Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act

Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act

Other short titles	Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act
Long title	An Act to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to prevent identity theft, improve resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access to, credit information, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	FACTA, FLEIA
Nicknames	Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003
Enacted by	the 108th United States Congress
Effective	December 4, 2003
Citations
Public law	108-159
Statutes at Large	117 Stat. 1952
Codification
Titles amended	15 U.S.C.: Commerce and Trade
U.S.C. sections amended	15 U.S.C. ch. 41, subch. I § 1601 et seq. 15 U.S.C. ch. 41, subch. III § 1681 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2622 by Spencer Bachus (R-AL) on June 26, 2003 Committee consideration by House Financial Services, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Passed the House on September 10, 2003 (392-30, Roll call vote 499, via Clerk.House.gov) Passed the Senate on November 5, 2003 (95-2, Roll call vote 437, via Senate.gov) Reported by the joint conference committee on November 21, 2003; agreed to by the House on November 21, 2003 (379-49, Roll call vote 667, via Clerk.House.gov) and by the Senate on November 22, 2003 (agreed unanimous consent) Signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 4, 2003

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (abbreviated FACT Act or FACTA, Pub.L. 108–159) is a United States federal law, passed by the United States Congress on November 22, 2003, and signed by President George W. Bush on December 4, 2003, as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The act allows consumers to request and obtain a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). In cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, the three major credit reporting agencies set up the website, AnnualCreditReport.com, to provide free access to annual credit reports.

The act also contains provisions to help reduce identity theft, such as the ability for individuals to place alerts on their credit histories if identity theft is suspected, or if deploying overseas in the military, thereby making fraudulent applications for credit more difficult. Further, it requires secure disposal of consumer information.

The FACT Act contains seven major titles: Identity Theft Prevention and Credit History Restoration, Improvements in Use of and Consumer Access to Credit Information, Enhancing the Accuracy of Consumer Report Information, Limiting the Use and Sharing of Medical Information in the Financial System, Financial Literacy and Education Improvement, Protecting Employee Misconduct Investigations, and Relation to State Laws.

This title of the act contains provisions that deal mainly with the prevention of identity theft. In particular, it establishes new regulations concerning 'fraud alerts' and 'active duty alerts', establishes new limitations on the printing of customers' credit card numbers on receipts, and prescribes that new regulations be established by certain government agencies regarding the detection of identity theft by financial institutions and creditors.

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