Some asking Congress to hold Equifax, Experian, Transunion more accountable

Many consumers complain about the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

After all, their decisions can impact how much you pay for loans, insurance and even cellphone plans.

For example, Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke has reported on an issue that comes up time and again: “death by credit bureau.”

In 2014, he spoke with Kim Chandler. She went to put her student loans in her own name and said, “The banking manager told me he was sorry to be the one to inform me, but that I had been deceased.”

She didn’t even know that could happen. “Because I’m very alive.”

Right before the pandemic, Jacqueline Hubbard told Stoogenke a similar story. “It impacts your whole life,” she said.

A month later, Stoogenke reported on a Charlotte man and two others suing Equifax over death by credit bureau. They eventually settled the case.

Last week, a National Consumer Law Center lawyer testified before Congress, demanding the government do more to hold credit reporting agencies accountable.

She accused the agencies of “unacceptable error rates,” nightmarish “dispute system(s),” “racial disparities” and the “unfair impact of medical debt” on credit scores.

She also claimed the system stigmatizes “consumers who have fallen on hard times as irresponsible deadbeats.”

She made multiple suggestions, including:

• Having a moratorium on negative credit for anything that happened during the pandemic.
• Limiting how much medical debt plays a part in your credit score.
• Limiting how long negative information stays on your record.

The head of the House Committee, Maxine Waters (D-Calif., 43rd District), posted on the committee’s page:

“Good credit is a gateway to wealth. Yet, for far too long, our credit reporting system has kept people of color and low-income persons from access to capital to start a small business; access to mortgage loans to become homeowners; and access to credit to meet financial emergencies.”

She added, “We need big, bold legislative solutions to transform this broken system. So, I encourage my colleagues to join me in re-evaluating how we determine creditworthiness and learning how we can harness new technologies to build a fairer and equitable credit system.”

Stoogenke emailed all three credit reporting agencies for their reaction to all this. They didn’t respond in time for this report.

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