How Credit Bureaus Use Automated Systems (And Why It May Violate the Law in Michigan)

The Hidden Problem with Credit Disputes

Most Michigan consumers assume credit bureaus carefully review their disputes. But this is very often not the case, and it is not surprising when really obvious credit report errors, even identity theft errors, are not removed from your credit report even after you submit detailed disputes and supporting documentation along with your credit disputes such as police reports and FTC identity theft affidavits.
 In reality, many rely credit bureaus on automated systems like e-OSCAR—which may violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act when the dispute process and investigation results in a failure to consider the consumer dispute or evidence submitted along with the dispute.

What Is e-OSCAR?

e-OSCAR is an automated system used by the major national credit reporting bureaus, including:

•  Experian
  
• Equifax
  
• TransUnion

Instead of reviewing your credit dispute and supporting documents, the credit bureaus:

•  Convert your dispute into a short descriptive code
  
• Send this descriptive code to the creditor
  
• Accept the creditor’s response and do not further investigate

Why This Can Violate the FCRA?

The law requires that credit bureaus and furnishers perform a reasonable reinvestigation of your credit report dispute.
However, automated systems often:

• Ignore your evidence in favor of merely confirming that the information contained in the credit report matches the information in the furnisher or creditor's own systems (which is another way of saying the furnisher merely confirms that the inaccurate information also exists in the furnishers internal systems as well as your credit reports)
  
•  Skip meaningful review, such as a detailed review of your dispute and supporting documents and information
  
• Rubber-stamp responses

For example in the case of identity theft:
A consumer may submit supporting documents along with their dispute such as:

• Bank statements
  
• Identity theft affidavit
• Police report 

 
But the credit bureaus merely:

•  Send a generic code to the furnisher (creditor)
  
• Await verification or a “verified” response
  
• Keep reporting the error after verification

The failure to conduct a reasonable investigation is grounds for a potential lawsuit.

Michigan Consumers Have Strong Claims

If your credit dispute was ignored or mishandled by the credit bureaus you may be entitled to compensation. We can review your case and help you consider your options.

Free Case Review for Credit Report Errors by a Credit Lawyer

 If you think the credit bureaus did not properly review your credit dispute:
Contact  us today using our contact form below and check out our identity theft information and identity theft resources page.
Attorney Nick Hadous is highly experienced in litigating FCRA cases.