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 Equal Credit Opportunity
Credit is used by millions of consumers to finance an education
or a house, remodel a home, or get a small business loan.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) ensures that all consumers
are given an equal chance to obtain credit. This doesn’t mean all consumers
who apply for credit get it: Factors such as income, expenses, debt, and credit
history are considerations for creditworthiness.
The law protects you when you deal with any creditor who regularly
extends credit, including banks, small loan and finance companies, retail and
department stores, credit card companies, and credit unions. Anyone involved
in granting credit, such as real estate brokers who arrange financing, is covered
by the law. Businesses applying for credit also are protected by the law.
- Discourage you from applying because of your sex, marital status, age, race,
national origin, or because you receive public assistance income.
- Ask you to reveal your sex, race, national origin, or religion. A creditor
may ask you to voluntarily disclose this information (except for religion)
if you’re applying for a real estate loan. This information helps federal
agencies enforce anti-discrimination laws. You may be asked about your residence
or immigration status.
- Ask if you’re widowed or divorced. When permitted to ask marital status,
a creditor may only use the terms: married, unmarried, or separated.
- Ask about your marital status if you’re applying for a separate, unsecured
account. A creditor may ask you to provide this information if you live in
"community property" states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana,
Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington. A creditor in any state may ask
for this information if you apply for a joint account or one secured by property.
- Request information about your spouse, except when your spouse is applying
with you; your spouse will be allowed to use the account; you are relying
on your spouse’s income or on alimony or child support income from a
former spouse; or if you reside in a community property state.
Inquire about your plans for having or raising children.
- Ask if you receive alimony, child support, or separate maintenance payments,
unless you’re first told that you don’t have to provide this information
if you won’t rely on these payments to get credit. A creditor may ask
if you have to pay alimony, child support, or separate maintenance payments
- Consider your sex, marital status, race, national origin, or religion.
- Consider whether you have a telephone listing in your name. A creditor may
consider whether you have a phone.
- Consider the race of people in the neighborhood where you want to buy, refinance
or improve a house with borrowed money.
- Consider your age, unless:
- you’re too young to sign contracts, generally younger than 18 years
of age;
- you’re 62 or older, and the creditor will favor you because of
your age;
- it’s used to determine the meaning of other factors important to
creditworthiness. For example, a creditor could use your age to determine
if your income might drop because you’re about to retire;
- it’s used in a valid scoring system that favors applicants age
62 and older. A credit-scoring system assigns points to answers you provide
to credit application questions. For example, your length of employment
might be scored differently depending on your age.
- Refuse to consider public assistance income the same way as other income.
- Discount income because of your sex or marital status. For example, a creditor
cannot count a man’s salary at 100 percent and a woman’s at 75 percent.
A creditor may not assume a woman of childbearing age will stop working to
raise children.
- Discount or refuse to consider income because it comes from part-time employment
or pension, annuity, or retirement benefits programs.
- Refuse to consider regular alimony, child support, or separate maintenance
payments. A creditor may ask you to prove you have received this income consistently.
- Have credit in your birth name (Mary Smith), your first and your spouse’s
last name (Mary Jones), or your first name and a combined last name (Mary
Smith-Jones).
- Get credit without a cosigner, if you meet the creditor’s standards.
- Have a cosigner other than your husband or wife, if one is necessary.
- Keep your own accounts after you change your name, marital status, reach
a certain age, or retire, unless the creditor has evidence that you’re
not willing or able to pay.
- Know whether your application was accepted or rejected within 30 days of
filing a complete application.
- Know why your application was rejected. The creditor must give you a notice
that tells you either the specific reasons for your rejection or your right
to learn the reasons if you ask within 60 days.
- Acceptable reasons include: "Your income was low," or "You
haven’t been employed long enough." Unacceptable reasons are: "You
didn’t meet our minimum standards," or "You didn’t receive
enough points on our credit-scoring system." Indefinite and vague reasons
are illegal, so ask the creditor to be specific.
- Find out why you were offered less favorable terms than you applied for—unless
you accept the terms. Ask for details. Examples of less favorable terms include
higher finance charges or less money than you requested.
- Find out why your account was closed or why the terms of the account were
made less favorable unless the account was inactive or delinquent.
A good credit history—a record of how you paid past bills—often is
necessary to get credit. Unfortunately, this hurts many married, separated,
divorced, and widowed women. There are two common reasons women don’t have
credit histories in their own names: they lost their credit histories when they
married and changed their names; or creditors reported accounts shared by married
couples in the husband’s name only.
If you’re married, divorced, separated, or widowed, contact your local
credit bureau(s) to make sure all relevant information is in a file under your
own name.
- Complain to the creditor. Make it known you’re aware of the law. The
creditor may find an error or reverse the decision.
- Check with your state Attorney General to see if the creditor violated state
equal credit opportunity laws. Your state may decide to prosecute the creditor.
- Bring a case in federal district court. If you win, you can recover damages,
including punative damages. You also can obtain compensation for attorney’s
fees and court costs. An attorney can advise you on how to proceed.
- Join with others and file a class action suit. You may recover punitive
damages for the group of up to $500,000 or one percent of the creditor’s
net worth, whichever is less.
- Report violations to the appropriate government agency. If you’re denied
credit, the creditor must give you the name and address of the agency to contact.
While some of these agencies don’t resolve individual complaints, the
information you provide helps them decide which companies to investigate.
A list of agencies follows.
If a retail store, department store, small loan and finance company, mortgage
company, oil company, public utility, state credit union, government lending
program, or travel and expense credit card company is involved, contact:
Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, DC 20580.
The FTC cannot intervene in individual disputes, but the information you provide
may indicate a pattern of possible law violations that require action by the
Commission.
If your complaint concerns a nationally-chartered bank (National or N.A. will
be part of the name), write to:
Comptroller of the Currency
Compliance Management
Mail Stop 7-5
Washington, DC 20219.
If your complaint concerns a state-chartered bank that is insured by the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation but is not a member of the Federal Reserve System,
write to:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Consumer Affairs Division
Washington, DC 20429.
If your complaint concerns a federally-chartered or federally-insured savings
and loan association, write to:
Office of Thrift Supervision
Consumer Affairs Program
Washington, DC 20552.
If your complaint concerns a federally-chartered credit union, write to:
National Credit Union Administration
Consumer Affairs Division
Washington, DC 20456.
Complaints against all kinds of creditors can be referred to:
Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Washington, DC 20530.
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