Rebecca Sheppard focuses on untangling different individuals’s monetary messes. However for practically a 12 months, the Colorado accountant has been unable to repair a evident error on her personal credit score report.
Her credit score rating plunged roughly 85 factors due to a $240,000 scholar mortgage debt she doesn’t owe. She repeatedly requested the nation’s large three credit score reporting firms to right the error, submitting documentation displaying the debt belonged to her ex-husband. Even the mortgage’s account supervisor confirmed she wasn’t accountable.
Nonetheless, the credit score bureaus refused to take away it, jeopardizing her plans to maneuver along with her disabled father right into a extra accessible residence. “There’s no manner on the earth I might qualify for the acquisition,” she mentioned.
Sheppard ought to have been capable of depend on the federal authorities to stress the credit score bureaus to take her dispute critically. For years, the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau wielded the specter of fines and lawsuits to make firms repair errors and have interaction with customers. Underneath the Biden administration, a rigorous supporter of the company, customers’ charges of aid for such complaints rose to about 10 occasions as excessive as in 2020.
However Sheppard wanted assist underneath 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 diminished the share of shopper complaints they resolved in clients’ favor, in response to a ProPublica evaluation of federal grievance knowledge.
TransUnion’s aid charge, which had remained comparatively regular for a number of years, started plunging in the summertime of 2025. By October it was offering aid roughly half as typically.
Joel Jacobs/ProPublica
Experian’s drop was much more dramatic. The corporate resolved practically 20% of complaints in customers’ favor in 2024. Final 12 months, that determine fell to lower than 1%.
Joel Jacobs/ProPublica
The third main bureau, Equifax, didn’t present an identical decline. Simply 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. Underneath the settlement, the corporate dedicated to reforms and ongoing oversight.
Equifax’s shopper aid largely saved up with complaints.
Joel Jacobs/ProPublica
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 Home official who oversaw sweeping cuts throughout federal businesses, took management of the CFPB as appearing director. He shortly ordered a cease to practically all company work. Underneath his management, the CFPB has tried to fireplace most of its employees, frozen investigations and dropped enforcement actions, together with towards TransUnion. One of many CFPB’s new legal professionals main the pullback on enforcement represented Experian for years earlier than becoming a member of the administration.
The credit score bureaus “wish to do as little as doable,” mentioned Chi Chi Wu, director of shopper reporting on the Nationwide Shopper Regulation Middle, which is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that has to this point blocked among the administration’s dismantling efforts.
“The factor that’s making them do any sort 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 clients to problem damaging info on their experiences. Experian mentioned in a press release that a few of these firms “mislead customers into believing they will take away correct info,” including that it investigates “all legit” complaints. The corporate didn’t reply to particular questions on its decline in aid.
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 Home subcommittee discovered that the credit score bureaus’ methods for figuring out third-party involvement had been overly broad and dismissed legit issues.
Requested concerning the decline in aid, 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 extra applicable” inside channel for assessment.
For years, the CFPB’s grievance system has served as a public intermediary: forwarding shopper points to the bureaus, requiring responses and publishing knowledge displaying how firms dealt with them.
However the firms have efficiently lobbied the Trump administration to start out steering some customers away from the clear course of and towards their inside methods.
A CFPB spokesperson mentioned the grievance system was inundated with submissions from bots and third-party credit score restore corporations, and the company was working to handle that so legit customers can extra successfully get assist. The company didn’t reply to written questions concerning the decline in aid or enforcement.
What number of customers get assist — or don’t — when utilizing the credit score bureaus’ inside methods is just not public. However CFPB knowledge reveals that since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, greater than 2.7 million credit score reporting complaints submitted to the CFPB have gone with out aid, leaving some individuals prone to being denied loans, housing or employment and topic to larger charges from insurers and lenders.
One anonymized grievance got here from a Texan who mentioned a fraudulent account remained on their credit score report regardless of their disputes. “I’ve an essential deal that I would like to finish that’s essential for the security and survival of my household,” the individual wrote. CFPB data present that Equifax offered aid, whereas TransUnion and Experian didn’t.
Additionally amongst those that complained was an Air Drive 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 residence or automobile even after going to a number of lenders.
“Every time they inform me that I do not need sufficient years of credit score. I used to be paying on that mortgage for a decade earlier than that commerce line disappeared,” he mentioned.
After ProPublica contacted his mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo, the corporate reached out to Abdul-Bey to apologize for his scenario and mentioned it could examine.
