Consumer complaint received 2025-03-17 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
CFPB Director XXXX XXXX has asserted that when consumers dispute inaccuracies on their credit reports, Experian conducts perfunctory re-investigationswhat many characterize as sham investigationsinstead of performing the thorough reviews mandated by federal law. According to the director, such errors in credit reporting can have severe financial repercussions for families, making it imperative that consumer reporting agencies adhere strictly to statutory requirements. 

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ), agencies are obligated to take reasonable measures to ensure that consumer reports are accurate, and to investigate any information that consumers dispute. Moreover, the FCRA requires that agencies follow specific procedures before reinserting information into consumer reports that was previously removed as a result of a dispute. 

The CFPB further alleges that Experian employs defective dispute intake procedures and fails to convey all pertinent details of disputes to the original furnisher. The agency is said to routinely and uncritically accept responses from furnisherseven when such responses are either improbable, illogical, or contradicted by other available evidence regarding the furnishers reliability. At the conclusion of its investigations, Experian reportedly sends consumers notices that are confusing, ambiguous, or internally inconsistent, thereby failing to clearly communicate the investigations outcome. 

In addition, Experian has not implemented basic matching tools that could prevent the erroneous reinsertion of previously deleted tradelines. As a result, inaccurate information is sometimes reintroduced into consumer reports under a different furnishers name, without proper explanation, even after consumers have disputed the original inaccuracies. 

It is also important to note that Experian maintains that it does not conduct initial investigations, but only re-investigations, as a matter of policy. However, this practice directly contravenes the requirements of the FCRA. 

These practices, according to the CFPB, also violate the XXXXnsumer Financial Protection Acts prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices. Under this Act, the CFPB is empowered to take enforcement action against institutions that flout consumer financial protection laws, including the FCRA. Consequently, the CFPBs lawsuit seeks to halt these alleged unlawful practices, to secure redress for affected consumers, and to impose a civil monetary penalty on the company. 

The accounts in question are an XXXX account, XXXX XXXX XXXX account, XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX account, XXXX XXXX XXXX account, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account that was deleted from a dispute I contacted Experian about then reinserted under a third party named ABSOLUTE RESOLUTIONS I. This is one of the reasons the CFPB is suing EXPERIAN

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation