Why the CFPB Is Suing Experian—And How It Could Impact YOUR Credit Score

Hey, credit heroes. Is it possible that the credit bureau Experian has been acting illegally when it comes to processing your dispute letters? Well, yes, the CFPB certainly thinks so. The CFPB just sued Experian for their bull investigations. And right now, today, I'm going to explain what this lawsuit potentially means for you, for your credit repair business, and for the work you do every day. So you better stick around. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business secrets. In the 20 years since releasing my first credit repair software, I have helped thousands of businesses scale from the ground up. And I've experienced many of the same challenges that credit heroes face. And I've learned proven ways to overcome them and succeed. But here's something that I've hardly ever seen. The government is actually sticking up for the little guy. The CFPB is suing Experian because of the way they're investigating errors. On the surface, you might not think this is a big deal. Well, for anyone who has credit issues, especially with Experian, and for anyone who has disputed a credit error, this is a major told you so moment. Here's how this relates to us. One of the key parts of credit repair is that your credit report is supposed to be accurate. That's your right. But it's very often not accurate. Why? Because the credit bureaus, especially Experian, are very shady and they make a lot of errors. But when you catch them on those errors and you send them a dispute letter, they are either slow to respond or they say it's accurate, or they send stall letters, and it's important. Incredibly frustrating for businesses and consumers because your credit doesn't get fixed. And inaccurate or false information on credit reports can threaten your access to credit, employment and housing. So now the CFPB caught them in their lies, and they say that they are not properly looking into these things. And we already knew that. Right? Here's where this comes from. So let's talk about the specifics of this lawsuit. The cfpb, which stands for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was created after the big financial meltdown of 2008. The Fair Credit Reporting act requires that consumer reporting agencies like Experian ensure that their credit reports are accurate and conduct investigations of information disputed by consumers. The Fair Credit Reporting act also requires reporting agencies to follow certain procedures before reinserting information that has previously been removed as a result of a dispute. And that is important to remember. And finally, the Fair Credit Reporting act also provides people with many ways to dispute inaccurate information on their reports. By contacting the reporting agencies directly. The Fair Credit Reporting act is the basis for of all credit repair. So in their lawsuit, the CFPB alleges that Experian did not take sufficient steps to intake, process, investigate and notify consumers about consumer disputes. They say that when people disputed errors on their credit reports, Experian conducted sham investigations rather than properly reviewing their disputes as required. So this lawsuit affects a couple different issues including hard inquiries, the 30 day timeline that disputes must be processed and how Experian manipulates them, including giving fake deletions and the disadvantages of online disputes versus mail or telephone disputes. See, normally Experian takes data from furnishers like banks or credit card companies and businesses which it then uses to compromise a credit score and a credit report. But the CFPB alleges that when handling disputes, Experian uses faulty intake procedures and does not accurately convey all relevant information about disputes to the original furnisher. And when a furnisher would respond to a dispute, Experian would just take them at their word, even when that response was improbable or illogical on its face, or when Experian has information that suggests that the furniture is unreliable. Plus, Experian failed to prevent or greatly reduce the likelihood of reinsertion by a new furniture of a previously deleted trade line. So if you disputed the accuracy of an account and you were under the impression that your report was corrected, you might see the same inaccurate information reappear under a new furnisher's name and not receive an explanation of how that happened. Look, I'm a compassionate guy and I hate to see someone or some company hassled by the government and facing a lawsuit. I've certainly had my beef with the cfpb. They came after us. But in this case, I'm a big fan of the cfpb. This lawsuit seeks to stop Experian's unlawful conduct and it imposes a civil money penalty for harm consumers which would be paid into the CFPB's Victims Relief Fund. So stay tuned for that. And the hope is that this will have a ripple effect on the other credit bureaus. And you can bet that TransUnion and Equifax are shaking in their boots and maybe hopefully examining their practices. Here's why this is important. In light of all this, it's important to understand the basics of credit repair and disputing your credit report if you see any errors. So let's go over the disputing process again. Number one, Reasons and instructions. Make sure to include a reason and instruction for each item that you're disputing, make it obvious what you're disputing and why. Explain it to them like they are little children, stating exactly what you want and using clear language that helps speed things along and avoids delays. Now, this recent development with the CFPB suing Experian, it gives you new ammunition. So feel free to add the following language or something similar to your dispute letters. And I'm going to put this passage also down below in the show Notes in light of the recent lawsuit filed against Experian by the cfpb, I am requesting a thorough and fair investigation of the disputed information on my credit report. The lawsuit highlights concerns regarding compliance with federal consumer protection laws and the accuracy of credit reporting practices. As a consumer, I trust Experian will uphold its responsibility under the Fair Credit Reporting act to ensure that all information reported is accurate, complete and verifiable. And if the disputed information cannot be verified as accurate after a fair investigation, I request its prompt deletion from my credit file. This request is made in good faith to ensure my credit report reflects truthful and accurate information okay, Number two Provide ID and proof of address before you mail out your first round of letters to the credit bureaus, make sure to include a photo ID like your driver's license or a passport, and proof of address like a utility bill or a bank statement. They won't send you the results until you prove that you are who you say you are and that you prove where you live. If you're helping other people Credit Repair Cloud's client portal makes it very easy for for your clients to upload their ID and proof of address during their client onboarding. They can even take a picture of it with their smartphone and upload it to the secure client portal. Number three Provide proof if you have it. What do I mean by proof? Proof could be things like a police report if you were the victim of identity theft, an agreement with a debt collector to delete an account that you paid but they failed to do so, or even a letter showing a mistake that a creditor made. If you have it, use it. And here's a reminder. Make every single one of your letters count. Dispute letters need to be accurate, persuasive and strategic. This is a common mistake that credit heroes make. The credit bureaus are looking for any reason to reject your letters, and every stall letter and rejection that you receive slows down the process of getting real results. Set a reminder to send a reminder. The Fair Credit Reporting act requires the credit bureaus to respond within 30 days of receiving your letters. So if the credit bureaus don't respond after 30 days, send a non response letter letter demanding that they respond, or maybe even a stoppable by silence letter if you're dealing with a debt collector. Again, this is where this recent lawsuit provides you with new leverage. The credit bureaus are now very mindful of their activity and their inactivity, so remind yourself to send your 30 day reminder. And number five, feel free to use our AI to create your custom disputes. Not long ago we created a feature in Credit Repair Cloud called Letters by AI and this helps to create letters that don't sound like they're from a template which could make them more likely to get rejected. Our unique AI generated letters reduce the risk of credit bureaus flagging your disputes as templates because every single letter is now unique. Less rejections mean faster results for for you and your clients and a better success rate. Just choose a round one or round two and higher letter, find the template you want and then click the green Generate AI letter for a unique and powerful letter in seconds. Here's my final point. As credit heroes, you've always fought for fairness, transparency and empowerment. And you've held out hope that the credit bureaus would take your discretion seriously and investigate them in good faith. But we've known better, right? We've been calling out for justice and I believe there is a need for credit repair done right and to hold the credit bureaus accountable. And this is a huge step in the right direction. Fairer and more accurate credit reporting is on the way, which is a huge win for everyone on the credit hero journey. And I'll end by saying if you want some advice for fighting stall letters from successful credit heroes, check out this episode and if you'd like to improve your credit score and discover how to earn extra income repairing Credit for others, check out my brand new Start Repairing Credit Challenge. So sign up right now@startrepairingcredit.com and keep changing lives.