Learn More About an Investigative Consumer Report

A consumer report is any form of communication, written, verbal, or otherwise, that contains the details of a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit capability, credit standing, expenditure patterns, standard of living, moral character, personal traits, and reputation. It is prepared by a bonafide consumer reporting agency and is frequently used by employers to judge the credentials of job applicants and by credit-issuing or insurance companies before sanctioning credit for personal, family, or domestic reasons.

An investigative consumer report is a consumer report or that portion of a consumer report that contains information about the person’s lifestyle, spending patterns, character, personal habits and traits, and reputation. These details are obtained after interviewing neighbors, friends, colleagues, or other acquaintances of the consumer or any other person who has a valid reason to possess such information.

An investigative consumer report does not contain any specific facts about the consumer’s credit records that have been obtained from a creditor of the consumer, or from a consumer reporting agency that in turn, had sourced the information directly from the consumer or any of his/her creditor(s).

A consumer reporting agency cannot include information in an investigative consumer report that is deemed a part of the `public record and includes details about arrests, conviction, indictment, any kind of civil judicial action, any outstanding judgment, or tax lien unless it has confirmed its veracity within 30 days before the report is tabled.

Disclosure before Preparing an Investigative Consumer Report

As per the consumer protection guidelines laid down by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, no individual can obtain or request any consumer reporting agency to prepare an investigative consumer report without disclosing this “clearly and accurately” to the consumer who is being reported on. This disclosure must be in a written document that is either mailed or delivered in some way to the consumer within 3 days of first requesting the report. This document must also be accompanied by a statement that informs the consumer of his/her right to request additional disclosures like the nature and scope of the probe requested. This additional disclosure must again be contained in a written document and mailed or delivered to the consumer within 5 days of receiving this disclosure request from him/her or from the day the report was first requested, whichever is the latest.

Disclosure of Content in an Investigative Consumer Report

A consumer reporting agency may disclose some contents of an investigative consumer report to any governmental agency. These include the name, past and present residential addresses and places of employment and these may be released solely for identification purposes.

The reporting agency is also bound by law to disclose the contents of the report “clearly and accurately” to the consumer, if requested. The agency must not disclose the first 5 digits of the consumer’s social security number or any other identification number unless it has concrete evidence of the identity of the person making the request. The reporting agency can also not disclose information like credit or risk scores and predictors related to the credit status of the consumer.

The laws governing the preparing and publishing of an investigative consumer report have been formulated keeping in mind the interests of the consumers.