Consumer reporting agencies will be able to charge up to $12.50 to provide a consumer with his or her credit report in 2019 under a rule change signed Dec. 21 by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathleen (“Kathy”) Kraninger.
The rule change revises the bureau’s Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It provides the fee cap adjustment for 2019 and codifies such adjustments in bureau regulation for the first time.
“Historically, the Bureau has published these FCRA annual adjustments as a notice,” according to a summary for the final rule. “The Bureau is now codifying those notices and adding a provision to Regulation V to track the FCRA’s provisions concerning the annual maximum allowable charge.”
Through the final rule, the bureau is adding a section to Reg V to establish the maximum allowable charge for disclosures by a consumer reporting agency to a consumer pursuant to FCRA section 609. It is also adding an appendix setting forth the statutory requirements for determining the maximum allowable charge and preserving a list of historical maximum allowable charges.
The FCRA provides that a consumer reporting agency may charge a consumer a reasonable amount for making a disclosure to the consumer pursuant to section 609 of the FCRA. The original cap for such charges was $8, but the law provides the cap will be raised Jan. 1 of each year based proportionally on changes in the Consumer Price Index, with fractional changes rounded to the nearest fifty cents. The Bureau’s calculations are based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).
The recent final rule takes effect upon its publication in the Federal Register and “is applicable on January 1, 2019, consistent with relevant statutory provisions,” according to the final regulation notice.
Fair Credit Reporting Act disclosures; final rule (Notice for Federal Register)