Bill Text: NJ S403 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires consumer reporting agencies to provide a consumer with a free credit report three times during any 12-month period upon request.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Commerce Committee [S403 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S403-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator JOSEPH PENNACCHIO
District 26 (Morris and Passaic)
Senator NELLIE POU
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires consumer reporting agencies to provide a consumer with a free credit report three times during any 12-month period upon request.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning consumer credit reports and amending P.L.1997, c.172.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 10 of P.L.1997, c.172 (C.56:11-37) is amended to read as follows:
10. a. Except as provided in subsections b., c., d. and e. of this section, a consumer reporting agency may impose a reasonable charge on a consumer for:
(1) making a disclosure to the consumer pursuant to section 7 of this act if the request is the [second] fourth or subsequent request in a 12-month period of time and is not made pursuant to subsection b. of this section; the charge for this disclosure shall not exceed $8 and shall be indicated to the consumer before making the disclosure; and
(2) furnishing to a person designated by the consumer pursuant to subsection k. of section 9 of this act a statement, codification, or summary filed or developed under subsection i. or j. of section 9 of this act, after notification of the consumer under subsection f. of section 9 of this act with respect to the reinvestigation; this charge shall not exceed the charge that the agency would impose on each designated recipient for a consumer report and shall be indicated to the consumer before furnishing this information.
b. Each consumer reporting agency that maintains a file on a consumer shall make all disclosures required pursuant to section 7 of this act without charge to the consumer if, not later than 60 days after receipt by the consumer of a notification of an adverse action or notification from a debt collection agency affiliated with the consumer reporting agency stating that the consumer's credit rating may be or has been adversely affected, the consumer makes a request under section 7 of this act.
c. Upon the request of the consumer, a consumer reporting agency shall make all disclosures required pursuant to section 7 of this act [once] three times during any 12-month period without charge to the consumer.
d. A consumer reporting agency shall not impose any charge on a consumer for providing any notification required by this act, including but not limited to, the notification required pursuant to subsection k. of section 9 of this act following deletion of information from a consumer's file pursuant to section 9 of this act, or making any disclosure required by this act, except as authorized by subsection a. of this section.
e. Upon request of the consumer, a consumer reporting agency shall make all disclosures required pursuant to section 7 of this act once during any 12-month period without charge to that consumer if the consumer certifies in writing that the consumer:
(1) is unemployed and intends to apply for employment in the 60-day period beginning on the date on which certification is made;
(2) is a recipient of assistance under the Work First New Jersey Program;
(3) has reason to believe that the file on the consumer at the agency contains inaccurate information due to fraud; or
(4) has been a victim of a violation of N.J.S.2C:21-1, section 1 of P.L.1983, c.565 (2C:21-2.1) or N.J.S.2C:21-17 and the court has ordered the deletion of those items of information that were the result of the unlawful use of the victim's personal identifying information.
(cf: P.L.2003, c.184, s.9)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires consumer reporting agencies to provide the consumer with a free credit report three times during any 12-month period upon the request of a consumer. Current law requires the credit report to be provided without charge once during any 12-month period.
