Category Archives: Credit Reporting

How to Secure Your Credit Reports After Identity Theft under Federal Law

Posted on by Gordon Leech

If you are the victim of identity theft or fraud, you have the right to place a fraud alert on your consumer files with the 3 national consumer credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. This makes it harder for anyone to use your consumer information through the agencies to open new credit accounts. You can place the fraud alert on your consumer files by contacting one of the three agencies and reporting the fraud and requesting the fraud alert. More information on this process is at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/helpfaq#fraudalert. You are also entitled to a free copy of your consumer file, known as a “consumer disclosure,” after you are the victim of fraud. You can request this at the time you place the fraud alert.

The contact information

If you are a resident of Wisconsin, you may also have the right to place a Security Freeze on your files. See our Blog entry on How to Secure Your Credit Reports After Identity Theft under Wisconsin Law for more information.

Claims of Inaccurate Rental Screening Reports Sold by On-site Manager Leads to Class Action Settlement

Posted on by Gordon Leech

Tenant or Rental screening reports are used by many landlords. These reports usually fall within the definition of a report covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act which gives consumers tenants significant rights. Inaccurate reports can wrongly keep a consumer from getting a rental place to live. When these tenant or rental screening reports are inaccurate, consumer tenants may have claims against the screening company that sold the inaccurate reports to the prospective landlords. In a case filed in the United States District Court for Southern District of New York by Debra Massey against On-site Manager, Inc., the court approved a class action settlement against On-site Manager, Inc., for the payment of funds to class members across the country on this basis.

Debra Massey claimed that On-site Manager sold tenant screening reports to prospective landlords and included inaccurate or outdated information such as civil actions filed against consumers that never resulted in a judgment and that were more than 7 years old. This is a practice that is prohibited by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

For more information on the use of consumer reports such as a tenant screening report in the rental of consumer properties, you can visit our website pages on consumer credit reports at http://www.celcwi.com/help_inaccurate_credit_reports.html.

By Gordon Leech 10/29/2012

Identity Theft Woes, Columnist David Lazarus Writes of His Own Experience

Posted on by Gordon Leech

David Lazarus, a columnist that writes for the L.A. Times, recently wrote about his own experience with Identity Theft that occurred 15 years ago but still plagues him today. A copy of his article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Sept. 4, 2012, is at http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/la-fi-lazarus-20120904,0,3447151,full.column. It’s a familiar tale with victims of identity theft, unfortunately. It’s a good read to understand why it is important to check your own consumer credit reports at least once each year, which you can do for free, and look for any accounts listed that you did not open or on which you are not an account holder.

There are steps you can take too that if done soon enough can prevent many problems that can result with identity theft. If that is a problem for you, we have more information on identity theft on our website, www.celcwi.com.

When Someone Else Uses Your Social Security Number for a Job

Posted on by Gordon Leech

When someone else is using your social security number for employment purposes, it presents a difficult situation to resolve. While the answer to how to stop this from continuing is not clear, there are some things you can do.

You can contact the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service to notify them of the fraud, as you want to avoid tax liability on this imposter’s wages. Also, the imposter could potentially open credit using your SSN, which would cause you additional problems. So you can contact the consumer reporting agencies to report fraud and ask them to put a fraud alert on your consumer file. Every employer is also required to verify the identity of an employee using a form I-9, which is governed by the Dept. of Homeland Security, formerly the INS, so you could notify the Dept. of Homeland Security. Also, the Federal Trade Commission accepts complaints of identity theft, as they keep a database and cross-reference complaints for potential action. You can attempt to file a police report of the fraud, but the local police department may not accept the report, as many are reluctant to do so if there doesn’t appear to be an economic loss associated with the matter.

Providing the identity of the employers where the fraudster worked and to these agencies may help get some interest going on to investigate to help you find out the identity of the person using the SSN.

The FTC has a very good guide on what to do when your identity has been stolen. Anyone that is victimized by identity theft should review that site and follow its recommendations.

For more information on what you can do, visit our website page on Identity Theft at http://www.celcwi.com/page33.html.

Supreme Court Balks & Consumers Win in First American Financial v. Edwards

Posted on by Gordon Leech

Consumers and their attorneys were waiting with baited breath today for the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in First American Financial v. Edwards. All breathed a sigh of relief today, June 28, 2012, when the high court of the nation decided not to decide this case, rejecting the appeal to the Supreme Court. Although the court initially said it would hear and issue a decision in the case, and the court waited until the last day of its term, the court found that the original basis for choosing to hear the case was mistaken and withdrew the certification of the case to the court.

This is actually a victory for consumers. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the lower court from which the case came, made a favorable decision for consumers, rejecting First American’s claim that a statute that provides for presumptive damages, known in the law as “statutory damages,” is unconstitutional. Had the Supreme Court agreed with First American, massive amounts of consumers would lose their day in court and it would have changed the landscape of consumer protection laws throughout the country.

In many consumer protection cases, the law provides that a court can award these presumptive or statutory damages where the consumer cannot prove actual damages. Congress has provided for statutory damages in consumer protection laws because violations cause harm beyond that inflicted on the particular consumer, it is a deterrent to break the law and actual damages can simply be hard to quantify and prove sometimes, though it is recognized that these violations do cause harm.

Some Federal protections that this decision could have affected include claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Real Estate Servicing Protection Act, Truth-in-Lending violations and others.