Equifax and Experian didn’t reply to questions on particular person customers who filed complaints. TransUnion declined to touch upon particular person conditions however mentioned in a press release that the corporate “has a number of assets out there to customers to assist with each step of the dispute course of.”
On a regular basis Individuals can not choose out of getting their monetary knowledge collected and bought by credit score bureaus. Congress handed the Truthful Credit score Reporting Act in 1970, giving customers the suitable to flag errors. However extra 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 employees responding to shopper disputes masking 38 million line objects in 2021. A TransUnion spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail that the corporate has since added staffing however wouldn’t present a quantity.
“These ‘investigators,’ they’ve a stack of disputes like a mile excessive that they must undergo daily,” mentioned Liam Hayden, a Chicago lawyer who has represented customers in credit score reporting instances. “An actual, genuine investigation prices cash.”
After the 2008 monetary disaster, Congress created the CFPB to guard Individuals from unfair and abusive practices. By 2015, the massive three credit score bureaus had grow to be probably the most complained about corporations within the company’s grievance system.
Credit score Reporting Complaints In regards to the Three Main Credit score Bureaus Have Surged in Latest Years
Complaints about Equifax, TransUnion and Experian vastly outnumber all different complaints, for issues corresponding to bank cards, loans or debt assortment.
Joel Jacobs/ProPublica
In 2022, figuring out an absence of responsiveness by the credit score bureaus to shopper points, the CFPB launched a crucial report, alongside steering on how the businesses ought to handle “shoddy investigation practices.” Over the subsequent few years, aid charges rose as the businesses offered extra individualized responses to complaints filed via the company.
Bulletins on the CFPB’s web site present the company has introduced a dozen enforcement actions towards shopper reporting firms since 2015.
Simply days earlier than Trump took workplace, the CFPB introduced an enforcement motion towards Equifax. The corporate settled, agreeing to pay $15 million and function underneath a legally binding consent order designed to repair its dispute course of.
Among the many reforms, the corporate agreed to enhance its internet interface for submitting disputes, keep away from counting on defective info from collectors and never robotically 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 towards TransUnion in July 2024, nevertheless it was by no means introduced. Settlement talks ended shortly after the change in administration.
“Given current adjustments in CFPB management, our engagement with the company on this matter has paused,” TransUnion wrote in a February 2025 Securities and Alternate Fee submitting. “We can not present an estimate of when, or if, such engagement will resume.”
That month, the CFPB dropped a lawsuit towards TransUnion and a former firm govt over alleged misleading practices. TransUnion denied the allegations, calling them “meritless.” The CFPB later ended an settlement 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, referred to as the swimsuit “fully with out benefit” and mentioned the corporate investigates “each shopper dispute completely.”
The Experian case stays energetic. 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 reply to particular person CFPB complaints and that the overwhelming majority of these filed not too long ago are illegitimate. The {industry}’s lobbying arm, the Shopper Knowledge Business Affiliation, has urged the CFPB to route extra customers away from the grievance 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 via earlier than submitting a public grievance, warning them that their requests may be ignored in the event that they haven’t already disputed points immediately with credit score bureaus — an ordinary the company beforehand mentioned firms 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 grievance portal briefly round 2012. The brand new adjustments are “mandatory to handle the widespread misuse of the portal” that divert assets away from legit issues, the group mentioned.
However shopper advocates contend that the industry-friendly adjustments current much more obstacles for customers like Sheppard who’re attempting to get their points resolved.
She twice disputed the coed mortgage error immediately with the bureaus. Then in June, she turned to the CFPB. All three responded that that they had 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 attempt,” Sheppard mentioned. “The truth that they despatched that little postcard was simply ridiculous.”
TransUnion didn’t present a response concerning Sheppard’s scenario however mentioned in a press release that it “can not change info furnished to us absent ample documentation and clear instruction from the patron.”
In her mailed dispute, Sheppard included a letter she acquired from the mortgage account supervisor stating that she was not chargeable for the debt.
With no different choices, Sheppard sued the three credit score bureaus in January. The businesses haven’t but responded in courtroom.
With out a functioning CFPB, enforcement might fall to state attorneys basic and personal lawsuits. The Federal Commerce Fee can carry instances however lacks the authority to conduct routine supervision.
A future with out a CFPB will go away customers more and more trapped, mentioned Hayden, the Chicago lawyer. “In 5 years, the decision of shopper disputes goes to be worse, credit score experiences are going to be worse and it’s going to be more durable for people to repair them, assured.”
