The nation’s consumer watchdog agency on Tuesday ordered the credit-reporting agencies TransUnion and Equifax to pay more than $23.2 million in fines and restitution for deceiving customers about the usefulness of credit scores and the cost of obtaining them.þþThe watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the payments would resolve charges that TransUnion and Equifax had lured consumers into enrolling in credit services advertised as free or costing only $1, but which could cost more than $200 a year.þþTransUnion will reimburse $13.93 million to consumers and pay a $3 million civil fine, while Equifax will reimburse $3.8 million and pay a $2.5 million civil fine, the bureau said.þþBoth companies will also modify their marketing practices. Among the changes, they will obtain customers’ consent to enroll them in services in which fees begin after free trials and make it easier for them to cancel services they do not want.þþThe bureau said the wrongful conduct had violated the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law and had occurred at TransUnion since July 2011 and at Equifax between July 2011 and March 2014.þþMany lenders rely on credit scores from TransUnion, Equifax and their rival Experian when lending money.þþBut TransUnion and Equifax falsely represented the credit scores they sold to consumers as being the same scores that lenders used, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.þþ“Credit scores are central to a consumer’s financial life, and people deserve honest and accurate information about them,” Richard Cordray, the bureau’s director, said in a statement.þþNeither TransUnion, which is based in Chicago, nor Equifax, which is based in Atlanta, admitted or denied wrongdoing.þþA TransUnion spokesman, David Blumberg, and an Equifax spokeswoman, Ines Gutzmer, said their companies believed that they had complied with the law and were committed to better educating consumers about their credit.þþExperian was not charged. A spokesman for the bureau did not immediately have additional comment.þþIn 2015, under a separate settlement with 31 state attorneys general, the credit-reporting agencies agreed to improve how they fixed mistakes and addressed disputes.þ
Source: NY Times
