4 U.S. senators despatched letters grilling the nation’s main credit score bureaus on Thursday after a ProPublica investigation confirmed two of the bureaus had been fixing fewer customers’ credit score experiences.
The letters got here in response to a ProPublica investigation from March, which discovered that two of the three main credit score bureaus — TransUnion and Experian — had considerably scaled again how usually they offered reduction to complaints filed by the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau. The decline in reduction coincided with the Trump administration’s makes an attempt to conduct mass layoffs on the CFPB and roll again a lot of its oversight of the monetary sector.
The letters’ lead creator is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the rating member of the Senate Banking Committee and a key architect within the creation of the CFPB. Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth, Andy Kim and Lisa Blunt Rochester additionally joined the letters.
ProPublica discovered that TransUnion’s price of reduction, which had remained comparatively regular for a number of years, dropped sharply in the summertime of 2025. By October it was offering reduction roughly half as usually. Experian, which had offered reduction to just about 20% of client complaints in 2024, offered reduction to lower than 1% of complaints in 2025, in accordance with the CFPB’s information.
Firms are required to answer client complaints filed by the CFPB, and reduction will be monetary or nonmonetary, for example, fixing an error on a credit score report.
Within the letters to Experian and TransUnion, the senators known as ProPublica’s findings “tremendously regarding” and stated that the reporting “raises important questions concerning the legality” of the businesses’ practices. The “drastic drop in responsiveness signifies that American customers could also be getting denied a mortgage or housing merely because of an error on their report that your organization didn’t appropriate.”
In an announcement, TransUnion stated, “We admire the chance for significant engagement with policymakers concerning the sturdy and compliant processes TransUnion deploys,” and that it might reply to the letter. Experian didn’t reply to a request for remark. The corporate beforehand advised ProPublica it investigates “all respectable” complaints.
The third main credit score bureau, Equifax, didn’t see the same decline in reduction, ProPublica discovered. Final 12 months, simply previous to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the corporate entered a settlement with the CFPB that aimed to repair the corporate’s deficiencies in its client dispute processes, though the settlement didn’t point out CFPB complaints particularly.
Equifax stated it might interact with the letter and that the corporate works to make it simpler for customers to “appropriate any potential errors rapidly.”
Within the letters, the senators requested information on disputes and complaints despatched to the businesses, in addition to data on their dispute dealing with processes and staffing. The senators additionally requested for correspondence with the CFPB, together with communication concerning dropped and halted enforcement actions towards TransUnion that had been recognized in ProPublica’s investigation.
Shopper complaints about credit score reporting have risen dramatically, with over 4 million filed final 12 months with the CFPB. The credit score bureaus have stated that many current complaints are illegitimate, together with a big quantity filed by third-party credit score restore organizations that cost prospects to problem unfavorable data on their experiences.
Errors on a credit score report will be tough and time-consuming to repair. ProPublica spoke with a Colorado accountant, Rebecca Sheppard, who had spent practically a 12 months making an attempt to get a $240,000 debt that she didn’t owe faraway from her credit score report. The error precipitated her credit score rating to plunge roughly 85 factors and jeopardized her plans to maneuver along with her disabled father right into a extra accessible house.
Sheppard contacted the credit score bureaus on 4 events, together with by the CFPB’s criticism system, however they didn’t take away the debt. In response to her fourth try, by way of licensed mail, TransUnion despatched her a postcard stating it believed the submission had not come from her.
She ultimately sued the credit score bureaus in January. TransUnion settled the declare shortly after ProPublica’s story was printed, whereas the case continues to be pending towards Equifax and Experian, which have denied the allegations in courtroom.
The CFPB beforehand had been placing stress on the credit score bureaus to repair errors and interact with customers, and reduction charges had risen through the Biden administration. Nevertheless, upon the change of administrations, Trump appointed Russell Vought as appearing head of the CFPB. He rapidly ordered a cease to just about all company work. Below Vought, the company additionally tried to fireplace a lot of its workers, an effort that has been paused by litigation.
Heeding the issues voiced by the credit score reporting business’s lobbying group, the CFPB in February added notices for customers to click on by earlier than submitting a criticism, warning them that their requests is perhaps ignored if they’d not already disputed points immediately with credit score bureaus.
A CFPB spokesperson advised ProPublica in March that the criticism system was inundated with submissions from bots and third-party credit score restore corporations, and the company was working to deal with that so respectable customers can extra successfully get assist.
Within the letters, the senators additionally highlighted the results of the system. “It’s exhausting to overstate the extent to which credit score experiences and credit score scores produced by credit score reporting firms permeate practically each side of contemporary American life,” they wrote.
