Letter In Support of Credit Bureau Reform, HR5332

U.S. PIRG joined other leading supporters of cleaning up the credit bureaus in a letter in favor of the Protecting Your Credit Score Act, HR5332 (Gottheimer-NJ). The bill was approved by the House on 29 June 2020. Excerpt from our letter which also describes the many reforms included in the bill (the letter is downloadable as a report or resource file from this page):

Credit reports and credit scores play a huge role in determining a consumer’s financial health. Not only do they determine a consumer’s ability to obtain credit at a fair price, but they are used by many other sectors – insurance companies, landlords and even employers. Despite their importance, credit reports are also full of errors, which can cost a consumer thousands of dollars in higher-priced credit, or worse yet, result in the denial of a job, insurance coverage, an apartment rental, or the ability to open a small business or buy a house. The Federal Trade Commission’s definitive study showed that 21% of consumers had verified errors in their credit reports, 13% had errors that affected their credit scores, and 5% had errors serious enough to cause them to be denied or pay more for credit.