in Newswire December 4, 2019

Class Action: GM Financial, Experian Failed to Remove Duplicate Items from Credit Reports

Last Updated on December 4, 2019

Ravitz v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc. et al.

Filed: November 25, 2019 ◆§ 7:19-cv-10908

A class action claims Experian and GM Financial failed to investigate and correct inaccurate information contained in consumer credit reports.

Defendant(s)

Experian Information Solutions AmeriCredit Financial Services, Inc. GM Financial

Law(s)

Fair Credit Reporting Act

State(s)

New York

A proposed class action lawsuit claims Experian Information Solutions, Inc. and AmeriCredit Financial Services, Inc., which does business as GM Financial, included duplicate debts in New York consumers’ credit reports and failed to properly investigate when consumers disputed the information.

With regard to the lead plaintiff, the woman claims Experian erroneously listed a purported GM Financial debt twice in one 2019 credit report. The plaintiff states she wrote a letter to Experian in April of the same year in which she disputed the inclusion of the duplicate account. Despite being notified of the plaintiff’s dispute, GM, the case claims, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into the information in question and continued reporting the duplicate item on her credit report. Experian similarly failed to properly investigate the plaintiff’s claims, according to the suit. From the complaint:

“Despite the dispute by the Plaintiff that the information on her consumer report was inaccurate with respect to the dispute [sic] account, Experian did not evaluate or consider any of the information, claims, or evidence of the Plaintiff and did not make an attempt to substantially reasonably verify that the derogatory information concerning the disputed account was inaccurate.”

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), credit reporting agencies (CRAs) like Experian are required to conduct reasonable investigations into information disputed by consumers, correct any erroneous items and note in future credit reports that the accounts are contested, the case explains. According to the suit, the FCRA also requires furnishers such as GM to conduct timely investigations into disputed information and to notify CRAs of the investigation’s results. The case contends the defendants failed to execute these duties, causing the plaintiff to suffer a decrease in her credit score as a result.

The lawsuit seeks to represent a class comprising all New York residents for whom GM continued to report a duplicate debt to credit bureaus after being notified the item was reported twice on the same credit report within the five years prior to the complaint’s filing.