Clarity Services Credit Report Errors

The Kim Law Firm represents consumers harmed by inaccurate reporting from Clarity Services. Clarity Services is a specialty consumer reporting agency: lenders pull its reports to decide whether to approve you for subprime, payday, installment, and other short-term loans. When Clarity Services reports something about you that is wrong or is not yours, you can be denied credit or pushed into worse terms — and the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to force a correction and recover money for the harm it causes. This page explains who Clarity Services is, how to get your report and dispute it, and how we can help.

Who is Clarity Services?

Clarity Services, Inc. is a specialty consumer reporting agency owned by Experian that focuses on the subprime and alternative-lending market. Payday, installment, and other short-term lenders pull a Clarity report to decide whether to approve you, so the data Clarity holds about your past short-term loans and applications directly affects whether you are approved and on what terms.

Why a Clarity Services error matters

Because Clarity Services sells reports to lenders in the subprime and short-term-lending market, an error on your file can quietly cost you. A wrong entry can get you denied for a loan, approved only at a higher rate, or flagged as a bad risk based on data that is inaccurate or is not even yours. Many consumers have never heard of Clarity Services until a lender denies them because of it.

Is Clarity Services reporting inaccurate information about you?

The most damaging Clarity Services errors we see include:

• It is not your data (identity theft). A loan or application someone else made in your name can appear on your Clarity Services file.
• Someone else's file mixed with yours. If Clarity Services merges your file with another person who has a similar name or Social Security number, you may have a mixed file — one of the most damaging reporting errors.
• A loan you paid still showing as unpaid or in default. Short-term loans that were repaid, settled, or discharged can keep reporting a balance or default.
• Outdated or duplicate entries. The same loan reported twice, or negative information kept past the time the law allows.

Each of these is a potential violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which can entitle you to have the item corrected or deleted and to recover damages, often at no cost to you.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Clarity Services is a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681). That means it must follow reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy of what it reports (§ 1681e(b)), it must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation when you dispute an error (§ 1681i), and it must give you a free copy of your report on request. When it fails to fix an error after a proper dispute, it can be held accountable — and if the violation was willful, you may be entitled to additional damages.

How to get your Clarity Services report and dispute an error

Clarity Services is an Experian company. Request your free consumer report and file disputes through Clarity's consumer disclosure page at clarityservices.com (consumer support 1-866-390-3118). Send any written dispute by a method you can prove, and keep copies.

Then dispute every inaccuracy in writing, keep copies of everything you send and receive, and if the error is the result of identity theft, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov and include it. If Clarity Services does not correct the error after a proper dispute, you may have a claim under the FCRA.

Clarity Services and consumer-protection law

In 2015 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Clarity Services and its owner to pay an $8 million penalty for Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, including obtaining consumer credit reports without a permissible purpose. Clarity is a nationwide specialty consumer reporting agency, which means it must give you a free report on request and reinvestigate your disputes. Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If a Clarity report is inaccurate, you have strong grounds to demand a correction.

Who we can help and who we can not

We represent consumers whose Clarity Services report contains inaccurate information — data that is not yours, a mixed file, a paid loan still reported as unpaid, or outdated entries. That is the kind of Fair Credit Reporting Act problem we handle. We are not the right firm if the information Clarity Services is reporting is accurate and you simply do not want it reported, or if you are looking for a way out of a loan you genuinely owe. Our focus is fixing inaccurate reporting and recovering damages for the harm it causes.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

If you disputed a Clarity Services error and it was not fixed — or the damage is already done — we can help. We hold consumer reporting agencies accountable under the FCRA: we demand that the error be corrected and we pursue compensation for the harm it caused. The FCRA lets us recover our fees from the agency that broke the law, so your case review is free and we work on a no-fee-unless-we-win basis. Start your free case review or call 855-996-6342 today.

Dealing with a different reporting agency? See our pages on the nationwide credit bureaus and our other consumer-reporting resources.

The other subprime bureaus a lender may pull instead

Clarity is rarely the only file a short-term lender checks, and fixing Clarity does nothing to fix the others. Four separate companies hold overlapping records on the same borrowers, and three of the four are owned by the same conglomerates that run the national credit bureaus. Knowing which is which tells you where a dispute actually has to be sent.

• Teletrack — owned by Equifax and the best-known name in payday lending. If a storefront or online short-term lender turned you down, this is the file most likely to have been pulled.
• DataX Ltd. — Equifax's other subprime bureau, run out of Las Vegas. Common ownership does not merge the two databases, so a dispute filed with one leaves the other untouched.
• SageStream — operated by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and unusual in that it builds an actual credit score out of traditional and alternative data rather than only selling raw records.
• MicroBilt — the independent of the group, based in Kennesaw, Georgia, and reporting through its own consumer bureau, PRBC.

The practical consequence is that a single denial can trace back to a file you have never heard of, held by a company you have never done business with. Each of these is a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which means each owes you a free copy of your report on request and each owes you a reinvestigation when you dispute — separately, one company at a time.

Frequently asked questions about Clarity Services

What is Clarity Services and why is it on my loan application?

Clarity Services is a specialty consumer reporting agency that sells reports to lenders, mostly in the subprime and short-term-lending market. A lender pulled your Clarity Services report to decide whether to approve you.

What is a Clarity report?

A Clarity report is a consumer report about you that Clarity Services, Inc. sells to lenders. It is not your Equifax, Experian or TransUnion credit report, and it will not look like one. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists Clarity in its directory of consumer reporting companies under low-income and subprime reporting, and describes it as gathering information on payday loans, installment loans, auto loans and leasing, check cashing services, rent-to-own transactions, telecommunication account openings and other financial services. Clarity describes its own products as FCRA-regulated reports and scores. Because it is a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can request your file and dispute anything in it that is inaccurate.

Is Clarity Services a legitimate company?

Yes. Clarity Services, Inc. is a real company and a nationwide specialty consumer reporting agency regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists it in its directory of consumer reporting companies and states that Clarity Services is owned by Experian, and Clarity identifies itself on its own site as a part of Experian. Legitimate is not the same as accurate. As noted above, the Bureau ordered Clarity and its owner to pay an 8 million dollar penalty in 2015 over Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, and any regulated agency can still hold a record that is wrong, out of date, or attached to the wrong person. That is what the dispute process exists for.

How do I get my Clarity Services report?

As an FCRA-regulated consumer reporting agency, Clarity Services must give you a free copy of your report on request through its consumer disclosure process. Review it for anything inaccurate or that is not yours.

What is a good Clarity score?

There is no published answer, which is worth knowing before you go looking for one. Clarity sells a Clarity Credit Score alongside the report, but it does not publish a consumer-facing scale the way the familiar credit scores are published, and it does not decide who gets approved. Each lender sets its own cutoff, so the same file can clear one lender and not another. What you can act on is whether the record behind the score is right. If your Clarity file shows a loan you never took out, a default on an account you paid, or entries that belong to someone else, correcting the file is what changes the picture. Request your report, read it line by line, and dispute what is wrong.

Can I dispute and remove inaccurate Clarity Services information?

Yes. Dispute it in writing with Clarity Services; anything it cannot verify must be corrected or deleted. If it fails to investigate, that failure can itself be an FCRA claim.

What does it cost to have my case reviewed?

Nothing. The FCRA shifts attorney's fees to the agency that broke the law, so we offer a free case review and work on a no-fee-unless-we-win basis.