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As per the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) no person can be refused credit on the basis of race, creed, religion or sex. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces this act to prevent any discrimination. The financial institutions may ask you many questions regarding your personal information but cannot use them to decide whether or not to grant you credit. They are also not supposed to decide the terms and conditions of the credit based on the information that you give. That must be solely for official use and not to be used personally.

What must you do when a creditor discriminates against you?

When you apply for credit in any financial institution, you must know what your right is according to ECOA. If the creditors fail to follow the rules as per the law, take the following steps:

• Be sure of the rules as per the act and if you're not sure, check withy the General Attorney's office and get to know whether really the creditor has violated the law.

• Consider trying the creditor in a federal district court as there are certain benefits to it. You can get back the lawyer's and the court's fees if the creditor is found guilty. You can also get awarded charges by the court if the creditor is found to be willful.

• The creditor must give you the name and address of the government agency and you can report the violations to the particular government agency.

What is the ECOA has in account for women?

When you're acquiring credit, you have to show details of your credit history and the creditor in turn will check whether or not your credit history is good. Your bill payment information is also required. But for the women who're married, divorced, separated or widowed usually don't have credit history in their name. After their marriage, the details are taken along with their husband's account or they may have lost their credit histories. In these cases, you must go and contact the local credit reporting agency and make sure that all the information pertaining to your bill payments and other personal information is filed safely by them. These companies sell this information to the insurance companies and other financial institution so that they can evaluate whether to give you credit or loan based on your creditworthiness.

What has Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has to about ECOA?

The FCRA has announced that any of the major credit bureaus are not supposed to use the information provided by the consumers partially. They should be impartial and fair when they deal with the personal information. If they're caught dealing with the consumers in a wrong way, the consumers can complain to the FTC.

When you're applying for credit or any kind of loan, you must read the rules and regulations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. No one is allowed to be denied credit on the basis of race, color and religion but only be judged according to the credit report.