In 2021, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion collectively received over 700,000 consumer complaints filed against them at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The three major credit bureaus, who are responsible for collecting and maintaining credit records, received more than half of all of the CFPB’s complaints in 2021.
The CFBP noted that the pattern of complaints revealed that all three bureaus routinely provided consumers with form or template responses instead of meaningful responses to consumers who had concerns about the validity of data in their credit reports.
According to the CFPB, TransUnion and Experian stopped responding to disputes that they felt were submitted by a third party. Consumers have the right to have a third party represent them and submit disputes on their behalf.
The CFPB further reported that 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.'”
You can review the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Annual report of credit and consumer reporting complaints here.