COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio newspaper reports that Americans are virtually powerless to correct damaging mistakes in their credit reports due to a failure of federal law to regulate credit-reporting agencies.
The Columbus Dispatch published Sunday the first of a four-part series looking at the three largest national credit-reporting agencies. The report says that even basic errors such as misspelled names have wrongly denied thousands of people the chance to buy homes or even open a checking account.
The newspaper analyzed nearly 30,000 consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission over 30 months beginning in 2009 and to attorneys general in 24 states.
A trade group representing the credit-reporting agencies says they strive daily to keep accurate information.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
