Disputing credit report could get easier under new rules

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Disputing a mistake on your credit report could get easier and the effects of medical debt less severe under changes being made by the three largest credit-reporting agencies.

The Monday announcement by the agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — comes after months of negotiations between the companies and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Consumer advocates have long sought a revamp that would reduce errors on credit report and make correcting them easier. Data collected by the agencies on hundreds of millions of people are used to create credit scores, which can determine who gets a loan and how much interest is paid on it.

"The nation's largest reporting agencies have a responsibility to investigate and correct errors on consumers' credit reports. This agreement will reform the entire industry and provide vital protections for millions of consumers across the country," Schneiderman said in a statement.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this March 5, 2012, file photo, consumer credit cards are posed in North Andover, Mass. The three largest credit reporting agencies will change the way they handle records in a major revamp long sought by consumer advocates. The changes were announced Monday, March 9, 2015, after talks between Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150309/us--credit_reports-assistance-9d5951a8f1.html

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Interesting nugget:

The three credit reporting agencies will jettison reports on debts that didn't arise from a contract or agreement with the consumer, such as tickets or fines.

This is backing off their mission creep. The NY AG must have nailed them pretty good.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Now imagine how this will affect the beleaguered in Ferguson, MO

From the article -

"The three credit reporting agencies will jettison reports on debts that didn't arise from a contract or agreement with the consumer, such as tickets or fines."

In Ferguson, you have a DOJ-documented cases of a large % of the residents targeted with bogus citations that resulted in "tickets or fines (or both)". And so what is an already lower-income community, is now made worse off, not just as a result of the bogus and predatory policing, but due to the imposed "tickets or fines", which were then counted against them by the credit bureaus. So good luck trying to buy a house or car with anywhere near a reasonable interest rate.

And this is why many of us figuratively spit in the face of those who utter the "Why don't those people pull themselves up <by their bootstraps> out of poverty". This is part of the reason why it's a system designed to keep folks down and in a generational cycle of poverty, and in this case, by no fault of their own.