In December 2024, Kelly Guzzo, PLC filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Maryland (Baltimore Division). This lawsuit alleges that Experian “mixed” the credit report of a Maryland resident with another consumer. A mixed (or merged) file occurs when a credit reporting agency combines the credit report of one individual with another person who has similar identifying information. In this instance, the mixed credit report contained a bankruptcy that did not belong to our client, as well as numerous credit accounts totaling over $30,000 in debt that did not belong to her.
When individuals share similar identifying information, the credit bureaus often include information about one person in the other person’s credit report. Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union have substantial notice and knowledge of their mixed file problems, including combining credit reports of one individual with another person with similar identifying information. Over the past thirty years, Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union have been repeatedly sued for mixing consumers’ credit reports. Despite this extensive notice, Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union’s computer systems still cause mixed files because they do not require or use full identifying information for a potential credit grantor’s inquiry even when unique identifiers such as a full social security number are present. Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union do this to sell more credit reports.
Experian not only mixed the consumer’s file in this case, but it failed to delete the information after the consumer disputed the loan in her credit report, including the inaccurate bankruptcy and many of the accounts. Experian failed to delete the information from the consumer’s credit report because, as a matter of practice, Experian relies entirely on each creditor’s investigation results to verify the disputed accounts and neglected to conduct any other investigation into Plaintiff’s dispute. Because Experian relies on the company that furnishes the credit information, they refused to delete the account even after she sent multiple dispute letters.
If your credit reports have been inaccurately mixed or combined with another individual, the lawyers at Kelly Guzzo, PLC can assist you with removing mixed information from your credit reports. We can also assist you with filing a claim against the credit bureaus to compensate you for the damages you suffered as result of the inaccurate information. Contact us as we have handled dozens of similar cases where individuals have been mixed. There is no out-of-pocket cost for these services, and we only recover if you do.
