Under current law, you have no right to see your credit score except in California and Colorado, where disclosure is mandatory. At least once a year, in other words, all Americans will be effectively guaranteed the right to do a comprehensive “credit check” on themselves, examining their credit file data from the bureaus and their individual credit scores from each bureau.

To illustrate: every time a credit card company, department store or mortgage company believes you were late on a payment, it would have to notify you that it is reporting that negative information to the credit bureaus. The notification would have to be mailed or emailed to you no later than 30 days after the creditor sends it to the bureaus.

Think about the impact this could have on the widespread problem of mortgage applicants being charger higher rates because of erroneous negative information sitting in their credit files, depressing their scores. If the new bill passes Congress later this year, you will know whenever a bank or credit card company botches up the facts. And with the notification in hand, you’ll be better equipped to challenge the negative information and get it corrected.

Of course, if the creditor has the facts right--and you did indeed skip a payment or sent it in late--you’ll know that your credit files will reflect these facts, and your scores will decline as a result.