On 1/5/22, the CFPB issued its annual report on credit and consumer reporting complaints which includes an analysis of complaint responses by the three largest nationwide consumer reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Based on the report, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion routinely failed to fully respond to consumers with errors.
In 2021, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion together reported relief in response to less than 2% of covered complaints, down from nearly 25% of covered complaints in 2019. According to the report, consumers submitted more than 700,000 complaints to the CFPB regarding the three companies from January 2020 through September 2021, which represented more than 50% of all complaints received by the agency for that period. Majority of the complaints are about inaccurate information on their credit and consumer reports.
In its analysis, the CFPB found that the three companies often failed to provide substantive responses, especially when they alleged the complaints were sent in by third parties when in fact, consumers can authorize third-party representatives to submit complaints on their behalf. The report shows that Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion fail to meet statutory obligations as highlighted below:
Equifax most often promised to open investigations and send the results to the consumers at later dates, but it would fail to provide the CFPB with the outcomes of the investigations.
TransUnion made similar promises and frequently failed to provide the outcomes of investigations to the CFPB. It often stated it would take no action on complaints because it believed the complaints were submitted by third parties.
For many complaints, Experian frequently stated it would take no action because it believed the complaints were submitted by third parties, however, it did respond to the remaining complaints with substantive responses.
Based on the CFPB’s annual report, consumers describe a consumer reporting system that is not working for them and the serious consequences that follow when inaccurate information is—and remains—on their consumer reports. Other key findings from the report include:
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion relied heavily on template complaint responses instead of providing meaningful and thorough responses to consumers, despite having up to 60 calendar days to respond.
Beginning in early 2020, Experian and TransUnion stopped providing substantive responses to consumers’ complaints if they suspected that a third-party was involved in submitting a complaint.
In many instances, Equifax and TransUnion promised to investigate but failed to provide the outcomes of their investigations to the CFPB and instead stated that they would forward the complaints to their “dispute channel.”
See CFPB’s full release here.
