New requirements for Summary of Consumer Rights take effect September 21: are you ready?
September 21, 2018 marks the compliance deadline for changing a commonly used form that’s required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Under the new US Senate Bill 2155, consumers now have the right to request a credit freeze, free of charge, from nationwide credit reporting agencies.
So what does this have to do with background checks?
Although this change doesn’t directly concern background screenings, it does affect the language in the “Summary of Rights” form that employers and landlords send to consumers. This “Summary of Rights” form must be provided before taking Adverse Action against a candidate. It’s also a common best practice (though not required) to make this form available to candidates when they consent to a background check.
Because the “Summary of Rights” form is so commonly used, it’s important to make sure you’re using the most recent version before September 21. You can find the new version, issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), on their site in English and Spanish.
For Checkr clients who use our hosted consent forms and adverse action tools, we will update the Summary of Rights documents to comply with the September 21 deadline.
However, if you don’t use Checkr’s tools, or you send your own Summary of Rights forms to candidates, make sure that you are using the new version of the form issued by the CFPB.
You can find copies of all new forms on the CFPB’s site, as well as in our Help Center:
- Summary of Rights (English): https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_consumer-rights-summary_2018-09.docx
- Summary of Rights (Spanish): https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_consumer-rights-summary_2018-09_es.docx
- Remedying the Effects of Identity Theft (English): https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_consumer-identity-theft-rights-summary_2018-09.docx
- Remedying the Effects of Identity Theft (Spanish): https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_consumer-identity-theft-rights-summary_2018-09_es.docx