NY Times on How to Increase Your Credit Score

Posted on by Gordon Leech

How to Pump Up Your Credit Score, according to the New York Times, May 17, 2012: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/realestate/mortgages-how-to-pump-up-your-credit-score.html?smid=pl-share.
According to the NYT, banks are tightening up lending requirements for mortgages and credit scores have a substantial impact on whether you can get a bank loan and what the interest rate will be. “A majority of banks are less likely to offer loans to people with a FICO credit score of 620 and a 10 percent down payment than they were in 2006 … [and] Lenders were also less likely to do so even for those with a score of 720.”
The two biggest factors that affect your credit score according to FICO, says the NYT, is “your payment history, which accounts for 35 percent of the score, and the amounts owed, accounting for 30 percent,” and  reducing your balances on credit cards can help improve credit scores under the FICO model. A late payment occurring during the month that you apply for a mortgage loan “can be deadly,” according to the Director of Counseling at the Housing Development Fund, Stamford, Conn.
For these reasons, at CELCWI, we advise people to get your consumer reports from Experian, Equifax and Trans Union through www.annualcreditreport.com before applying for credit. Review the reports for any inaccuracies, and then dispute the inaccuracies with the consumer reporting agencies, in writing. If the inaccuracies continue after the disputes, consumers do have legal options to correct the reports and recover any resulting damages.


Errors in Credit Reports due to Mixing and Matching a Relative’s Data Most Prevalent

Posted on by Gordon Leech

The Columbus Dispatch reports, following an extensive investigation into consumer complaints at the FTC over a 2.5 year period, that almost 3/4th of the complaints involved consumer reporting agencies mixing someone’s relative’s credit data into their file. Of nearly 1,300 complaints with the FTC, 563 reported the information being mixed with that of their mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter or grandparent. The next highest category is data mixed from a stranger, reporting at 213.
You can view the results at this link: TheColumbusDispatchMixedFileStatistics.

Employer Use of Credit Reports in Hiring Under Review by States

Posted on by Gordon Leech

The Wall Street Journal reports today, October 21, 2010, that the use of credit reports or credit histories of job applicants, "a common practice among employers– is coming under fire." Employer Credit Checks on Job Seekers Draw Scrutiny, by Sarah Murray, WSJ_Article_Link. Employers claim that the use of credit reports in hiring is necessary to "evaluate candidates and protect against fraud." One of the underlying concerns in the use of credit reports for job applicants, the Journal reports, "is that poor credit could become a barrier to landing a job." Another concern is that the use of credit reports has the potential for discriminatory impact on hiring such that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing on October 20, 2010, to listen to testimony from advocates on both sides of this issue. Chi Chi Wu, counsel for the National Consumer Law Center, testified that the practice "is both harmful and unfair to American workers."

Although proponents of using credit reports for employment contend that these reports "are an important screening tool for employers intend to be used sparingly," the Journal reports that a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management "showed 60% of employers used credit checks to that job candidates. Of those, 13% use them for all candidates."

My own comments on the issue raised in this article is that whether or not you think credit history should be used for evaluating job applicants, it is important for all of us to ensure our credit reports are accurate. Inaccurate, negative information on credit reports can impact you in so many ways, we should all take advantage of the federal law that requires national consumer reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian and Trans Union to provide a consumer his or her own credit report upon request for free. We are all entitled to this free report from each agency once in every 12 month period. You can order your free report for the website established by order of the Federal Trade Commission act www.annualcreditreport.com.

I would also note that in the 2009-2010 legislative session for Wisconsin, a bill was proposed to prohibit discrimination in employment based on one’s credit history with limited exceptions for certain types of jobs. Unfortunately, the bill never made it to the legislative floor. Hopefully, the building reintroduced in the 2010-2011 session.

Employer Use of Credit Reports in Hiring Under Review by States

Posted on by Gordon Leech

The Wall Street Journal reports today, October 21, 2010, that the use of credit reports or credit histories of job applicants, "a common practice among employers– is coming under fire." Employer Credit Checks on Job Seekers Draw Scrutiny, by Sarah Murray, WSJ_Article_Link. Employers claim that the use of credit reports in hiring is necessary to "evaluate candidates and protect against fraud." One of the underlying concerns in the use of credit reports for job applicants, the Journal reports, "is that poor credit could become a barrier to landing a job." Another concern is that the use of credit reports has the potential for discriminatory impact on hiring such that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing on October 20, 2010, to listen to testimony from advocates on both sides of this issue. Chi Chi Wu, counsel for the National Consumer Law Center, testified that the practice "is both harmful and unfair to American workers."

Although proponents of using credit reports for employment contend that these reports "are an important screening tool for employers intend to be used sparingly," the Journal reports that a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management "showed 60% of employers used credit checks to that job candidates. Of those, 13% use them for all candidates."

My own comments on the issue raised in this article is that whether or not you think credit history should be used for evaluating job applicants, it is important for all of us to ensure our credit reports are accurate. Inaccurate, negative information on credit reports can impact you in so many ways, we should all take advantage of the federal law that requires national consumer reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian and Trans Union to provide a consumer his or her own credit report upon request for free. We are all entitled to this free report from each agency once in every 12 month period. You can order your free report for the website established by order of the Federal Trade Commission act www.annualcreditreport.com.

I would also note that in the 2009-2010 legislative session for Wisconsin, a bill was proposed to prohibit discrimination in employment based on one’s credit history with limited exceptions for certain types of jobs. Unfortunately, the bill never made it to the legislative floor. Hopefully, the building reintroduced in the 2010-2011 session.

Wisconsin Legislature Does Not Pass Credit Discrimination in Employment Law

Posted on by Gordon Leech

The 2009 Wisconsin legislature did not vote on AB-367, a bill that would have prohibited discrimination in employment based on credit history. The bill just did not get to the floor in time for a vote. It made it out of the Assembly, but not the Senate. This bill would have made Wisconsin one of a handful of states across the country that recognized the need for credit discrimination laws due to the recession we are in and the impact the recession has on many people that lost their jobs, and as a result, suffered severe financial losses and harm to their credit.