CFPB Tightens Complaint Portal Rules for Credit Report Disputes

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) added new requirements to its consumer complaint portal for credit reporting disputes, directing consumers to first file disputes with credit reporting agencies before submitting complaints to the CFPB. The Bureau published a series of new landing pages instructing customers to dispute inaccurate or incomplete credit report information directly with the credit bureaus and warning that complaints may not be processed if the consumer has not first followed that process.

Under the updated portal language, consumers must wait up to 45 days after submitting a dispute with a credit reporting agency before escalating the matter to the CFPB, reflecting the time frame that credit bureaus are generally permitted to investigate and respond.

The CFPB also added an attestation requiring consumers to certify that the information submitted is true and that they have already contacted the credit bureau or that the dispute is no longer pending. The Bureau said it will discontinue processing a complaint if a credit reporting agency indicates the consumer did not first dispute the issue directly. 

The changes come as credit reporting complaints have grown to dominate the CFPB’s complaint database. Industry groups and the national credit bureaus have argued that the portal has been flooded by duplicative submissions and complaints generated by third-party credit repair firms or automated tools, and have urged the CFPB to add guardrails to improve data integrity. Consumer advocates, however, warned that more aggressive authentication measures could create barriers for some consumers.