Federal Help With Credit Errors Shrank. Your Rights Did Not

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For about fifteen years, a Mississippian who found a mistake on a credit report had a free place to go after the credit bureau ignored them. You filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency forwarded it to Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, and the company had to respond.

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That route is still open. It is just a lot harder to use than it was a year ago.

In February, the CFPB added new language to three separate pages of its complaint portal telling consumers they must first dispute the information with the credit reporting agency, and that the agency will stop processing a complaint if a credit bureau reports that the consumer skipped that step. The portal also tells people to wait 45 days after sending a dispute to a credit bureau before coming to the CFPB, and it now requires an attestation that the dispute is either no longer pending or more than 45 days old. Submit without that, and the agency says it may not respond or may stop working the complaint.

The results have followed. Money confirmed that of the 6.7 million credit report complaints filed with the CFPB between January 2025 and April 2026, 56 percent were closed by the bureaus without any relief, meaning no money and no corrected report. At the same time, the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission quietly ended a longstanding arrangement under which credit reporting complaints were shared between the two agencies, which is why the FTC's published credit complaint numbers dropped by roughly 93 percent.

For Daniel Ware, a consumer protection lawyer in Magee who has handled credit report errors for Mississippi clients since 1998, the change in tone matters more than the paperwork.

"People read those warnings and think the door is closed," said Ware, founder of Ware Law Firm, PLLC. "It isn't. The agency got quieter. The statute didn't change a word."

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law from 1970, and none of this year's changes touched it. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i, when you dispute something on your report, the credit bureau has 30 days to reinvestigate. That stretches to 45 days if you send additional information during the first 30. If the bureau cannot verify the item, it has to delete it or correct it, and it has to send you written results.

The company that reported the bad information has its own duty. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b), once a bureau passes your dispute along, the furnisher has to investigate its own records and report back. A furnisher that keeps reporting something it knows is wrong is exposed on its own.

If those obligations get ignored, the FCRA gives you a private claim, and you do not need a regulator's permission to bring it. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681n, a willful violation can mean actual damages or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000, plus punitive damages. Negligent violations carry actual damages under § 1681o. Both sections make the violating company pay your attorney's fees and costs. There is a clock on it. 15 U.S.C. § 1681p gives you two years from the date you discovered the violation, and no more than five years from the violation itself.

"That fee-shifting piece is the part most people never hear about," Ware said. "It means a person in Simpson County with a wrecked credit file and no savings can still hold a billion-dollar company to account. That has always been the design. It did not get repealed because a website put up a warning page."

A credit file in this state is not only about getting a credit card. It is the car loan for a commute to Jackson or Hattiesburg. It is the apartment application, the insurance rate, and in a lot of cases the job itself, because employers run background reports that are governed by the same statute.

Ware said the cases he sees most often are not close calls. A paid-off account still showing a balance. A bankruptcy discharge that never got reported as discharged. A file mixed with a relative or a stranger who shares a name. Accounts opened in someone else's name after identity theft. Collection accounts placed by debt collectors who never verified anything.

Mississippi has no state statute that mirrors the FCRA. The Mississippi Consumer Protection Act, Miss. Code Ann. § 75-24-1 and following, reaches unfair and deceptive practices more broadly, though a consumer bringing a private claim under that law first has to make a reasonable attempt at the Attorney General's informal dispute resolution process. For credit reporting specifically, the federal law is the stronger tool.

Ware's advice to people who call him is short. Pull all three reports, which are free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com, because a mistake often sits on one bureau's file and not the others. Dispute in writing rather than by phone, mail it certified, and keep a copy, since the paper trail is what later proves the bureau knew. Say what is wrong and attach proof, whether that is a payoff letter, a discharge order, or a police report, because vague disputes get closed as frivolous. Save everything that comes back, including the denial letters, since a notice saying you were turned down because of your report is evidence of harm. File the CFPB complaint anyway after the 45 days, because it still builds a record even when the agency does nothing with it. And watch the calendar.

"The hardest calls I get are from somebody three years out who did everything right except talk to a lawyer," Ware said. "They disputed, they waited, they disputed again, and by the time they got tired of waiting the deadline had run. If a bureau has told you no twice, that is the signal. Not the third time."

About Ware Law Firm, PLLC

Ware Law Firm, PLLC is the Magee practice of Daniel D. Ware, a consumer protection lawyer representing Mississippians in credit reporting and FCRA claims, debt collection harassment, auto sales fraud, lemon law, identity theft, and bankruptcy matters. Ware has practiced law in Mississippi since 1998 and works with clients across the state. Consultations are free.

To learn more, visit warelawfirm.com.

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