Summary#
This bill updates British Columbia’s consumer protection and privacy laws to give people more control over their credit files and to crack down on misleading “credit repair” practices. It adds new rights to place alerts or freezes on your credit report, sets rules for credit monitoring services, and strengthens your right to see and correct your credit information.
- Lets you add a security alert to your credit report and requires extra identity checks when a lender sees that alert.
- Lets you place a free “credit freeze” so reporting agencies will not share your credit report for new credit unless you lift the freeze.
- Guarantees free access to your own credit information and credit score from a credit reporting agency at least once every 30 days, and a clear way to request corrections.
- Sets disclosure, cancellation, and refund rules for credit monitoring services.
- Regulates credit repair companies: no payment until they achieve specific results, clear disclosures, and easy cancellation with refunds.
- Makes violations of these rules offences and clarifies licensing claims for regulated activities.
What it means for you#
- Consumers
- You can ask a credit bureau to add a security alert to your file, with your contact info, at no cost.
- You can freeze your credit report so it won’t be shared for new credit checks. You can lift or end the freeze when you choose.
- You can request your credit information, including your credit score, from a credit bureau for free, as long as you don’t ask more than once every 30 days.
- You can ask a credit bureau to fix wrong or missing information. If they agree, they must correct it and tell organizations they recently shared it with. If they don’t agree, they must add your requested correction note to your file.
- If a lender receives your report with a security alert on it, they must take extra steps to confirm it is really you before proceeding.
- People worried about identity theft
- Security alerts and freezes are free. The alert tells lenders to contact you first. A freeze blocks most new credit checks, which helps stop fraud.
- Your rights and how to use them must be explained on credit bureaus’ public websites.
- If you buy credit monitoring
- The provider must tell you, upfront, about your rights to access your information and score for free and how to correct errors.
- You can cancel and get a full refund within a set cooling-off period. If you cancel, the provider must refund all money within 15 days.
- If you use a credit repair company
- They must clearly explain your rights, including that you can get your credit info and credit score yourself for free and ask the bureau to fix errors.
- They cannot charge you until they achieve a specific result (like correcting an actual error or improving your score) through their own steps.
- You can cancel within 10 days for any reason and get a full refund. If they break the disclosure rules, you can cancel up to one year later and get your money back.
- They cannot force a credit bureau to remove accurate information.
- Businesses and lenders
- If a credit report you receive shows a security alert, you must follow added identity checks before moving ahead.
- You may see delays when customers place freezes and must wait for them to lift the freeze before obtaining a report.
- Credit reporting agencies
- You must offer security alerts and credit freezes at no charge and publish clear instructions for consumers.
- You must provide consumers with their credit information and credit score for free (not more than once every 30 days).
- You must fix confirmed errors, notify recent recipients of corrected data, or annotate disputed items when you don’t agree to correct.
Expenses#
No publicly available information.
Proponents' View#
- Protects people from identity theft by adding free security alerts and freezes that are easy to use.
- Makes credit files more accurate by giving people simple, free access to their information and a clear way to correct mistakes.
- Cuts down on misleading or predatory credit repair services by banning upfront fees and requiring plain-language disclosures and refunds.
- Ensures credit monitoring services are transparent about consumer rights and don’t lock people into unfair contracts.
- Helps lenders by reducing fraud and improving the quality of credit data.
Opponents' View#
- Compliance could raise costs for credit bureaus and businesses that use credit reports, and those costs may be passed on to customers in other ways.
- Credit freezes and added ID checks may slow down loan approvals and create friction for both consumers and lenders.
- “Pay after results” rules for credit repair may limit service availability or lead to disputes over what counts as a successful result.
- Requiring free access to credit scores every 30 days may reduce revenue from paid products and shift costs to other services.
- New offences and rules add complexity and may be harder for small firms to manage without more guidance.