New law doesn’t remove debt after 2 years
A TikTok held out false hope for people with old unpaid debts.
In the video, a woman looks into the camera and says, “Did you know that Congress recently passed a law called the FCRA law that allows you to permanently remove collections that are older than two years old?”
She continues, saying that hospital bills, student loans and car repossessions are all fair game, and she urges viewers to respond in the comments section. The video has been liked more than 325,000 times and shared more than 50,000 times.
But there is no such new law, and Congress did not “recently” pass FCRA, the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The act, enacted by Congress in 1970, governs credit bureaus, also known as credit reporting agencies, which are companies that collect information on people’s debts and repayments.
Businesses purchase credit reports from those companies when deciding on transactions such as loans, employment, rental housing and insurance.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency that enforces consumer financial law:
Credit reporting agencies are required by law to remove most information about unpaid debt from a person’s account after seven years, but bankruptcy information can be maintained for 10 years.
eople acting on their own generally cannot get information about unpaid debts removed from their credit reports, though consumer reporting agencies can delete data earlier than required by law.
People should beware of companies that promise they can get rid of information about unpaid debts that is accurate and current because “no one can do this.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told PolitiFact that consumers can request to see the personal data consumer reporting agencies maintain and can dispute the information if it’s incorrect, and doing so does not affect credit scores. “Companies must provide a reasonable investigation for free,” the bureau said.
We found no changes in the law that would support the Instagram post’s claim.
Experts told The Associated Press in a July 27 story that there have been no legislative changes that would let consumers remove negative, but accurate, information after just two years.
We rate the claim that a new law allows people to permanently erase unpaid debt older than two years from their credit records False.