Credit Reporting Agencies

At The Kim Law Firm, we represent individuals harmed by inaccurate, outdated, or mixed-up information on their consumer credit reports. A single credit report error — an account that isn’t yours, a paid debt still showing as unpaid, or another person’s information merged into your file — can cost you a mortgage, a car loan, an apartment, a job, or a better interest rate. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have the right to an accurate credit file, and the credit reporting agencies have legal duties they too often fail to meet. If mistakes on your Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion report are causing you harm, we can help you dispute them and hold the agencies accountable.

What credit reporting agencies do

The three nationwide credit reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — collect information about your credit accounts, payment history, balances, collections, and public records, then package and sell that information as a credit report. Lenders use it to decide whether to approve you and at what rate; landlords, insurers, and employers use it too. Because these reports drive so many decisions about your financial life, the FCRA requires each agency to “follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” of the information it reports about you. When an agency cuts corners, the consumer pays the price.

Common credit report errors we see

• Accounts that aren’t yours or belong to someone else — often a mixed file, where another consumer’s accounts are blended into your report because you share a name, a similar Social Security number, or an address
• Paid or settled debts still reported as past-due, charged-off, or in collections
• Fraudulent accounts opened in your name through identity theft
• The same debt reported twice, making your debt look larger than it is
• Incorrect balances, credit limits, payment history, or account status
• Outdated negative information that should have aged off (most negatives drop after seven years)
• A deceased or bankruptcy notation, or a court judgment, that doesn’t belong to you

How credit report errors hurt you

Credit report mistakes are not just paperwork problems. An error can mean a denied mortgage application, a higher interest rate that costs you thousands over the life of a loan, a rejected apartment rental, a larger security deposit, higher insurance premiums, or even a lost job opportunity when an employer runs a background check. Many people don’t discover the error until they’re turned down for something important — which is exactly when the damage is done. You are entitled to a credit file that reflects the truth.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

When you find an error, you have the right to dispute it with the credit reporting agency. Once you do, the agency must reinvestigate — generally within 30 days — and must correct or delete any information it cannot verify as accurate. The company that reported the information (the “furnisher,” such as a bank, lender, or debt collector) also has a duty to investigate the dispute. When an agency or furnisher fails to meet these obligations and you are harmed, the FCRA allows consumers to recover actual damages, and for willful violations, statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. Because the law shifts those fees to the wrongdoer, we can pursue these cases at no upfront cost to you.

How to dispute a credit report error

1. Get your reports from all three agencies (you’re entitled to free copies) and read them carefully.
2. Write down every inaccuracy and gather documents that prove the correct information.
3. File a dispute in writing with each agency reporting the error, and keep copies of everything you send.
4. Watch the calendar — the agency generally has 30 days to investigate and respond.
5. If the error isn’t fixed, or it reappears, talk to an FCRA attorney about your options.

If disputing on your own hasn’t worked — or the same error keeps coming back — that is often the point at which the agency has violated the law, and where we can step in.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

We handle the fight so you don’t have to. From our Philadelphia office, we review your information, pinpoint the violations, and depending on the circumstances, communicate with the credit reporting agencies about the inaccurate information, and — when they won’t fix it — sue the credit bureaus and data furnishers to force a correction and recover compensation for the harm you’ve suffered. With extensive experience representing individuals under the FCRA, we know how Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion operate and what it takes to hold them accountable. You don’t pay unless we win.

The nationwide credit reporting agencies

• Equifax ⇒
• Experian ⇒
• TransUnion ⇒
• Innovis ⇒

Beyond the big three, dozens of specialty consumer reporting agencies compile tenant-screening, check-and-bank, employment-background, and property and insurance data — and they must follow the FCRA too.

Frequently asked questions