Consumer complaint received 2024-04-03
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: Affirm Holdings, Inc (TN)

This complaint is in response to CFPB complaint number XXXX regarding inaccurate information with a creditor called AFFIRM. I stated that they are in fact inaccurately reporting the account on my credit reports. They investigated the account and determined that the account was accurate. They failed to correct the account as the late payments are being disclosed inaccurately and it is damaging my reputation. This account is hereby disputed because AFFIRM verified an inaccurate unverifiable account. I have already circled the inaccuracies in my credit report and provided it to them, but they are overlooking the disorderly late payment notations. It has been over 30 days and you have not properly verified the information. 
Id. at 1303 ; see also XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX. 2019 ) ( defining verify as [ t ] o prove to be true ; to confirm or establish the truth or truthfulness of ; to authenticate ). " Congress put express requirements on companies with respect to information that can not be verified. Those requirements would be meaningless if companies could continue providing unverified information and telling credit reporting companies that they could continue sharing it. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX To XXXX fair and accurate credit reporting, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires consumer reporting agencies ( CRAs ) and entities that furnish information to CRAs ( furnishers ) often, but not always, creditorsto follow various requirements when they compile and disseminate personal information about individuals. One of those requirements is that furnishers must reasonably investigate consumers disputes regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information furnished. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX To ensure fair and accurate credit reporting, the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ), 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq., imposes various requirements that consumer reporting agencies and the companies that provide those agencies information about consumers, known as furnishers, must follow. As relevant here, under Section 1681s-2 ( b ) of the FCRA, when a consumer disputes the completeness or accuracy of information in her credit report with a consumer reporting agency and the agency forwards the dispute to the furnisher, the furnisher must conduct an investigation to determine whether the disputed information can be verified and cease reporting any information that can not be verified. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 
The Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission filed an amicus brief arguing that the duty to investigate applies not only to factual disputes, but also disputes that can be labeled as legal in nature. The brief explains that, among other things, a contrary approach is not supported by the statute, risks exposing consumers to more inaccurate credit reporting, and undercuts the remedial purpose of the FCRA. It also explains that the statute does not authorize furnishers to forgo investigating any dispute simply because there may be colorable arguments on both sides. The brief also argues that, to conduct a reasonable investigation, a furnisher may need to look beyond the information already within the furnishers possession.