Four U.S. senators sent letters grilling the nation’s major credit bureaus on Thursday after a ProPublica investigation showed two of the bureaus were fixing fewer consumers’ credit reports.
The letters came in response to a ProPublica investigation from March, which found that two of the three major credit bureaus — TransUnion and Experian — had substantially scaled back how often they provided relief to complaints filed through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The decline in relief coincided with the Trump administration’s attempts to conduct mass layoffs at the CFPB and roll back much of its oversight of the financial sector.
The letters’ lead author is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee and a key architect in the creation of the CFPB. Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth, Andy Kim and Lisa Blunt Rochester also joined the letters.
ProPublica found that TransUnion’s rate of relief, which had remained relatively steady for several years, dropped sharply in the summer of 2025. By October it was providing relief roughly half as often. Experian, which had provided relief to nearly 20% of consumer complaints in 2024, provided relief to less than 1% of complaints in 2025, according to the CFPB’s data.
Companies are required to respond to consumer complaints filed through the CFPB, and relief can be financial or nonmonetary, for instance, fixing an error on a credit report.
In the letters to Experian and TransUnion, the senators called ProPublica’s findings “greatly concerning” and said that the reporting “raises significant questions about the legality” of the companies’ practices. The “drastic drop in responsiveness means that American consumers may be getting denied a mortgage or housing simply due to an error on their report that your company failed to correct.”
In a statement, TransUnion said, “We appreciate the opportunity for meaningful engagement with policymakers regarding the robust and compliant processes TransUnion deploys,” and that it would respond to the letter. Experian did not respond to a request for comment. The company previously told ProPublica it investigates “all legitimate” complaints.
The third major credit bureau, Equifax, did not see a similar decline in relief, ProPublica found. Last year, just prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the company entered a settlement with the CFPB that aimed to fix the company’s deficiencies in its consumer dispute processes, although the agreement did not mention CFPB complaints specifically.
Equifax said it would engage with the letter and that the company works to make it easier for consumers to “correct any potential errors quickly.”
In the letters, the senators requested data on disputes and complaints sent to the companies, as well as information on their dispute handling processes and staffing. The senators also asked for correspondence with the CFPB, including communication regarding dropped and halted enforcement actions against TransUnion that were identified in ProPublica’s investigation.
Consumer complaints about credit reporting have risen dramatically, with over 4 million filed last year with the CFPB. The credit bureaus have said that many recent complaints are illegitimate, including a large volume filed by third-party credit repair organizations that charge customers to challenge negative information on their reports.
Errors on a credit report can be difficult and time-consuming to fix. ProPublica spoke with a Colorado accountant, Rebecca Sheppard, who had spent nearly a year trying to get a $240,000 debt that she did not owe removed from her credit report. The error caused her credit score to plunge roughly 85 points and jeopardized her plans to move with her disabled father into a more accessible home.
Sheppard contacted the credit bureaus on four occasions, including through the CFPB’s complaint system, but they did not remove the debt. In response to her fourth attempt, via certified mail, TransUnion sent her a postcard stating it believed the submission had not come from her.
She eventually sued the credit bureaus in January. TransUnion settled the claim shortly after ProPublica’s story was published, while the case is still pending against Equifax and Experian, which have denied the allegations in court.
The CFPB previously had been putting pressure on the credit bureaus to fix errors and engage with consumers, and relief rates had risen during the Biden administration. However, upon the change of administrations, Trump appointed Russell Vought as acting head of the CFPB. He quickly ordered a stop to nearly all agency work. Under Vought, the agency also attempted to fire much of its staff, an effort that has been paused by litigation.
Heeding the concerns voiced by the credit reporting industry’s lobbying group, the CFPB in February added notices for consumers to click through before filing a complaint, warning them that their requests might be ignored if they had not already disputed issues directly with credit bureaus.
A CFPB spokesperson told ProPublica in March that the complaint system was inundated with submissions from bots and third-party credit repair firms, and the agency was working to address that so legitimate consumers can more effectively get help.
In the letters, the senators also highlighted the consequences of the system. “It is hard to overstate the extent to which credit reports and credit scores produced by credit reporting companies permeate nearly every aspect of modern American life,” they wrote.
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
- propublica.org
