This story was initially printed by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of energy. Sign as much as obtain their biggest stories as quickly as they’re printed.
Rebecca Sheppard makes a speciality of untangling different individuals’s monetary messes. But for practically a 12 months, the Colorado accountant has been unable to repair a obvious error on her personal credit score report.
Her credit score rating plunged roughly 85 factors due to a $240,000 pupil mortgage debt she doesn’t owe. She repeatedly requested the nation’s large three credit score reporting corporations to appropriate the error, submitting documentation exhibiting the debt belonged to her ex-husband. Even the mortgage’s account supervisor confirmed she wasn’t accountable.
Still, the credit score bureaus refused to take away it, jeopardizing her plans to maneuver together with her disabled father right into a more accessible dwelling. “There’s no way in the world I could qualify for the purchase,” she mentioned.
Sheppard ought to have been in a position to depend on the federal authorities to stress the credit score bureaus to take her dispute severely. For years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wielded the specter of fines and lawsuits to make corporations repair errors and have interaction with customers. Under the Biden administration, a rigorous supporter of the company, customers’ charges of reduction for such complaints rose to about 10 occasions as excessive as in 2020.
But Sheppard wanted assist under the Trump administration, which has drastically curtailed the CFPB’s mission, together with its policing of credit score bureaus. With the company weakened, two of the three main credit score bureaus, TransUnion and Experian, have sharply lowered the share of shopper complaints they resolved in prospects’ favor, in response to a ProPublica evaluation of federal criticism information.
The third main bureau, Equifax, didn’t present an identical decline. Just days earlier than President Donald Trump was inaugurated, the corporate entered right into a consent order with the CFPB over poor dispute and investigation practices. Under the settlement, the corporate dedicated to reforms and ongoing oversight.
The timing of the drops at TransUnion and Experian coincides with the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CFPB.
In February 2025, Russell Vought, a White House official who oversaw sweeping cuts across federal agencies, took management of the CFPB as appearing director. He rapidly ordered a cease to practically all company work. Under his management, the CFPB has tried to fireside most of its workers, frozen investigations and dropped enforcement actions, together with in opposition to TransUnion. One of the CFPB’s new attorneys main the pullback on enforcement represented Experian for years earlier than becoming a member of the administration.
The credit score bureaus “want to do as little as possible,” mentioned Chi Chi Wu, director of shopper reporting on the National Consumer Law Center, which is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that has up to now blocked among the administration’s dismantling efforts.
“The thing that is making them do any kind of effort is a lawsuit or a regulator, and now we don’t have the regulator,” Wu mentioned.
In statements to ProPublica, the credit score bureaus mentioned that many complaints are illegitimate, together with a big quantity filed by credit score restore organizations that cost prospects to problem destructive info on their reports. Experian mentioned in a press release that a few of these corporations “mislead consumers into believing they can remove accurate information,” including that it investigates “all legitimate” complaints. The firm didn’t reply to particular questions on its decline in reduction.
Third events are allowed to submit complaints on behalf of customers in the event that they disclose their involvement and get permission. Federal regulators have acknowledged that unhealthy actors exist, however the CFPB and a House subcommittee discovered that the credit score bureaus’ programs for figuring out third-party involvement have been overly broad and dismissed reliable issues.
Asked concerning the decline in reduction, TransUnion mentioned it not too long ago modified its processes to deal with third-party complaints and now redirects these with inadequate documentation to “a more appropriate” inner channel for evaluate.
For years, the CFPB’s complaint system has served as a public intermediary: forwarding shopper points to the bureaus, requiring responses and publishing information exhibiting how corporations dealt with them.
But the businesses have successfully lobbied the Trump administration to begin steering some customers away from the clear course of and towards their inner programs.
A CFPB spokesperson mentioned the criticism system was inundated with submissions from bots and third-party credit score restore corporations, and the company was working to deal with that so reliable customers can more successfully get assist. The company didn’t reply to written questions concerning the decline in reduction or enforcement.
How many customers get assist — or don’t — when utilizing the credit score bureaus’ inner programs just isn’t public. But CFPB information reveals that since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, more than 2.7 million credit score reporting complaints submitted to the CFPB have gone with out reduction, leaving some individuals susceptible to being denied loans, housing or employment and topic to increased charges from insurers and lenders.
One anonymized criticism got here from a Texan who mentioned a fraudulent account remained on their credit score report regardless of their disputes. “I have an important deal that I need to complete that is important for the safety and survival of my family,” the individual wrote. CFPB information present that Equifax offered reduction, whereas TransUnion and Experian didn’t.
Also amongst those that complained was an Air Force veteran and elections organizer in Arkansas who mentioned the bureaus refused to revive his erroneously deleted mortgage historical past. ProPublica interviewed the person, Kwami Abdul-Bey, who mentioned the error left him unable to refinance his dwelling or automobile even after going to a number of lenders.
“Each time they tell me that I do not have enough years of credit. I was paying on that mortgage for a decade before that trade line disappeared,” he mentioned.
After ProPublica contacted his mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo, the corporate reached out to Abdul-Bey to apologize for his state of affairs and mentioned it might examine.
Equifax and Experian didn’t reply to questions on particular person customers who filed complaints. TransUnion declined to remark on particular person conditions however mentioned in a press release that the corporate “has multiple resources available to consumers to help with every step of the dispute process.”
