If you’ve ever tried to fix an error on your credit report, you already know the drill. You write a letter. You attach your proof. You wait. And weeks later, a form response comes back telling you the inaccurate information has been “verified” — even though nothing about it is actually accurate.
It’s frustrating. It’s exhausting. And according to a recent investigation, it’s also happening a lot more often than it used to.
In March 2026, ProPublica published an in-depth report showing that two of the three major credit reporting agencies — TransUnion and Experian — have sharply pulled back on resolving consumer complaints in consumers’ favor. The numbers are striking. Experian resolved nearly one in five consumer complaints in the consumer’s favor in 2024. In 2025, that figure dropped to less than one percent. TransUnion’s relief rate held steady for years before falling off a cliff in the middle of 2025; by October, it was helping consumers about half as often as it had been. Since January 2025, more than 2.7 million credit reporting complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have gone without any relief at all.
If your dispute has been ignored or rubber-stamped, this isn’t just bad luck. It’s a pattern — and the law gives you tools to fight back.
Why this is happening now
For more than a decade, the CFPB was the federal agency consumers could turn to when the credit bureaus wouldn’t listen. It collected complaints, forwarded them to the bureaus, demanded responses, published the data, and — when patterns of misconduct emerged — brought enforcement actions that forced real change. By 2015, the big three credit bureaus had become the most-complained-about firms in the CFPB’s entire system, and the agency’s pressure was the main reason consumers got any relief at all.
That changed in early 2025. According to ProPublica, after the Trump administration took office, the CFPB was rapidly hollowed out. Its acting director ordered a stop to nearly all agency work. Investigations were frozen. Enforcement actions were dropped, including one that had been approved against TransUnion in July 2024 but never filed. One of the agency’s new lawyers leading the pullback had spent years representing Experian.
Equifax, interestingly, did not show the same drop in consumer relief — for one simple reason. Just days before the change in administration, Equifax entered into a $15 million consent order with the CFPB requiring it to overhaul its dispute process and remain compliant for five years. That order locked in protections that the other two bureaus successfully avoided.
What the FCRA gives you
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., has been on the books since 1970, and nothing about the changes at the CFPB has weakened it. The statute gives consumers powerful, enforceable rights that don’t depend on whether a federal agency is currently using its supervisory authority:
- The right to an accurate credit report. Credit reporting agencies are required to follow “reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” of the information they report.
- The right to a real investigation. When you dispute an item, both the credit bureau and the furnisher are legally required to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation. A reflexive “verified” response that ignores your documents does not meet this standard.
- The right to delete unverifiable information. If the bureau cannot verify a disputed item within the statutory window (generally 30 days), it must be deleted.
- The right to sue. If a credit reporting agency or a furnisher willfully or negligently violates the FCRA, you can bring a private federal lawsuit. Available remedies include actual damages (which in many circuits include emotional distress, frustration, and damage to reputation), statutory damages of up to $1,000 per willful violation, punitive damages, and recovery of your attorneys’ fees and costs.
That last point is critical. The FCRA was specifically designed so that consumers don’t have to pay out of pocket to enforce their rights. If you win, the bureau or furnisher pays your legal fees. That’s how Congress intended private enforcement to fill the gap when government enforcement falls short — exactly the situation many consumers are facing right now.
What you should do right now if your dispute has been ignored
Whether you ultimately decide to pursue a lawsuit or not, taking the following steps will protect your rights and preserve the evidence you may need later.
- Save everything. Keep copies of every dispute letter, every response, every envelope, and every document you submitted. Certified mail receipts and tracking confirmations are especially valuable in court.
- Pull your reports from all three bureaus. Errors often appear on more than one. You can get free copies at AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Dispute in writing, not online. Many online dispute portals require you to agree to terms that may limit your rights or make later litigation more difficult. Mailed disputes (preferably certified) create a much cleaner paper trail.
- Document the harm. Were you denied a mortgage, an auto loan, an apartment, a credit card, or a job? Did you pay a higher interest rate because of the error? Did the situation cause you stress, sleep loss, or embarrassment? All of this is potentially recoverable under the FCRA.
- Don’t wait too long. The FCRA generally has a two-year statute of limitations from the date of discovery, with an outer limit of five years from the violation. Acting promptly preserves your options.
- Talk to a consumer protection attorney. Most plaintiff-side FCRA firms — including ours — handle these cases on a contingency-fee basis. You don’t pay anything unless we recover for you, and the FCRA requires the bureau or furnisher to pay your reasonable attorneys’ fees if you win.
Why private FCRA lawsuits matter more than ever
With federal enforcement scaled back, private lawsuits have become one of the most powerful tools consumers have to hold the credit bureaus accountable — both for themselves and for everyone else stuck in the same broken system. Every successful FCRA case sends the same message the CFPB used to send: that ignoring real disputes has real consequences.
If you’ve found an error on your credit report, sent in a dispute, and gotten nowhere — or if a credit reporting issue has cost you a loan, a job, an apartment, or peace of mind — we’d like to hear from you. Our firm represents consumers across the country in FCRA cases against the major credit bureaus, furnishers, and background check companies. Consultations are free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
Reach out today at 1-877-735-8600 or fill out our online Free Case Review form. With the federal regulator largely on the sidelines, the law still has teeth — but only if consumers use it.