Credit Reporting Companies Under Fire (Again)

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) says the big three credit reporting companies are still not playing well with others . A new report from the agency says Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion together only responded or reported providing relief to less than 2 percent of covered complaints from consumers in 2021, down from nearly 25 percent in 2019. “America’s credit reporting oligopoly has little incentive to treat consumers fairly when their credit reports have errors,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Today’s report is further evidence of the serious harms stemming from their faulty financial surveillance business model.” CFPB says more than 200 million Americans have credit files and the contents therein play a critical role in their lives, impacting more than just their access to financial services. Lenders, of course, rely on this information in deciding on whether or not to approve loans and on what terms, but the information is also used in employment decisions, and in obtaining access to housing, insurance, and essential utilities. Inaccuracies in credit files drive up the cost of credit and limit opportunities such as starting a small business or buying a home. The agency received more than 700,000 consumer complaints about the three reporting companies from January 2020 through September of last year, representing more than half of all complaints the agency received during that period. The most frequent complaint CFPB receives is about inaccurate credit file information, with consumers most often claiming that the inaccurate data belongs to someone else or describing being victims of identity theft.