Everyday Americans can not decide out of getting their monetary information collected and offered by credit score bureaus. Congress handed the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970, giving customers the correct to flag errors. But more not too long ago, the credit score bureaus have employed a restricted variety of employees — typically abroad — to deal with huge volumes of investigations.
TransUnion, for instance, had 171 workers responding to shopper disputes overlaying 38 million line gadgets in 2021. A TransUnion spokesperson mentioned in an e-mail that the corporate has since added staffing however wouldn’t present a quantity.
“These ‘investigators,’ they have a stack of disputes like a mile high that they have to go through every day,” mentioned Liam Hayden, a Chicago legal professional who has represented customers in credit score reporting instances. “A real, authentic investigation costs money.”
After the 2008 monetary disaster, Congress created the CFPB to guard Americans from unfair and abusive practices. By 2015, the massive three credit score bureaus had turn into essentially the most complained about corporations within the company’s criticism system.
In 2022, figuring out an absence of responsiveness by the credit score bureaus to shopper points, the CFPB launched a critical report, alongside guidance on how the businesses ought to handle “shoddy investigation practices.” Over the following few years, reduction charges rose as the businesses offered more individualized responses to complaints filed by way of the company.
Announcements on the CFPB’s web site present the company has introduced a dozen enforcement actions in opposition to shopper reporting corporations since 2015.
Just days earlier than Trump took workplace, the CFPB introduced an enforcement motion in opposition to Equifax. The company settled, agreeing to pay $15 million and function under a legally binding consent order designed to repair its dispute course of.
Among the reforms, the corporate agreed to enhance its internet interface for submitting disputes, keep away from relying on defective info from collectors and never routinely dismiss repeated issues from the identical shopper. The settlement didn’t particularly point out the corporate’s dealing with of CFPB complaints. Equifax was given a couple of 12 months to place most of the adjustments in place and has to stay compliant for 5 years after.
ProPublica discovered that the company had authorised an identical motion in opposition to TransUnion in July 2024, however it was by no means introduced. Settlement talks ended shortly after the change in administration.
“Given recent changes in CFPB leadership, our engagement with the agency on this matter has paused,” TransUnion wrote in a February 2025 Securities and Exchange Commission submitting. “We cannot provide an estimate of when, or if, such engagement will resume.”
That month, the CFPB dropped a lawsuit in opposition to TransUnion and a former firm govt over alleged misleading practices. TransUnion denied the allegations, calling them “meritless.” The CFPB later ended an agreement meant to repair the corporate’s failure to promptly place and take away credit score freezes.
The CFPB sued Experian shortly earlier than the administration modified, alleging failures in its dispute dealing with processes. Experian has denied the allegations in courtroom, called the suit “completely without merit” and mentioned the corporate investigates “every consumer dispute thoroughly.”
The Experian case stays lively. A CFPB spokesperson mentioned that Victoria Dorfman, the brand new senior authorized adviser who beforehand represented Experian, has recused herself from the case.
In a July public remark letter, Experian argued it shouldn’t be required to answer particular person CFPB complaints and that the overwhelming majority of these filed not too long ago are illegitimate. The {industry}’s lobbying arm, the Consumer Data Industry Association, has urged the CFPB to route more customers away from the criticism system and make the remaining complaints personal.
This 12 months, only a week after receiving a letter from the lobbying group, the CFPB added three notices for customers to click on by way of earlier than submitting a public criticism, warning them that their requests is perhaps ignored in the event that they haven’t already disputed points immediately with credit score bureaus — a regular the company previously said corporations can not reliably confirm.
In a press release to ProPublica, the CDIA highlighted {that a} discover instructing customers to first dispute immediately had been current within the CFPB criticism portal briefly round 2012. The new adjustments are “necessary to address the widespread misuse of the portal” that divert sources away from reliable issues, the group mentioned.
But consumer advocates contend that the industry-friendly adjustments current even more obstacles for customers like Sheppard who are attempting to get their points resolved.
She twice disputed the scholar mortgage error immediately with the bureaus. Then in June, she turned to the CFPB. All three responded that they’d verified that the debt was hers with out addressing documentation she offered on the contrary.
In December, she despatched one other dispute by licensed mail, however TransUnion replied with a postcard stating it believed the submission had not come from her.
“They didn’t even try,” Sheppard mentioned. “The fact that they sent that little postcard was just ridiculous.”
TransUnion didn’t present a response concerning Sheppard’s state of affairs however mentioned in a press release that it “cannot change information furnished to us absent sufficient documentation and clear instruction from the consumer.”
In her mailed dispute, Sheppard included a letter she acquired from the mortgage account supervisor stating that she was not answerable for the debt.
With no different choices, Sheppard sued the three credit score bureaus in January. The corporations haven’t but responded in courtroom.
Without a functioning CFPB, enforcement might fall to state attorneys normal and personal lawsuits. The Federal Trade Commission can convey instances however lacks the authority to conduct routine supervision.
A future with out a CFPB will depart customers more and more trapped, mentioned Hayden, the Chicago legal professional. “In five years, the resolution of consumer disputes is going to be worse, credit reports are going to be worse and it’s going to be harder for folks to fix them, guaranteed.”