Lifehacker: This Bill in Congress Would Remove Credit Report Strikes After Four Years

Bad credit can haunt you for years. It affects everything from your home purchase to your bills to renting an apartment. Some employers even check your report before hiring you. A newly proposed bill aims to improve the system.

California representative Maxine Waters recently introduced the “Comprehensive Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act,” which calls for some pretty significant changes to credit reporting. Ideally, those changes would protect consumers from incorrect information and outdated debt. The bill would also give the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau authority to monitor credit scoring practices.

There are a lot of interesting updates proposed in the bill, including section 401, which “shortens the time period that most adverse credit information stays on consumer reports.” In general, most negative items stay on your report for seven years, but the bill would change that to four.
In addition, the bill aims to make credit reports more accessible to the consumer, give consumers more time before medical debts are added to a report, and make it easier for student debtors to repair their credit. It’s a proposed bill, so there’s obviously no guarantee these changes will be implemented, but you can always contact your local members of Congress and tell them how you feel about it. For more detail, check out the full bill at the link below.

Comprehensive Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act (PDF) | via Consumerist

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