On January 7, 2025, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Experian alleging that Experian violated FCRA by failing to properly conduct reinvestigations of disputed information in consumer credit files; failing to delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverified information in consumer credit files; failing to provide adequate written notice to consumers of the results of its reinvestigations; failing to prevent the improper reinsertion of previously deleted information from consumer credit files; and failing to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the credit information Experian reports on consumers. In addition, the complaint alleges that Experian committed unfair acts or practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by (1) failing to convey consumers’ disputes to furnishers fully and accurately, and instead distorting, truncating, and mischaracterizing consumers’ disputes; (2) relying excessively on furnishers to resolve disputes, routinely doing nothing more than sending the dispute to a furnisher and implementing the furnisher’s response, despite having evidence of that furnisher’s unreliability; and (3) improperly reinserting tradelines into consumer credit reports due to its practice of failing to adequately match newly reported tradelines to tradelines that were previously deleted as a result of a dispute if the subsequent furnishing was from a new furnisher. The Bureau seeks, among other things, to bring Experian into compliance with the law, consumer redress, and the imposition of civil money penalties.
Understanding the FCRA - Credit Reporting Law
Join Attorney G. John Cento and the Indiana Paralegal Association at their August 21st Monthly Meeting on Credit Reporting 101.
Attendees will learn all about credit reports, including how they are created, how to read them, and what to do when they contain inaccurate information. Credit Reporting 101 will also introduce those in attendance to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and some of its core consumer protections.
NPR - Millions of Americans have medical debt that's hurting their credit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated it's as many as 43 million people, according to data released in late 2014.
Now, some relief may be on the way.
Changes in the way credit agencies report and evaluate medical debt are in the works. They should reduce some of the painful financial consequences of having a health care problem.
Starting Sept. 15, the three major credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — will set a 180-day waiting period before including medical debt on a consumer's credit report. The six-month period is intended to ensure there's enough time to resolve disputes with insurers and delays in payment.
A credit report is not the same thing that you get when you ask for your "credit report" directly from the credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion or through AnnualCreditReport.com. That document that you get when you go directly to a consumer reporting agency is a document known in the credit reporting industry as a consumer disclosure. The purpose of a consumer disclosure is to comply with the federal law which requires the credit reporting agencies to disclose the contents of your credit file to you when you ask for it. Nor is a credit report something that currently exists at this very moment. Unless it just so happens that right now you are applying for credit, you don't have a credit report. A credit report is something that is created at the moment it is asked for.
At its most basic level, a credit report is simply a report that is...
The term "credit file" is often used interchangeably with "credit report", but in the credit reporting industry these terms are distinctly different. A credit file is a bit of raw data contained within a database. At any given time, the national consumer reporting agencies maintain hundreds of millions of consumer credit files in their databases. According to some estimates these files relate to approximately 250 million credit active consumers across the United States. This means that many consumers have more than one credit file in a consumer reporting agency's system.
A "credit report" is something that does not currently exist. A credit report is created at the moment that it is asked for. Your credit report might look different today than it will a month from now, and most certainly will look different than it did three months ago. ...
