Your Credit Score Just Got Better

The three largest companies to collect and disseminate credit information for millions of Americans – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – now must significantly change the way they treat disputed information on credit reports as part of a massive multi-state settlement. The credit reporting agencies (CRAs) entered into a settlement with 31 states attorneys general on Wednesday that requires them to pay $6 million to the states and revamp their business practices including fixing disputed information on credit reports more quickly, waiting longer to add potentially damaging information on medical debt and scrutinizing data furnished by outside entities. “Today is a good day for all consumers to go shopping,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who led the charge, said in a statement. The comprehensive multi-state settlement helps protect consumers from credit reports that are wrong, out of date, or even mixed up with someone else’s report, and it will reduce the chance that a consumer is wrongly denied a house loan, a car loan, or even a job, because of an inaccurate credit report. The settlement stems from an investigation initiated by DeWine back in 2012 -- which covered 31 states that focused on consumer disputes about credit report errors, monitoring and disciplining data furnishers, accuracy in consumer credit reports, and the marketing of credit monitoring products to consumers who call the credit reporting agencies to dispute information on their credit report. The settlement provides protections to consumers nationwide by ensuring that they will have greater control over their financial lives. In all, the agreement requires the three big CRAs to: • Maintain information about problems with entities that furnish them data and make that information available to states; • Use a better, more detailed system to share data with furnishers; • Create an extensive process for complicated disputes involving identity theft, fraud or cases in which two people’s identities have been confused; • Launch investigations when consumers report mistakes; • Refrain from peddling fee-based credit-monitoring services or other products until a consumer’s complaint is resolved; • Educate consumers about how they can further dispute the outcome of an investigation; • Provide the name of the original creditor when a debt collector seeks to add an unpaid bill to a credit report Additionally, the CRAs are prohibited from adding information about fines and tickets to a consumer’s report and bans the agencies from including medical debt until 180 days after it is reported, in order to give consumers time to work with hospitals and insurance companies. When it comes to disputes, the agencies are now required to provide consumers with an extra free credit report in a 12-month period if the information they challenged creates a change in their report. The changes are to be implemented in three phases to allow the agencies to update their IT systems and procedures. All changes must be made by three years and 90 days following the settlement’s effective date -- this means by August 2018. Ohio, Nevada, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin are the states included in the Settlement. The multi-state settlement comes nearly three months after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a similar agreement with the same CRAs. Experian, Equifax and Transunion must make nationwide policy changes regarding the ways they handle errors, resolve disputes and list unpaid medical bills [and] thee three CRAs will now be required to use trained employees to review documentation consumers submit when they believe there is an error in their credit files, even if a creditor says the information is correct. This is good news. Your Credit Score is already looking better! Sit back and relax and enjoy the valuable gift of credit because the 31 State Agreement has you covered and shop to you drop.