
Equifax settlement will offer restitution to consumers whose credit scores were erroneously lowered

STATEWIDE —THE CREDIT BUREAU EQUIFAX will have to pay $725,000 in penalties and create safeguards against inaccurate reporting of credit scores, as part of a settlement with NY Attorney General Letitia James’ office. Equifax was found to have wrongly lowered tens of thousands of New Yorkers’ credit scores, inflating costs for loans and other products, between March and April 2022.
As one of the nation’s “big three” largest consumer reporting agencies, Equifax reports the credit history for those seeking certain types of credit, such as car loans. The bureau discovered a coding error which caused it to give inaccurate data to lenders for consumer reports during a three-week period. While Equifax resolved the issue by April 8, 2022, the company estimated that the credit scores of over 77,000 New Yorkers wrongly declined, meaning that Equifax may have provided inaccurate data about them that led to a lower credit score, leading lenders and insurers to price some of their loans and policies higher than they would have if Equifax had provided accurate credit reports.
The Office of the Attorney General will contact those who are eligible for restitution. The settlement also requires Equifax to implement consumer safeguards and monitor incident reports that Equifax’s customers file when they encounter an error at least once per week.
✰✰✰
Leave a Comment
Leave a Comment