Mixed Credit Files can cause Disaster

Marketwatch has a lengthy story on credit reporting errors with a focus on marking a consumer as “deceased” when he/she is actually alive. As the story shows, it happens more than it should and there are several different ways it can happen. Some of the most reoccurring ways is when a deceased person’s credit file is “mixed” with another person’s that is still alive. Another is when a joint account holder dies and the furnisher mistakenly marks the still alive person as deceased. As the article explains, the problem can cause devastating results:

It was January 2017 and Angela, his high-school sweetheart and wife of five decades, was dying of lung, kidney, bone and brain cancer. He needed a home-equity loan for renovations including a full downstairs bathroom, an air conditioner so Angela could breathe in the Florida heat, and porch screening so his wife could be outside even with her “extreme allergy to the bugs in the area.”

He also needed the money to cover the burial costs he worried were coming.

Rennick didn’t get the money.

As such, when these proceed to trial, juries often award large verdicts:

In 2013, Baxter won an $18.6 million jury verdict against Equifax for a client named Julie Miller whose information merged with a different Julie Miller. Miller filed multiple disputes with Equifax over two years, to no avail. Appellate judges cut Miller’s award to $1.62 million in damages and $300,000 in legal fees, Baxter said.