Equifax, the giant credit bureau recently dinged with a hefty $485,000 price tag, has agreed to settle claims over a snafu that may have unfairly sunk thousands of consumers' credit scores, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry confirmed. The blunder caused approximately 51,000 Pennsylvanians, those applying for loans or insurance, to suffer potentially inflated costs due to dips in their credit scores triggered by the company's erroneous data.

This cash penalty includes $470,000 heading straight into the state's coffer and an extra $15,000 for covering the attorney general's investigative expenses; the settlement marks a milestone as the largest the Office of Attorney General has slapped on a consumer finance case in over a decade, even since Equifax settled with the Office back in 2019 following a massive data breach. Attorney General Michelle Henry stated, “As one of the nation’s largest consumer reporting agencies, American consumers and lenders depend on Equifax to provide accurate consumer reports,” according to an announcement on the attorney general’s official website. “This settlement holds Equifax accountable for failing to do its most basic job. We hope that today’s announcement will cause more lenders and insurers to adjust interest rates and refund overpayments to any consumers who were impacted by a negative score shift. We appreciate that Equifax has promised to accept requests for reimbursement from lenders and insurers through the end of 2024."

In March of last year, Equifax caught wind of the coding gaffe which led to them funneling inaccurate credit data to lenders, during a brief three-week window. It was a pricey mistake that had lenders and insurers handing out loans and policies at inflated rates—rates likely higher than what consumers would have snagged if their credit reports were spotless. The error was partially ironed out by April 6 and entirely sorted out by April 8, 2022. In response, Equifax informed all impacted lenders and insurers that summer and offered to pony up for any interest rate corrections made in favor of consumers, prompting a cascade of remediation efforts.

Under the fresh terms laid out by the attorney general's settlement, Equifax is on the hook to keep covering those reimbursements so Pennsylvania consumers don't bear the brunt of the error; lenders and insurers have until the closing bell of December 31, 2024, to submit their reimbursement requests, making sure any Pennsylvanian who took a hit gets their due, "The Office of Attorney General strongly encourages lenders and insurers to review the loans and policies they originated during March and April 2022 and provide remediation to any consumers who were impacted," highlighted by the assurance of voluntary compliance issued in a Philadelphia court by Assistant Director for Consumer Financial Protection Nicholas Smyth. Consumers who suspect they've been wronged are invited to voice their concerns by lodging a complaint or reaching out directly to the Office of Attorney General.

Since its inception in July 2017, the Office of Attorney General's Consumer Financial Protection Unit has raked in north of $331 million in consumer relief, parsing out sizable chunks like $124 million in restitution and getting $207 million in debt written off, an achievement impacting close to half a million Pennsylvanians. The financial fortitude shown by the unit over the years is palpable—whether through the restitution sums, the penalties collected, or the considerable amount in debt cancellation.