Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, the three major credit reporting agencies (credit bureaus) which play a major role in Georgians financial lives, are soon to be subject to oversight by the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is a first! Based on a year-long investigation by an Ohio newspaper, millions of consumers’ credit reports contain errors. Also, a recent report by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution featured Georgians who had filed lawsuits trying to clear up life-altering mistakes by the credit bureaus.
The oversight by CFPB should also make challenges to credit reports simpler under the Fair Credit Reporting Act by clarifying the extent to which a credit bureau must investigate a credit dispute made by a consumer like you. These credit bureaus maintain files filled with detailed information about all of us Georgians. It is expected that the CFPB will begin regulating the credit bureaus after September 30, 2012 — and that's a good thing!