Recently a Credit Reporting Agency said we can give the customer a copy of their Credit Report. I thought this was something prohibited. Am I wrong?

I would think alot has to do with your contract you have with your Credit Reporting Agency. We do not give copies of credit reports to our customer's. Depending on circumstances, we will discuss items in the report - if they are declined credit based on information obtained in their report they are entitled to a free copy.

I am not a lawyer and David's cite is exactly correct. But I don't believe that if a credit bureau had that nondisclosure clause in their contract that it would be enforceable, because of this law.

As mentioned by others, look to your contract with the bureau. You can definitely talk about the content of the bureau report with the applicant. But the bureaus still did not want the reports in circulation as they contained credit scores that are proprietary to the bureau and cannot be explained in terms the average consumer can understand. Is it the local service bureau that's telling you to give out the reports? If so, they may not know what their contract with the main bureau says or may not know if what their own contract with you says.

I would be curious to know if the Big 3 in the credit bureau business have relaxed their own rules and now allow the bureau reports to circulate with the credit score?

This is my opinion regarding giving a COPY of the credit report to a customer.

IF, I had verified the identity of the person, I would SHOW them a copy of the credit report, and direct them to the phone number, address, or website so they can order their own copy.

I would NOT want to give them a copy of the credit report pulled by my institution. Why not you ask? A few reasons:

1. When my bank pulls a credit report, there are certain institution subscription numbers that are unique to my bank. Do I want this number floating around out there without any controls? No.

2. When my bank pulls a credit report, it contains the complete SSN of the individual along with other personal identifying information AND the complete account numbers of the reported loans and credit lines. This is a live bomb in terms of ID Theft potential. If I give that live document to someone, and they lose it, or it's stolen out of their car, what are my liabilities? Would it be similar to the bar tender that allowed one drink too many? I don't know, and I don't want to find out.

So to recap:

SHOWING the credit report - fine.
GIVING a copy of the credit report - direct the customer to the contact information at the credit bureau for them to order. If you turned them down for an account based on the information in the credit report, they are entitled to a free copy anyways. That's why we give the FCRA notice.