Mistakes on your credit report could cost you thousands

The Equifax data breach came to light back in September 2017—and consumers are still fuming.

Complaints about credit reporting, credit repair services and issues such as errors on individual consumer credit reports, made up 43% of all the complaints made to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to an analysis by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

That’s up from 23% of total complaints back in 2016, before the Equifax breach.

The analysis looked at data from 2011, when the CFPB began collecting complaints, to Jan. 14, which is when PIRG downloaded the data to review.

CFPB, a federal consumer watchdog agency, published a record 257,000 consumer complaints in 2018—including all complaints, according to the PIRG analysis. That brings the total complaints to nearly 1.2 million in seven years.

Complaints might include issues with a payday lender who won’t stop withdrawing money from a bank account, difficulty dealing with a student loan servicer, problems involving mortgage lenders.

Oddly enough, all the complaints made to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are mired in another controversy, too.

Consumer watchdogs, such as PIRG, fear that one day the federal agency will hide such complaints from public view.

Kathy Kraninger, the new director of the bureau, told Reuters in April that discussions were ongoing regarding how the public complaints database, a key source of the bureau’s investigations, should operate.

According to the Reuters interview, Kraninger acknowledged the database, which went public to boost transparency, supported the bureau’s mission to protect borrowers. But she did not rule out making it private.

How the agency protects consumers

In general, the agency’s database has helped consumers get timely responses, see their problems resolved and receive their money back in some cases.

More than 223,000 complaints resulted in relief for consumers, including in many cases where consumers got money back from the companies they complained about. Throughout its history, the CFPB has secured $12.4 billion in relief for more than 31 million wronged consumers and acted against companies that break the law.

“And that’s precisely why the database is made public,” said Mike Litt, PIRG’s consumer campaign director.

Consumers and others can search the database by name of company, product, state, and by response from the company. See www.consumerfinance.gov/ data-research/consumer-complaints/.

The reality is that some companies would love to keep consumers in the dark when there are a string of complaints involving an ongoing concern. Legislators seek fines when data is compromised Just go back to the Equifax data breach back in 2017. The massive digital break-in took place sometime between May 13, 2017, and July 30, 2017. When did consumers find out that vital information, including Social Security numbers, was now at risk? Early September of that year.

The anger remains: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and a group of congressional Democrats reintroduced legislation this year, which would require credit reporting agencies to pay $100 for each consumer whose personal data is compromised.

“Under this bill, Equifax would have paid at least a $1.5 billion penalty for their failure to protect Americans’ personal information,” according to Warren’s announcement relating to the bill.

Such a steep, mandatory penalty is viewed as bad policy by the industry, according to Francis Creighton, president & CEO for the Consumer Data Industry Association in Washington, D.C.

“No one would be able to afford the fines that are envisioned in this bill,” he said.

He noted that the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau relating to the Equifax breach is ongoing and it’s expected that financial penalties ultimately will be part of the picture. An exact timeline isn’t known.

The fury that continues, of course, is fueled by the fact that hackers stole personal information involving 145.5 million people.

A report called “Breach of Trust”—which was issued May 7 by Warren and other Congressional Democrats—charged that more than 18 months after the breach was announced consumers continue to file complaints against Equifax at a higher rate than before the breach.

In the 18 months between Sept. 7, 2017, when Equifax announced the breach, and March 6, 2019, consumers filed 52,031 complaints with the CFPB related to Equifax, according to the report prepared by U.S. Sens. Warren, Mark Warner, D-Va., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and U.S. Rep, Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.