Reporting Child Support Arrearages to Credit Bureaus
Posted on May 11, 2015 12:17pm PDT
In California, the Department of Child Support Services must maintain a
system to report delinquencies of court-ordered child support obligations.
One way it does so is by reporting the delinquencies to consumer credit
agencies, such as credit bureaus.
Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, Congress has mandated that
consumer credit agencies include information regarding a consumer’s
child support delinquencies in that consumer’s credit reports when
that information is submitted by a government child support enforcement
agency and the information is less than seven years old.
This information becomes a part of the delinquent consumer’s credit
history and can be used in the same manner that any other information
is used on the report. It can be used by creditors or lenders to deny
credit to the consumer, or provide the credit but at a higher interest
rate to the consumer. It can be used by property owners to determine whether
the consumer would make a good tenant for rental property. It can be used
by employers in determining whether to hire a prospective employee. The
credit report can even be used by government agencies to determine the
whereabouts of the consumer.
The child support delinquency information will remain on the consumer’s
credit history report for seven years, unless the government agency providing
the information agrees to have the information removed; something they
rarely do.