Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined U.S. Bank $37.5 million for, among other things, opening customer accounts without permission. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, U.S. Bank illegally accessed customer credit reports and personal data to open deposit accounts, credit cards, and lines of credit without permission. While U.S. Bank will take a financial hit because of its actions, its customers may be left with accounts on their Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union credit reports that they did not open. But all is not lost, as customers have rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act in terms of dealing with these sham U.S. Bank accounts.
If you are reviewing your Experian, Equifax or Trans Union credit report and you see a U.S. Bank account that you did not open, you have the right to dispute the account with the credit bureau under Section 1681i of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Once you file your dispute and provide the credit bureau with any information to show that you did not open any such account, the credit bureau then must conduct a reinvestigation to determine whether the account belongs to you. If it cannot verify that you own the account, then it must remove the account from your credit report.
Sometimes, unfortunately, the credit bureaus and/or the furnishers (like U.S. Bank) do not conduct proper reinvestigations, and disputes do not resolve the issue. In those scenarios, consumers have the ability to pursue legal claims against the credit bureaus and U.S. Bank. The credit report attorneys at Weiner & Sand LLC represent individuals who have been injured by false credit reporting. We provide consultations and typically represent clients on a contingency fee basis, so please reach out if you have questions on a U.S. Bank account that is appearing on your Equifax, Experian or Trans Union credit report.