Consumer complaint received 2020-12-31
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Unable to get your credit report or credit score — Problem getting your free annual credit report
Company: EQUIFAX, INC. (CA)

I have two complaints about practices by the three credit bureaus. The first concerns deceiving consumers into purchasing memberships and paid products by concealing the consumer 's right to a free annual credit report without signing up for an account or membership. I plan to apply for a refinance mortgage in the next few weeks to take advantage of low interest rates and so I went online to the 3 credit bureaus ' websites ( XXXX, Equifax, and XXXX ) to obtain my free annual credit report in order to correct any errors prior to submitting my mortage application. In this process, I discovered deceptive practices by the 3 bureaus. XXXX has nothing about free annual credit reports on their home page and instead has a large button " my credit score and report '' that leads the consumer to sign up for a XXXX account. Equifax has a button " get free credit report '' near the bottom of the page, that leads to another page, that says " you may already know that there are multiple ways to get a free credit report '' and lures consumers to sign up and create an Equifax account. There is a button that leads to XXXX, which is the true source of free annual credit reports required by federal law. However it is buried among multiple buttons and links that lure consumers to sign up for an Equifax account and purchase paid products. XXXX has nothing on its home page about free annual credit reports required by federal law and has a very large banner at the top of the page " YOUR CREDIT REPORT AND FICO SCORE -- ALL FREE '' and a large button that says " YES LET 'S GO ''. The button leads the consumer to sign up for an XXXX account. These practices constitute deceptive acts to confuse and mislead the consumer into creating an account, where the bureaus at least collect more information about each consumer and almost always lead to the consumer purchasing paid products. The consumer who just wants to know what is on her credit report is frustrated and deceived into signing up for an account. To comply with the intent of Congress in requiring free annual credit reports, each of the bureaus should be required to include as the first thing the consumer sees on their websites, in at least 20 point font, a message similar to the following : " Federal law requires us to provide you with a free annual credit report. You do not have to sign up for an account or purchase any products from us to obtain your free report. Consumers should first obtain their free annual credit report by clicking here. If after reviewing your free report you are interested in signing up for an account or purchasing paid products, you can return to this page to see our paid products below. '' As explained in more detail below, credit reports have a very high rate of erroneous information. The credit bureaus create false information about consumers and then profit from it by selling " memberships '' that " allow '' consumers to monitor their reports to discover and correct false information. As such, they are an industry that requires very close supervision and, I believe, the suggested warning and link are both reasonable and necessary to protect consumers and effectuate the intent of Congress. I do not have time right now to submit a formal petition to institute rule making, however CFPB staff may construe this as a request to institute rule making, or act on this suggestion sua sponte and initiate a rule or, if you believe you have existing authority, require better information to consumers about free credit reports through an enforcement action. I believe the foregoing problem and solution are simple and straightforward and worthy of your consideration. The second complaint, about the plethora of false information on credit reports, and how this complicates the consumer 's task in obtaining their free credit report is admittedly more complex. I did eventually find my way to XXXX. However, I was only able to obtain a report from XXXX. Equifax and XXXX denied my request because of false information on my credit report that did not match the information I provided. First, the only way I can ever obtain my credit report is to look back at the last report I received from each bureau. This is because the bureaus each think I have a different address. So I must use whatever address each bureau had for me on my last report. None of which are my actual address ( some are past addresses ; some are business addresses ; one is a P.O. Box that I sometimes use ). Next, one of the challenge questions from Transunion asked " which of these people live in XXXX? '' I lived in XXXX California about 20 years ago. I did not recognize any of the names and certainly none of the names were relatives or close associates. So I checked " none of the above '' which was a wrong answer and my request was therefore denied. I also failed one of the Equifax challenge questions, which asked which of the following consumer accounts did you open in 2019? There were then a list of department store accounts. I have never had a department store credit card or credit account. So I answered " none. '' This was wrong and I was denied. I did answer all of the XXXX questions and got my report online from XXXX. So for Equifax and XXXX, I was denied because the bureaus have false information in my file that I had a certain account when I didn't and because they mistakenly believe one of the XXXX names was a close associate when it isn't. I searched for a phone number to call someone at either XXXX or XXXX or Equifax. Any phone number was difficult to locate and after calling it there were only automated options and no possibility to talk to a human being. My suggestion here is to require that the bureaus provide a fully staffed call center where consumers attempting to obtain their reports online and encountering problems like mine can reach a human being who can then ask alternate questions and make a judgment as to whether the report will be released online in real time. It is important to prevent fraudulent access to credit reports. It is also important to allow consumers access to their account. Both goals can be served by providing real time access to a human being. This will cost the bureaus money but they are profiting in the billions from gathering and disseminating information that ultimately is the property of each consumer. They can afford to staff a call center. Thank you for considering my complaints and suggestions for resolving them.