This week, Equifax acknowledged that it had reported certain individuals’ credit scores incorrectly, possibly having an impact on requests for credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans.
According to a story published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the firm delivered millions of users’ inaccurate credit ratings between March 17 and April 6.
Equifax, however, claimed that less than 300,000 consumers had a change in their credit scores of 25 points or more, either way.
The business said that the fluctuations were caused by mistakes in the weighting of several credit report components.
A Florida lady is suing Equifax after being pressured into a costly auto loan due to an inaccurate Equifax score.
25 million credit reports were retrieved from the three credit-reporting agencies during the three-week period in which Equifax distributed false ratings, according to the complaint, which is asking for class-action status.
According to the lawsuit, millions of Americans might have been impacted by the mistake given those numbers.
Even though Equifax said the underlying data remained unaltered, a 25-point change in your credit score may effect whether you are accepted for financial goods and how much interest you pay.
Continue reading to find out whether the mistakes apply to you and what to do if your credit score was impacted.
This spring, did you apply for a loan or credit?
It’s difficult to determine whether you were impacted by Equifax’s scoring problems unless you applied for a loan, credit card, or other financial product between March 17 and April 6.
How would you know if you hadn’t been routinely checking your credit score and report? said Bruce McClary, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling’s senior vice president for membership and communications.
But he said that “if you applied to a lender and were turned down, it may be an indication that you were perhaps a victim.”
What was said by the lender?
The lender must notify you in writing of their decision if you were denied a loan or given harsher financial conditions because you were deemed a credit risk.
McClary suggests reading the rejection notice again to determine the contributing elements.
If you are unable to locate it, contact the lender and request that they check their records.
You should be very certain of the reasons why the lender rejected your application, he said.
It’s incorrect to believe that the credit score will always be a factor, McClary said. “Maybe they didn’t like the debt-to-income ratio you had.
Maybe the consistency they were hoping for wasn’t reflected in your career history.”
The Federal Trade Commission states that there are two different notifications that lenders might send when denying credit.
The lender is obligated to give you a “adverse action notification” if your loan application was rejected due to information in a consumer report.
If the terms were less favorable, the lender was required to provide a “risk-based pricing” warning.
According to Nerdwallet, if you applied for a credit card or loan and haven’t gotten a warning, you weren’t negatively impacted by the Equifax mistake.
Investigate your credit report.
The next action is to order your credit report. Periodically, consumers have a right to a free credit report, which they may get at annualcreditreport.com.
Dispute any inaccuracies in the story. The help number for Equifax may be reached at 1-888-378-4329.
After any errors have been fixed on your credit report, “Going back and requesting a rethink is worthwhile. Consequently, you must reapply for the loan “explained McClary.
McClary noticed the peculiar nature of the present instance. Equifax, unlike banking companies that have had data breaches, has not contacted clients to let them know about the problem.
Regarding whether it intends to contact clients, the credit agency declined to comment to CBS MoneyWatch.
Currently, some politicians are pressuring the business to disclose the blunder and make amends to any impacted clients.