COVID-19 may have infected your credit score.
Record numbers of complaints about credit report errors are pouring in against the credit monitoring bureaus, according to a consumer group, and the pandemic is to blame.
But consumers like you are the ones paying the price for these mistakes, as credit scores are being pulled down. But it's not too late to protect yourself — and if your score has taken a hit, you can fix it.
Why it's happening
The law last March that provided the very first stimulus checks also instructed servicers of federally backed mortgages and student loans to let borrowers put their payments on hold.
Meanwhile, credit card issuers and auto loan providers voluntarily offered payment deferrals to their customers. Americans straining to keep up with their bills during the COVID economic crisis eagerly opted to take breaks from their loans and credit cards.
Days after the relief law was signed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a policy statement directing companies to report that consumers were "current" on their loans even when they were taking advantage of relaxed payment schedules.
The trouble started when some lenders and loan services erroneously reported the skipped payments as "late" to credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, whose credit reports on consumers are used to calculate credit scores. And people who'd paused their payments soon saw their scores drop as a result.
The issue has become so widespread that class-action lawsuits against credit card issuers and other financial companies have popped up in New Jersey and Washington courts.
An explosion of errors
In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission did a study on how common credit reporting errors are. The agency found 1 in 4 people had at least one mistake in their credit reports.
Now, the pandemic has caused that problem to mushroom. Since last April 1, the CFPB has received nearly 280,000 consumer complaints about credit reporting — an all-time high, and an 86% increase from the days before the pandemic, according to the consumer advocacy organization the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
"Consumers have every right to be angry with credit bureaus," says Ed Mierzwinski, a senior director with U.S. PIRG. Errors in your credit reports can have long-term consequences, for your credit score and your overall finances.
Negative information will stay on a credit report for seven years, according to Equifax. That means through no fault of your own, you may have trouble taking out a mortgage or getting a car loan, student loan, cellphone or even a new job — for the better part of the next decade.