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     | Thursday, January 13, 2000 - 02:38 pm  A step toward accountability. It does not address the fact that they violate other areas of the FCRA as well. http://www.ftc.gov Jan. 13, 2000 Nation's Big Three Consumer Reporting Agencies Agree To Pay $2.5 Million To Settle FTC Charges of Violating Fair Credit Reporting Act Three national consumer reporting agencies, Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., (Equifax), Trans Union LLC (Trans Union), and Experian Information Solutions, Inc. (Experian), have agreed to a total of $2.5 million in payments as part of settlements negotiated by the Federal Trade Commission to resolve charges that they each violated provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to maintain a toll-free telephone number at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours. According to the FTC's complaints, Equifax, Trans Union and Experian (collectively, consumer reporting agencies or CRAs) blocked millions of calls from consumers who wanted to discuss the contents and possible errors in their credit reports and kept some of those consumers on hold for unreasonably long periods of time. The proposed settlements with each CRA also would require that it meet specific performance standards to ensure that CRA personnel are accessible to consumers. The FCRA is designed to promote accuracy, fairness and privacy of information in the files of every consumer reporting agency. To provide consumers the ability to more easily resolve inaccuracies in their credit reports quickly, Congress amended the FCRA -- effective Sept. 30, 1997 -- to require Experian, Equifax and Trans Union to provide consumers who receive a copy of their credit report with a toll-free telephone number at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours. "The reality is that consumers never got the access to the consumer reporting agencies that the law guarantees," said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These cases demonstrate in no uncertain terms that it's time for Equifax, Experian and Trans Union to pick up the phone and meet their obligations to consumers." Equifax is based in Atlanta, Georgia; Trans Union is based in Chicago, Illinois, and Experian (formerly, TRW) is an Ohio corporation, with its principal place of business in Orange, California. They are the largest consumer reporting agencies in the nation. According to the FTC's complaints, while all three CRAs had established toll-free telephone numbers for consumers, they violated the accessibility requirement of Section 609(c)(1)(B) since the provision went into effect in September 1997 because a substantial number of consumers have been unable to access the CRAs' personnel when calling the toll-free numbers during normal business hours. The complaints against Trans Union and Experian allege that since September 1997 over a million calls to their toll-free numbers received a busy signal or a message indicating that the consumer must call back because all representatives are busy. The complaint against Equifax contains a similar allegation involving hundreds of thousands of calls by consumers to its toll-free numbers. Further, each complaint alleges that a number of callers to the CRAs' toll-free numbers experienced an unreasonable hold time while waiting to speak with CRA personnel during normal business hours. Finally, the complaints against Equifax and Trans Union allege that each blocked certain incoming telephone calls based upon the location of the call, including, but not limited to, area code. The proposed consent decrees contain specific injunctive provisions that ensure the three CRAs maintain toll-free telephone numbers with personnel accessible to consumers who receive a copy of their credit report. Each of the proposed settlements would require that the CRAs maintain a blocked call rate of no greater than 10 percent and an average hold time of no greater than three minutes and thirty seconds. To measure the CRAs' compliance with these standards, the CRAs will be required to conduct regular audits in accordance with guidelines specified as part of the settlement. Further, the proposed consent decrees would require each of the CRAs to fully comply with Section 609(c)(1)(B) of the FCRA in the future. Finally, Equifax has agreed to pay $500,000, and Experian and Trans Union both have agreed to pay $1 million, all pursuant to the Commission's authority to collect civil penalties, as a monetary settlement of the charges. The complaints and proposed settlements were filed in U.S. District Courts in Illinois, Georgia, and Texas earlier today by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC. The Commission vote to refer the matters to DOJ for filing was 4-0, with Commissioner Sheila F. Anthony recused.
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| | Thursday, January 13, 2000 - 05:56 pm Thanks much, Denise. Appreciate your posting. Most people probably read this settlement and conclude that we have strong consumer protection law enforcement. Yet, I have a completely different view. One million dollars to TU and Experian are probably less significant than 50 bucks are to me. As somebody who was not able to get through MANY TIMES, what do I get? Nothing. Last winter I stood at a pay phone in northern Arizona for a LOOOOONG time, freezing, until I was disconnected by Check Systems (Experian.) I couldn't open a bank account, had to drive to California to find out that Home Savings INCORRECTLY reported just under $17 as owed on a closed checking account. I truly hate these settlements, HUD plays the same game. Here's what I think happened: The FTC said: Look you guys, we got proof that you violated the law. Complaints are filling up entire buildings. Even legislators can't get through to you. We KNOW what a great job you're doing, being so helpful and necessary to BUSINESS. But we got to make the public feel like their complaints are actually being read. What can we do? So they settled. For a few bucks and a promise to do better. When I routinely speed and I get caught a few times, my driver's license will be revoked. Even though I never hurt anyone. I can't say "Oh, well, if I don't drive I'm out of business. I got $2,000 in my savings, lets just settle this for $50! And I promise not to speed again." Why is it that the FTC doesn't revoke their licenses? How did this settlement affect their shareholders? How is their stock doing? I saw nothing in the headline news. What were their 1999 earnings? I did a Web Ferret search for "Trans Union, Equifax, Experian, FTC Settlement" and found nothing. Can somebody help me out here? I'm still on 9600 baud connection, but I did check a few financial sites and again found nothing. The DOW was up today, but I don't know where they're traded. How devastated are Trans Union, Equifax and Experian by this settlement? Christine
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| | Friday, January 14, 2000 - 03:57 am Christine: I agree with your analysis that some people will read this and believe there are stong consumer protection laws in place. I was thinking about this order and it actually is quite sad and frustrating that if as the FTC says in its release, "hundreds of thousands" of consumers complained and they further state consumers are trying to call...."to discuss possible inaccuracies" then doesn't it stand to reason that they should have been sanctioned for other egregious violations of the FCRA? What about addressing all the inaccuracy complaints? It would stand to reason that if the FTC has received that many complaints (hundreds of thousands)from angry consumers, that they also received thousands of complaints regarding their violations of failure to re-investigate disputes and re-inserting inaccurate information. FURTHER what about the Section that pertains to having "reasonable procedures in place" Not manning their phones, or having trained personnel and blocking phones would indicate they do not have reasonable procedures in place! This quote was in the Washington Post this morning...Maxine Sweet, Experian's vice president for consumer affairs, said company officials are "glad to have the case settled, but we were disappointed that we had to spend the money in a settlement instead of spending it toward improving consumer services."
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| | Friday, January 14, 2000 - 08:16 am http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/20000113/news/current/dc_personal.htx?source=htx/http2_mw http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-01/14/045l-011400-idx.html
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