Credit Bureaus to Pay for Deceiving Consumers – by Daniel Heilbrun.
TransUnion and Equifax are two of the largest consumer credit reporting bureaus. They offer free reports on www.annualcreditreport.com once a year. This site is created by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, when you are getting your free credit report, make sure you do not fall for any ploys or schemes to get you to pay for the report. The Consumer Financial Protections Bureau just ordered two credit bureaus to pay for deceiving consumers. The two bureaus are TransUnion and Equifax.
Fair Credit Reporting Act
In fact, 15 U.S. Code § 1681j (the Fair Credit Reporting Act) states that, for “[c]harges for certain disclosures:…
(g) Prevention of deceptive marketing of credit reports
(1) In general
Subject to rulemaking pursuant to section 205(b) of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, any advertisement for a free credit report in any medium shall prominently disclose in such advertisement that free credit reports are available under Federal law at: “AnnualCreditReport.com” (or such other source as may be authorized under Federal law).
(2) Television and radio advertisement
In the case of an advertisement broadcast by television, the disclosures required under paragraph (1) shall be included in the audio and visual part of such advertisement. In the case of an advertisement broadcast by televison or radio, the disclosure required under paragraph (1) shall consist only of the following: “This is not the free credit report provided for by Federal law”.”
Credit Bureaus Pay
Recently, Equifax and TransUnion have been fined for misleading customers into paying for credit scores and for duping consumers into signing up for recurring payments for credit monitoring. See more here:
CFPB Orders TransUnion and Equifax to Pay for Deceiving Consumers
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-transunion-and-equifax-pay-deceiving-consumers-marketing-credit-scores-and-credit-products/
Credit reporting is a big business. Many of these big bureaus make over $1bn a year. Their only job is to maintain accurate credit. Make sure they keep your report up to date and accurate as well. Please call the original California Debt Harassment Attorney for a free consultation today! 858-869-9404.
