Possibly, you may have some recourse if the creditor discriminated against you because of your race or gender under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), a federal law passed in 1974 to prohibit such conduct. The law prohibits creditors from discriminating on the basis of “race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status or age.”

A creditor can deny you credit because you have a bad credit history, but not because of the aforementioned factors.