Equifax, Bank of America, GM Financial Sued Over ‘Erroneous’ Credit Report

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A New York woman claims in a proposed class action lawsuit that Equifax Information Services, LLC; Bank of America Corporation; and General Motors Financial Company, Inc. violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to ensure “maximum possible accuracy” for her credit report.

According to the suit, although the plaintiff disputed what she claims are “erroneous tradelines” associated with Bank of America and GM Financial accounts in her credit report, Equifax failed to conduct a proper investigation and report the lines as disputed. The lawsuit explains that after the plaintiff disputed the accounts on her credit report in November 2019, Equifax “did not resolve the dispute,” which led the woman to subsequently file a statement of dispute with the credit reporting agency later that month.

According to the case, the FCRA states that “[w]henever a statement of a dispute is filed . . . the consumer reporting agency shall, in any subsequent consumer report containing the information in question, clearly note that it is disputed by the consumer and provide either the consumer’s statement or a clear and accurate codification or summary thereof.” Despite this requirement, Equifax “intentionally failed” to include the statement of dispute on the plaintiff’s December 2019 credit report, the case alleges.

Moreover, the lawsuit alleges Equifax has chosen to ignore its responsibility to investigate the dispute and determine whether the information is accurate, and has relied instead on the inaccurate data provided by its customers.

“Despite having furnished information from Bank of America Corporation and GM Financial and the disputes from the Plaintiff, Equifax Information Services, LLC has completely abdicated its obligations under federal and state law and has instead chosen to merely ‘parrot’ whatever its customers, Bank of America Corporation and GM Financial have chosen to say,” the complaint reads.

Bank of America and GM Financial, for their part, have “willfully, maliciously, recklessly, wantonly, and/or negligently” failed to accurately update the plaintiff’s accounts, the suit claims. The case alleges that as a result of the defendants’ failures, the plaintiff was injured by the “erroneous information” included in her credit report.