Equifax Credit Report Errors

Equifax is one of the three nationwide credit bureaus — and the one many people first think of after its massive data breach exposed the personal information of nearly half the country. That legacy matters, because a large share of the Equifax errors we see trace back to fraud and identity theft: accounts opened in your name, or someone else's data attached to your file. When Equifax reports information that isn't accurate and won't fix it, you pay the price. At The Kim Law Firm, we help people in all fifty states dispute Equifax errors and hold the bureau accountable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

What is Equifax?

Equifax is one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus, compiling your credit history and selling it to lenders, landlords, insurers, and employers. Equifax also operates a large employment- and income-verification business (The Work Number), which means the company holds an unusually broad picture of your financial life. That scale — and the aftermath of its well-publicized data breach — is why identity-theft-driven errors so often show up on Equifax files.

Common Equifax errors we see

• Fraudulent accounts opened in your name through identity theft, still reported by Equifax
• Another person's information merged into your Equifax file (a “mixed file”)
• Accounts you closed or paid that Equifax continues to report as open or delinquent
• Inquiries or accounts you never authorized
• Duplicate collection entries that deepen the damage to your score
• Old negative items Equifax keeps reporting past the FCRA's time limits

How an Equifax error hurts you

An inaccurate Equifax report can block a loan, raise your interest rate, cost you an apartment, or sink a job offer — and when the error stems from identity theft, it can feel like you're fighting to prove you're you. The harm compounds every time another lender or landlord pulls your Equifax file before the mistake is fixed.

Equifax's track record on accuracy and security

Few companies have a public record on data accuracy and security as troubling as Equifax's, and it shapes how we approach every Equifax case.

In 2017, a breach of Equifax's systems exposed the personal information of approximately 147 million people — including 145.5 million Social Security numbers and hundreds of thousands of payment-card numbers. To resolve claims by the Federal Trade Commission, the CFPB, and nearly every state, Equifax agreed in 2019 to a settlement of at least $575 million — up to $700 million, including a consumer restitution fund and a $100 million civil penalty. It remains one of the largest data-breach settlements in U.S. history.

Equifax has also been held to account in court for getting individual files wrong. In Miller v. Equifax, a federal jury in Oregon awarded consumer Julie Miller $18.6 million — $180,000 in actual damages and $18.4 million in punitive damages — after Equifax repeatedly failed to correct a “mixed file” that blended her information with another person's, despite roughly nine dispute requests over two years. A court later reduced the punitive portion, as often happens, but the verdict stands as a landmark example of what a willful failure to fix a report can cost.

And in January 2017, the CFPB ordered Equifax to pay about $3.8 million in restitution and a $2.5 million penalty for deceptively marketing credit scores to consumers. We cite these public records because they show a pattern — and because that pattern is why an Equifax error deserves a hard look, not the benefit of the doubt.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Under the FCRA, Equifax must use reasonable procedures to keep your file accurate, and it must take extra care with information you've flagged as the product of identity theft. When you dispute an error, Equifax has to reinvestigate, generally within 30 days, and correct or delete what it can't verify. If Equifax reports inaccurate information or mishandles your dispute and you're harmed, you may recover actual damages, and — for willful violations — statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees. Because those fees shift to the wrongdoer, we can pursue Equifax at no upfront cost to you. For a broader look at the statute and the claims it supports, see our Fair Credit Reporting Act attorney page.

How to dispute an Equifax credit report

1. Pull your Equifax report and identify every inaccuracy — flag anything tied to fraud or identity theft specifically.
2. Submit your dispute to Equifax in writing — you can mail it to Equifax Information Services, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374, or file online — with documents and, if fraud is involved, an FTC Identity Theft Report (create one free at the FTC's IdentityTheft.gov). Keep copies.
3. Allow the roughly 30-day window for Equifax to investigate.
4. If Equifax “verifies” an item you know is wrong, or a fraudulent account keeps coming back, take that seriously.
5. Speak with an FCRA attorney about forcing a correction and recovering damages.

When Equifax leaves an error — especially a fraud-driven one — on your file after a dispute, that's frequently the FCRA violation itself.

Is the information on your Equifax credit report accurate?

As one of the national credit bureaus, Equifax must investigate the disputes you file and correct or delete information it cannot verify. When it fails to do so, the FCRA gives you real leverage.

• An account that isn’t yours. Fraudulent accounts opened in your name point to identity theft that Equifax must remove.
• Someone else’s data merged into your file (a mixed credit report). If Equifax has blended another person’s accounts into your report, you may have a mixed credit file.
• Errors it failed to fix. Wrong balances, accounts reported as late that were paid, or duplicates that survive a dispute are credit reporting errors you can pursue.

Each is a potential Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) violation that can require Equifax to correct or delete the item and entitle you to damages — often at no cost to you.

Can I sue Equifax for a credit report error?

Yes. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers a private right of action, and it applies to Equifax exactly as it applies to any other credit bureau. In practice a lawsuit is rarely where an Equifax problem starts — it is what breaks the deadlock after Equifax has already been told the information is wrong and has left it on your file anyway.

