FTC To Change Consumers' Credit Bureau Complaint Process

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released a report that details the credit bureau complaint process for consumers after they've submitted a credit report dispute. According to the FTC, the majority of complaints they receive about credit bureau disputes end up being resolved to the consumers satisfaction. Most of them, 90% to be exact, are resolved before the FTC ever gets involved. The remaining 10% are typically resolved once the FTC refers the complaint to the credit bureau.

The FTC finds that consumers are submitting credit bureau complaints around the same time they submit the credit bureau dispute, which isn't how the process is supposed to work. Consumers are supposed to use the complaint process after they've gone through the normal dispute process and are unsatisfied with the result.

Of course, it's not a good use of FTC resources to follow up on complaints that have already been resolved, so they are making plans to change the complaint process so that consumers have some recourse after they've exhausted the normal dispute process.

The FTC sent 23,322 complaints to credit bureaus between 2004 and 2007. It's possible the FTC received more complaints from consumers, however, only those that met certain criteria were reported.

More on Credit Report Disputes

• How to Submit a Credit Report Dispute
• Sample Credit Report Dispute Letter
• What Happens After Your Dispute