In March 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it was ordering Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) to pay millions to consumers. The Bureau stated that PRA had been engaging in numerous violations of law. And what made the order even more surprising is that PRA had already been fined in 2015 for other violations—so […]
Category Archives: Identity Theft
They say that everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but what about the folks who are Irish all year long? Today we’re taking a look at some of the most common Irish surnames, as well as the meanings behind those family names. Murphy Ireland’s most common surname means “descendant of sea […]
Scott Stallings, a Georgia real estate agent, was amazed to open his mail and discover that he’d been invited to play in the Masters, one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments. While Stallings is an amateur golfer, once he’d recovered from the shock of receiving the invitation, he and his wife Jennifer realized the […]
If you haven’t yet, read part 1! Though tradelines—reports of outstanding debts—can considerably impact a consumer’s credit report and credit score, a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reveals that debt collection reporting is uneven and suspect. Updating the information on a credit report often does not depend on the debt resolution. Instead, […]
According to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), debt collectors provide vast amounts of data to the three national credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The bureaus then use the debt collectors’ data in calculating the credit reports (and credit scores) of 220 million consumers. And concerningly, the CFPB has identified critical issues […]
On August 17th 2021 the mobile phone company T-Mobile revealed that they had discovered a cyberattack had exposed certain personal information of around 7.8 million current customers, and information about around 40 million former customers to bad actors. The data included names, dates of birth, social security, and driver’s license or identification information. Financial, credit […]
You may be familiar with the problem of identity theft. But can you tell apart identity theft, and a “mixed file” issue where a credit reporting agency (“CRA”) mixes up the credit history of two or more people? Making the distinction can be very important for deciding how to respond. How Can I Tell if […]
Read part 1 by clicking here! From January 2020 to September 2021, CFPB received more than 700,000 consumer complaints about Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—the national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs). But the number of successfully resolved complaints dropped to just 5%. Why? According to a recent report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), one reason […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is required to gather information relating to the credit reporting industry and submit an annual report to Congress about its findings. In years past, the CFPB included this information in another larger report. But the number of complaints against Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—the national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs)—skyrocketed in […]
What’s in a name? There is a great deal of frustration, confusion, and even difficulty navigating normal life if you are among the 38,000 Americans named James Smith or one of the 32,000 Maria Garcias in the United States. If you have a common first- and surname combination, it’s likely that you’ve been misidentified as […]