The two claims that come up most often. Section 1681e(b) requires Equifax to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy when it prepares a report about you. An account that belongs to a different consumer, a bankruptcy that was never yours, or a balance on a debt you paid years ago is evidence that those procedures failed. Section 1681i is a separate duty: once you dispute, Equifax owes you a reasonable reinvestigation. Routing your dispute through an automated system to the furnisher, taking back a coded response, and calling the item “verified” is the failure consumers describe most often — and it is a failure of the investigation itself, independent of whether the underlying debt was ever yours.

Why your dispute paperwork decides the case. Before a dispute, an inaccuracy on an Equifax report is an error. After a documented dispute that Equifax answered by verifying the item, it becomes a record of Equifax being told and doing nothing about it. Send disputes in writing, keep the mailing receipt, and keep every result letter Equifax sends back — that file is usually worth more than anything reconstructed after the fact.

What a claim is worth. A negligent violation entitles you to actual damages: the loan, apartment or job you lost, the higher interest rate you had to accept, your out-of-pocket costs, and the emotional harm the error caused. A willful violation adds statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 for each violation and opens the door to punitive damages. The FCRA also shifts your attorney’s fees and costs onto Equifax when you win, and that fee-shifting provision is what makes suing a company this size realistic at all.

How long you have. An FCRA claim generally must be filed within two years of the date you discovered the violation, and in no event more than five years after it occurred. There is a practical deadline as well: Equifax’s dispute records and archived copies of your file get harder to obtain the longer you wait.

Most people looking for a lawyer to sue Equifax have already disputed once or twice, been told the item was verified, and reached the end of what Equifax’s own process will do. That is the point at which a claim is worth evaluating. Tell us what Equifax is reporting and we will tell you whether you have a case.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

Our first focus is your credit report: if Equifax is reporting information that is not yours, belongs to someone else, or is simply wrong — especially after you disputed it — we hold Equifax accountable under the FCRA to get it corrected or deleted and to recover damages. We help with credit reporting errors, identity theft, and mixed credit files.

From our Philadelphia office, we dig into your Equifax report, pin down where Equifax broke the FCRA, deal with the bureau and the furnishers behind the bad data, and pursue the compensation you're owed — including for the fallout of identity-theft errors. Our credit-reporting experience is extensive, and you pay nothing unless we win.

Dealing with mistakes on more than one report? We also handle Experian credit report errors and TransUnion credit report errors, and you can start with our overview of the nationwide credit reporting agencies.

Equifax is not one database, and it is not the only one

Equifax runs the nationwide consumer file most people mean when they say "my Equifax report," and it also owns specialty bureaus that operate entirely separately from it. A correction to the nationwide file does not reach them, and a lender pulling one of them will never see the dispute you won against the other. Knowing which company actually reported the entry is the difference between a dispute that works and one that goes nowhere.

• Experian — the other large nationwide bureau, holding its own version of the same tradelines.
• TransUnion — the third nationwide file, and often the one behind a decision you were never told about.
• the Innovis consumer file — a fourth nationwide agency most consumers have never requested a report from.
• Teletrack — an Equifax company covering payday and short-term lending, with a database of its own.
• DataX — also Equifax-owned, also subprime, and maintained separately from Teletrack despite the shared parent.

The practical rule is that the Fair Credit Reporting Act attaches its reinvestigation duty to the agency that holds the file, not to the corporate group above it. If a denial letter names a company you do not recognize, that name is where the dispute has to go. Request the report first, in writing, then dispute what is wrong in it — and keep a copy of both.

Frequently asked questions

How do I dispute an error on my Equifax credit report?

File a written dispute with Equifax, including documents that prove the correct information (and an identity-theft report if fraud is involved). You can mail it to Equifax Information Services, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374, or dispute online. Equifax generally has 30 days to investigate.

What is Equifax's dispute mailing address?

Equifax's address for mailed disputes is P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374. Keep copies of what you send, and consider certified mail.

There are accounts on my Equifax report from identity theft — what can I do?

First create an FTC Identity Theft Report at the FTC's IdentityTheft.gov, then submit it together with your dispute to Equifax. The FCRA requires the bureau to take special steps with information you identify as fraudulent — and the FTC report is the document the credit bureaus rely on. If Equifax keeps reporting the fraudulent accounts after that, you may have a claim.

Do I have to dispute the error before I can sue Equifax?

In almost every case, yes. Equifax’s duty to reinvestigate only starts when you dispute, so a dispute that Equifax closed by “verifying” the error anyway is usually what turns an inaccuracy into a claim. Dispute in writing, keep proof of what you sent, and keep every letter Equifax sends back.

What does an Equifax case cost me?

Nothing up front. Your review is free, and because the FCRA shifts attorney's fees to the wrongdoer, you pay only if we recover for you.

Where we practice, and what to do if you are somewhere else

The Kim Law Firm is licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that is where we handle matters directly.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal statute. It applies the same way in every state, it is enforced in federal court, and the deadlines and remedies do not change when you cross a state line. So the answer to "does this apply to me in Ohio" is yes — but the answer to "can you represent me in Ohio" depends on the case and on where it would be filed.

If you are outside Pennsylvania and New Jersey, contact us anyway. Some matters can be handled from here. Some are better sent to a consumer lawyer admitted where you are, and we will tell you that plainly rather than let a deadline run while you wait. Either way you will get an answer, and the review costs nothing.

The one thing that does not wait is the clock. A claim under the Act generally must be brought within two years of the date you discover the violation, and in no event more than five years after the violation occurred. Finding out late does not extend the outside limit.