Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion Are Reporting The Same Debt Six Times; How Can I Fix My Credit Reports?

When you review your credit report, oftentimes you are looking to make sure there are no errors. A consistent review of your credit report is important because errors, such as incorrect information that make your financial picture appear inflated to potential creditors, may cause you to be unable to obtain credit, including credit cards, mortgages, and other loans.

But sometimes the issue on a credit report is not simply erroneous information, such as a debt that does not belong to you. Sometimes credit reporting agencies include duplicative information on their credit reports. In other words, they report the same debt two, three, four, or even ten times! While you may have a valid single account with Capital One with a $400 balance, the credit reporting agencies might report that you have four accounts with Capital One, each with a $400 balance. This reporting would indicate to any prospective creditor that you have $1,600 in debt, instead of the real $400 debt. This type of error can harm your ability to obtain new credit from a prospective creditor.

When Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion report a debt incorrectly, including the same debt as multiple debts, then there may be legal issues to address under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires, generally, that credit reporting companies maintain reasonable procedures to assure maximum accuracy in their credit reports. If they are reporting a single debt many times, they may not be complying with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

To fix the issue, one option is to file a dispute with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. Once you file a dispute, the credit reporting agency is obligated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation and remove the inaccurate information from your credit report. But sometimes the dispute process does not work and the credit reporting agencies do not delete the duplicative information from your credit report. Whether you dispute or not, the credit report attorneys at Weiner & Sand LLC are available to review your credit report to determine whether a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act occurred.