Terms Used In Texas Business and Commerce Code 20.038

  • Comptroller: means the state comptroller of public accounts. See Texas Government Code 312.011
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. Source: OCC
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.

A security freeze does not apply to a consumer report provided to:
(1) a state or local governmental entity, including a law enforcement agency or court or private collection agency, if the entity, agency, or court is acting under a court order, warrant, subpoena, or administrative subpoena;
(2) a child support agency as defined by § 101.004, Family Code, acting to investigate or collect child support payments or acting under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 651 et seq.);
(3) the Health and Human Services Commission acting under § 531.102, Government Code;
(4) the comptroller acting to investigate or collect delinquent sales or franchise taxes;
(5) a tax assessor-collector acting to investigate or collect delinquent ad valorem taxes;
(6) a person for the purposes of prescreening as provided by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.), as amended;
(7) a person with whom the consumer has an account or contract or to whom the consumer has issued a negotiable instrument, or the person’s subsidiary, affiliate, agent, assignee, prospective assignee, or private collection agency, for purposes related to that account, contract, or instrument;
(8) a subsidiary, affiliate, agent, assignee, or prospective assignee of a person to whom access has been granted under § 20.037(b);
(9) a person who administers a credit file monitoring subscription service to which the consumer has subscribed;
(10) a person for the purpose of providing a consumer with a copy of the consumer’s report on the consumer’s request;
(11) a check service or fraud prevention service company that issues consumer reports:
(A) to prevent or investigate fraud; or
(B) for purposes of approving or processing negotiable instruments, electronic funds transfers, or similar methods of payment;
(12) a deposit account information service company that issues consumer reports related to account closures caused by fraud, substantial overdrafts, automated teller machine abuses, or similar negative information regarding a consumer to an inquiring financial institution for use by the financial institution only in reviewing a consumer request for a deposit account with that institution; or
(13) a consumer reporting agency that:
(A) acts only to resell credit information by assembling and merging information contained in a database of another consumer reporting agency or multiple consumer reporting agencies; and
(B) does not maintain a permanent database of credit information from which new consumer reports are produced.


Text of section effective until April 01, 2025

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