A new bankruptcy law passed both houses of Congress in March 2001, focusing public attention on that legislation.

A batch of other federal credit laws, however, are just as important for people with credit problems. It pays to be familiar with the following 8 key laws:

• Fair Credit Reporting Act (1971) -- This covers the reporting of debt repayment information. It establishes when a credit reporting agency may provide a report to someone; states that obsolete information must be taken off (after 7 or 10 years); gives you the right to know what is in your credit report; requires that both a credit bureau and an information provider (such as a department store) have an obligation to correct mistakes; gives you the right to dispute inaccurate information and add a 100-word statement to your report to explain accurate negative information; and gives you the right to know what credit bureau provided a report when you are turned down for credit.
• Fair Credit Billing Act (1975) -- This covers credit card billing problems. It applies to all open-end credit accounts (such as credit cards, overdraft checking). It states that you should send a written billing error notice to the creditor within 60 days of receiving the first bill containing an error; that the creditor must acknowledge the notice within 30 days; that the creditor must investigate; and that the creditor may not damage your credit rating while a dispute is pending.