How to Sue Credit Bureau in Small Claims Court

You have the right to request and access a copy of your Experian credit report. It is important to carefully consider the information contained in the report. Unfortunately, errors in credit reports appear too often and have serious consequences. At one point, American Express tried to pull that at me. Another time, it was Citicorp. In both cases, I wasted several months trying to fix the bug with their system like a good consumer. I first contacted the credit agencies, then went directly to the creditors. I`ve even hired a law firm that advertises that its “specialty” is correcting credit report errors. All they did was replicate what I had already done. It was extremely frustrating and I was about to give up. But I decided to try one last time. I sued the creditors in Small Claims Court and it worked. It was also much easier than I thought.

I corrected my credit report in less than 60 days. I also received $2,500 from Citicorp for comparison. Cool. To sue Experian in small claims court, you will need to complete paperwork. These paperwork requirements vary by location (state and sometimes county), but you can find the documents you need on your state court website. However, in our view, taking credit bureaus to Small Claims Court is not the best approach. Here`s why. One. Bad things against your credit always hurt your credit score.

This means that it can be difficult to buy a house, a car, or get an education or a job. b. If you have a lower credit score, you`ll need to make higher monthly payments for everything you buy on credit. This could add up to hundreds of dollars wasted every month. Just because you`re willing to sue Experian in small claims court doesn`t mean your case qualifies. Small claims courts are only available for certain types of claims. There are two things you need to pay attention to: I was wondering if I could sue the credit bureaus since my credit was frozen from the mid to late 90s, my score was 720 out of a possible 750 I wanted to buy a house. My identity was stolen twice in the late 90s and 2000s, when I found out in 2008, I called the CRA to find out what I should do, they suggested I get a new SS number and they would investigate here, it`s almost 10 years later and they did nothing and it`s starting to annoy me. Sincerely, Victoria Ayon The FCRA covers your rights as a consumer and gives you legal support to sue creditors for incorrect declaration. In particular, you`re right: otherwise, there are many other credit repair tactics you can use, not to mention the many strategies that will help you build a stronger credit score. You have a choice. So don`t sue credit bureaus in Small Claims Court.

You have other options. If you find errors in your credit report, follow these steps to protect your rights: Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you are entitled to a copy of your file and you have the right to dispute any errors in your credit report. You must also be notified if a credit or consumer report has been used against you. Experian, one of the top three credit bureaus, provides general consumer credit information to businesses investigating a person`s creditworthiness and risk when lending. In most cases, banks and lenders request a consumer`s Experian credit report to determine loan approval and loan amount. If you read between the lines, you will see that if you want results, you have to go to the creditor and not to the credit bureau. There you need to put on the muscle. Credit reporting agencies are required to conduct a “reasonable follow-up investigation,” which means they will review your dispute and find out if there are any errors in your credit reports. As a general rule, we recommend contesting credit errors by registered mail and not online. Essentially, this means that David would no longer have a TransUnion credit report. Instead of repairing his loan, David`s credit file was closed. If you have a credit report dispute, it can drive you crazy.

You probably didn`t do anything wrong, but the office reports that you did. They show evidence that they made a mistake, but they do nothing to correct the mistake. It`s like talking to a wall. In addition to being frustrating, mistakes like this can be very costly: Jermaine Cobbins v. Experian. – When the plaintiff traded in their car for a car dealership, the dealer did not make timely payment to Capital One. The merchant`s late payment was then recorded on the applicant`s Experian credit report. The dealer acknowledged the error and the applicant refused late payment of his car loan to Experian with a letter from the dealer.

Despite the merchant`s letter, Experian confirmed that the plaintiff had made a late payment. The applicant had no further arrears in payment. If the information in your credit reports is innocent, you have the right to dispute these errors with the credit bureaus. After the FCRA, the offices have 30 to 45 days to investigate your dispute and let you know what they find. Here`s more good news: you don`t have to pay a lawyer or court fees. In a successful FCRA lawsuit, your attorneys` fees and other costs will be paid by the defendants (i.e. credit agencies and collection agencies). The same is usually true when a case is settled before trial. There`s another reason you shouldn`t sue credit bureaus in Small Claims Court: it could lead to your credit report being closed. Here we tell a story.

Instead of taking credit bureaus to Small Claims Court, you should use the existing legal process to challenge negative items that appear in your credit reports. If the errors are not corrected and are serious, you may have grounds for prosecution. If you can prove damages, it might be possible to sue for more than $900, but I`m not sure. What are your damages? Typically, you can take legal action to have them correct the report, and that`s it. Here`s a good source for more information creditpilgrim.com/ If an error in a credit report isn`t corrected after a dispute, you may have reason to sue the credit bureaus (and the creditor or debt collector who reported the innocent account). If the error damages your credit score in any way and potentially makes it difficult for you to get a loan approved in the future, you may have a real case. Ready to sue Experian in Small Claims Court? If that sounds too harsh and expensive, try consumer arbitration instead. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (known as FCRA) is a federal law that controls what appears on your credit reports and regulates credit reporting agencies. The FCRA requires that your credit report information provide “the greatest possible accuracy.” One of our colleagues (who is a FCRA lawyer) was approached by a potential client (let`s call him David) who had sued the credit bureaus in Small Claims Court. Apparently, David was trying to remove a bankruptcy (which really belonged to him) from his credit reports. LaPeruta v.

Experian, TransUnion, Equifax and Navient. – The applicant`s credit reports are inaccurate. Inaccurate information is at least 2 accounts of Dept. of Ed./Navient; SS#s; Addresses; and phone numbers that do not belong to him, but to another person. Due to incorrect procedures by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, the plaintiff was involved with at least one other consumer in her credit reports. The applicant denied the inaccurate information, which was not corrected by any of the offices. He was denied a mortgage. Consumers are constantly harmed by creditor negligence and unethical practices by debt collection agencies and credit reporting agencies.