to lose money. If this is your case then you can sue for actual and punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees and you can even take class action suits. Fair Credit Billing Act: This Act is for creditors who continually overlook billing errors and who don’t even attempt to correct any errors that do occur, thus destroying your good credit. An individual who is affected by this is able to sue for up to $50, plus actual damages and twice as much as the finance charges (between $100 and $1000). Court costs and attorney fees are also expected to be paid for.
Fair Credit Reporting Act: The Fair Credit Reporting Act deals with creditors who look at your credit report and disregard information that is not valid. You are able to sue these creditors for actual damages, punitive damages and other court costs. You are also able to sue under this Act if you find that a creditor has authorized people/ companies to look at your credit report without your knowledge. This is a federal crime, like credit fraud, and is treated as such.
While legal action is an action that many individuals turn to because it seems the easiest and best choice, it often is a better move to contact the Federal Reserve first and take legal action second.
If you do decide to write to the Federal Reserve make sure you do it personally, in the form of a letter. Make sure you include: the name and full address of the creditor whom you have a problem with, a description of your complaint, copies of documentation that you have as proof (make sure they are copies, not originals!), proof that you tried to resolve the issue with the bank before contacting the Reserve and all your personal documentation. It is important to provide the Reserve with copies of the documentation not originals because you most likely won’t get the copies back. Don’t risk losing the originals! The Federal Reserve almost always replies in two weeks or less and they will let you know whether they plan on dealing with your case personally or whether they will hand it over to a federal agency.
The Federal Reserve can’t solve all issues but they can solve most. Those issues that the Reserve can’t deal with are factual disputes or disputes over the specific bank’s policies and/ or procedures. Remember; try to resolve an issue with the bank/ creditor up front before contacting the Reserve!
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