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CREDCO, a division of First American Real Estate Solutions (FARES) has been charged with violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA).
Among the charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which FARES has agreed to settle, is failing to investigate information disputed by consumers in instant merge reports, which blend account information on individual consumers from two or three of the national credit bureaus: Trans Union, Equifax and Experian.
Instant merge reports are produced and can be delivered electronically via computer, nearly instantaneously, to residential mortgage lenders, home equity lenders, automobile dealers, residential property managers, and others.
According to the FTC’s complaint, CREDCO has failed to comply with guidelines which require that information in a consumer report disputed by a consumer must be investigated, and corrected or deleted if found to be inaccurate. If after investigation, the consumer reporting agency chooses not to change the way it reports the information, it must include in future consumer reports a statement that the information is being disputed by the consumer, and include any statement describing the dispute submitted by the consumer in consequent consumer reports. In addition, on the rare occasion that CREDCO did investigate the disputed information, it did not correct or delete from its files the information found to be inaccurate or obsolete. CREDCO also did not report in future instant merge reports the disputed information, nor prevent the disputed information from reappearing in future reports.
In the proposed settlement consent agreement FARES has agreed to adhere to all FTC guidelines applicable to all consumer reports, with appropriate notification to the furnisher of the disputed information within five business days.
