This testimony examines two very different approaches to change the credit reporting system. One approach — that advanced by H.R. 2086 as well as its Senate version S. 2149 — is to removed paid or settled medical debt under $2,500 from credit reports. This approach will tremendously benefit consumers, and indeed is probably the simplest…
For over a decade, consumer advocates have complained of a credit reporting system plagued with preventable errors, and a broken dispute system that utterly fails to conform to requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). These complaints have been confirmed by numerous courts, journalists, and now a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…
Credit reports play a critical role in the economic health and well-being of consumers and their families. A good credit history (and its corollary, a good credit score) enables consumers to obtain credit, and to have that credit be fairly priced. Credit reports are also used by other important decisionmakers, such as insurers, landlords, utility…
Read More about Chi Chi Wu's Testimony Regarding "An Overview of the Credit Reporting System"
NCLC has testified many times before Congress, including before this Committee, on the need for reform of the credit reporting system to address issues such as: unacceptable error rates and the myriad types of systemic inaccuracies in credit reports; – the travesty of the automated dispute system used by the credit bureaus; the absurdity that…
Inaccuracies and errors plague the credit reporting systems. Estimates of serious errors range from 3% to 25%. Even using a low-end estimate, which is from the credit reporting industry and included only a narrow subset of problems, 6 million Americans face serious errors in their reports that could result in a denial of credit.
The foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s left an enormous trail of economic destruction in its wake. Most Americans are familiar with the obvious damage — the crisis cost nearly $200 billion in lost wealth, resulted in over 4.5 million Americans losing their homes,2 and triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression. One long-term…