Credit Bureaus Under Fire Again!!! CFPB Releases Consumer Response Rates Are Officially Under 2%
Equifax, Experian, and Transunion Have Continually Failed to Respond to Consumer Reporting Errors.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") has released a new analysis of the nationwide consumer reporting companies and the failure to respond to consumer complaints regarding errors found on their consumer reports.
To be exact, the CFPB states that over 700,000 complaints were submitted to them between January 2020 through September 2021, and less than 2% of covered complaints were responded to all together. That calculates to approximately 14, 000 consumer complaints being responded to out of 700,000.
Response rates are down a whopping 23%, in 2019 Equifax, Experian, and Transunion only responded to 25% of covered complaints. This is unacceptable since 80% of consumer reports contain errors.
Why Equifax, Experian, and Transunion Failed to Meet Statutory Obligations
Recent reports show that the big three states that most complaints were sent by third parties, which is an unacceptable answer because consumers can authorize third party representatives to submit complaints on their behalf.
Equifax promised to open investigations and send results to consumers at later dates, but failed to follow through.
Transunion made similar claims and promises, but often stated no action would be taken because complaints were submitted by third parties.
Experian often claimed complaints were submitted by third parties and would take no action. They did however respond to the remaining complaints with substantive responses.
It does not matter if complaints were submitted by third party representatives or not, they still should have been answered. As of this article more than 50% of these complaints still have not been reviewed, although the should have been.
Main Account Complaints Were Medical Debt Mistakes
Most complaints that were submitted were related to medical debt mistakes found on their consumer reports. Most consumers complain that they often struggle with even determining if the medical debt actually belonged to them, and if the amounts were even correct. Medical billing is just one example of the many errors normally found on consumer reports.
Your consumer credit reports should not be reporting with any known errors. It is the credit bureaus legal duty and obligations to ensure that your consumer credit report is reporting correctly. Take time today to review your consumer credit reports for errors, and take the appropriate steps to correct any incorrect information being reported. It is your legal right to do so.