Big Three Credit Reporting Agencies Sued For Allegedly Including False Information on South Carolina Man’s Credit Report

Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a South Carolina man against TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, and Rushmore Loan Management Services in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging that all four companies violated the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).

According to the complaint in the lawsuit, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax have been reporting derogatory and inaccurate statements and information regarding our client and his credit history to third parties. The alleged inaccurate information at issue in the lawsuit pertains to a mortgage account with Rushmore.

Specifically, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax are allegedly falsely reporting that our client’s mortgage account with Rushmore had late payments from November 2021 through May 2022. However, our client’s account did not actually have late payments during that time period.

This allegedly inaccurate information negatively reflects upon our client’s credit repayment history, his financial responsibility as a debtor, and his creditworthiness.

Even though our client has disputed the allegedly inaccurate information with Experian from at least March 2022, Equifax from at least June 2022, and TransUnion from at least August 2022, including by following the companies’ established procedures for disputing consumer credit information, all three companies have indicated to our client that they plan to continue publishing this inaccurate information, and have done so.

“It is a big enough problem when a single consumer reporting agency reports false credit information that could damage a consumer’s ability to obtain credit,” said Siobhàn E. McGreal, one of the lawyers at Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., who filed the lawsuit. “But when all three of the ‘Big Three’ U.S. consumer reporting agencies do so, and that information concerns late payments, those agencies’ actions have serious long-term ramifications for consumers like our client, including not being able to, or having to pay more to, rent an apartment, purchase a car, or engage in any other transactions or relationships that involve consumer credit.”

According to the complaint, despite our client’s efforts to correct the inaccurate information TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax are publishing about him, the companies have (i) never contacted him to follow up on or verify his disputes, (ii) never contacted third parties that would have information concerning his disputes, (iii) never forwarded any relevant information concerning his disputes, and (iv) never requested or obtained credit applications from Rushmore providing the inaccurate information. The complaint alleges this misconduct violated the FCRA.

Rushmore, as the company furnishing the inaccurate information, allegedly has also failed to conduct timely and reasonable investigations of our client’s disputes after being contacted by TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax concerning our client’s disputes, failed to mark the account as disputed, and has willfully continued to report such inaccurate information to various consumer reporting agencies.

The complaint alleges Rushmore, as the company furnishing the inaccurate information, and TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, violated the FCRA by deliberately, willfully, intentionally, recklessly, and negligently repeatedly (i) failing to perform reasonable reinvestigations of our client’s dispute as required by the FCRA, (ii) failing to remove the inaccurate information from his credit report, (iii) failing to note the disputed status of the inaccurate information, and (iv) continuing to report the derogatory inaccurate information about our client.

As a result of the four defendants’ alleged unlawful conduct, our client has suffered actual damages in the form of lost loan and credit opportunities, harm to credit reputation and credit score, and emotional distress, including humiliation and embarrassment.

The relief our client is seeking in the lawsuit includes, among other things, actual damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages.

If your consumer report contains inaccurate information about you, including credit records or debts that do not belong to you, you may be able to recover damages against the consumer reporting agency that created it. If you do so, the consumer reporting agency may also be required to pay your attorneys’ fees and costs.

Click here or call 877-735-8600 to schedule a free case review with a representative of Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C. Located in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, we serve clients nationwide.