If Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion is reporting something about you that is not true, and you told them and they left it there, you may be able to sue. The credit bureaus are consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the FCRA gives you a private right of action against them.
Can you sue a credit bureau?
Yes, in many situations. Two duties matter most.
First, when a consumer reporting agency prepares a report it must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information about you. Second, once you dispute an item, the agency must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation and either correct the item or delete it.
A claim usually turns on the second duty. It is not enough that the report was wrong. What matters is what the bureau did after you told them.
Situations that lead to a credit bureau lawsuit
- A mixed file, where someone else’s accounts appear on your report because you share a name, a similar Social Security number, or an address
- A debt you paid or settled still reported as unpaid or delinquent
- An account opened in your name through identity theft
- A discharged bankruptcy debt still showing a balance
- An item deleted after a dispute and then reinserted without notice
- A dispute you filed that came back “verified” with no sign anything was investigated
The bureau may not be the only one liable
When you dispute an item, the bureau must forward your dispute to the company that supplied the information — the lender, the collector, the servicer. That company, the furnisher, then has its own duty to investigate and to report back, on the same timeline the bureau is working to.
So a single wrong entry can involve two potential defendants. Which one is responsible depends on where the process broke down, and that is usually visible in the paperwork.
What you may recover
For a negligent violation, the FCRA allows your actual damages together with the costs of the action and reasonable attorney’s fees.
For a willful violation, it allows actual damages or statutory damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, at your election, plus such punitive damages as the court may allow, and again costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Actual damages are not only a denied loan. They can include a higher interest rate, a lost apartment or job, and the time and distress of trying to get an error corrected by a company that will not correct it.
How long you have to file
An action must be brought no later than two years after you discover the violation, or five years after the violation occurred — whichever comes first. Rounds of disputes can take months, so the date you first saw the error is worth writing down.
Dispute in writing first
The dispute is what creates the record. Once the bureau receives it, it must complete a reasonable reinvestigation within 30 days, extendable to 45 days if you send further relevant information inside the first 30.
What makes a claim provable later:
- Dispute in writing, and keep what you sent and the date you sent it
- Attach the proof — a payoff letter, a settlement agreement, a bankruptcy discharge, an identity theft report
- Keep every response the bureau sends, including the ones that say “verified”
- Pull the report again afterwards and keep that copy too
- Keep any denial letter that names the report as a reason
If the report that cost you a job came from an employment screening company rather than a credit bureau, see suing a background check company.
Talk to a lawyer about your report
The Kim Law Firm represents consumers in Fair Credit Reporting Act cases against Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, and against the companies that furnish information to them. Send us the report, the dispute you filed, and the response you received, and we will tell you whether we see a claim.
You pay nothing unless we win.
Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.