Credit agency settlement nets $150K for state

Missouri will receive more than $150,000 in a settlement agreement with the three major credit reporting agencies.

The settlement with Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc. and TransUnion LLC is the result of a multistate investigation by Attorney General Chris Koster and 30 other state attorneys general over allegations that the major credit reporting agencies failed to adequately protect consumers from identity theft and reporting errors.

The investigation focused on consumer disputes about credit report errors; monitoring and disciplining of data furnishers who provide credit information to the reporting agencies; accuracy in consumer credit reports; and the marketing of credit monitoring products to consumers who call the credit reporting agencies to dispute information on their credit report.

Under the settlement, the credit reporting agencies agreed to pay $6 million and to change business practices to benefit consumers. Missouri will receive $151,941.48, which will be deposited in Missouri's Merchandising Practices Revolving Fund and used for consumer protection investigations and education.

Key changes to the agencies' business practices include:

• An improved process for handling complex disputes, such as those involving identity theft, fraud or mixed-file cases (where one consumer's information is mixed with another's).

• An additional free credit report will be available to consumers who obtain a change to their credit information as the result of a dispute.

• Limitations on items listed on a consumer's credit report, such as prohibiting the reporting of fines and tickets and implementing delayed reporting of medical debts for 180 days so consumers have time to work out issues with their health insurer.

• Limitations on direct-to-consumer marketing by credit reporting agencies during consumer calls to report problems with their credit report. The agencies must clearly explain that purchasing add-on products is not a prerequisite for disputing information on a credit report.

• Higher standards for data furnishers, such as requiring reporting agencies to maintain information about problem furnishers and to implement more detailed systems for ensuring accurate data is furnished to them.

• Each reporting agency must provide a link to its online dispute form on annualcreditreport.com, and the agency's dispute form must be free of ads or marketing offers for the products they sell.

Koster urges consumers to remain vigilant about credit reports, particularly in light of recent significant data breaches. Consumers who discover that credit reporting agencies are not maintaining correct information should contact the attorney general's consumer protection hotline at 800-392-8222 or file a complaint online at ago.mo.gov.

Attorney general's office has a new publication about identity theft and the steps consumers can take to protect themselves, available online at ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/publications/identitytheft.pdf.

The Missouri Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline is available to assist consumers in reporting identity theft. The hotline can be reached at 800-392-8222 or reports can be filed online at ago.mo.gov.