Furnisher Violations on Your Michigan Credit Report
Auto lenders, buy-here-pay-here dealers, and credit unions have a legal duty to report accurate information and to actually investigate your disputes. When they don’t, Michigan consumers can hold them accountable.
Disclaimer: This page provides general information about the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It is not legal advice, is not tailored to your situation, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Credit reporting and consumer protection claims are subject to strict deadlines and procedural requirements, waiting, acting on your own, or taking the wrong step can permanently damage or eliminate your legal rights. Before you decide whether or how to act on a credit report dispute, talk to us or another qualified attorney.
Furnishers Get It Wrong More Often Than Michigan Consumers Realize
A “furnisher” is any company that sends your account data to the credit bureaus, your auto lender, your credit union, a buy-here-pay-here dealership, a debt collector, or a subprime finance company tied to a Michigan dealership network. Under FCRA Section 1681s-2, a furnisher must report accurately and must conduct a real investigation once it receives notice of a dispute from a credit bureau.
In practice, we see the same pattern across metro Detroit and the rest of the state: a vehicle is repossessed or paid off, but the furnisher keeps reporting a balance as past due; a dealership sells a “buy here pay here” contract and never updates the account after a payoff; or a credit union’s system misapplies a payment and reports a 30, 60, or 90-day late that never happened.
When you dispute directly with the furnisher, or through a credit bureau, the furnisher must review its own records, not just confirm what it already reported. A furnisher that rubber-stamps its own bad data, or ignores the dispute altogether, is violating the FCRA, and that violation is separate from whatever underlying billing dispute started the problem.
What a Furnisher Violation Can Be Worth
When a furnisher fails to properly investigate or keeps reporting data it knows or should know is wrong, Michigan consumers may be entitled to:
- Statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per willful violation.
- Actual damages, including loan denials, increased interest rates, and lost time.
- Punitive damages for reckless or intentional noncompliance.
- Attorney’s fees and costs, paid by the furnisher.
No Cost to You
The FCRA lets consumers recover attorney fees from the violating company when a case succeeds. That means our firm can take Michigan credit reporting cases on a contingency basis, you pay nothing out of pocket, and there is no fee unless we recover for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
My Michigan credit union keeps reporting a late payment I never made. What can I do?
Send a written dispute to the credit bureau identifying the exact account and the inaccurate late payment. The credit union, as the furnisher, must investigate its own records. If it keeps verifying the same wrong data without checking, that can be a separate FCRA violation.
A buy-here-pay-here dealership never updated my account after I paid it off. Is that a violation?
Reporting a balance or delinquency on an account that has been paid in full, or failing to update status after payoff, can violate the furnisher’s duty to report accurate information, particularly once you have disputed it and given the furnisher a chance to correct its records.
Do I need to dispute with the furnisher directly, or is disputing with the credit bureau enough?
Disputing through the credit bureau triggers the furnisher’s investigation duty automatically. You can also dispute directly with the furnisher for a separate, independent obligation. Doing both often builds a stronger record if the dispute is not resolved.
My Michigan credit union keeps reporting a late payment I never made. What can I do?
Send a written dispute to the credit bureau identifying the exact account and the inaccurate late payment. The credit union, as the furnisher, must investigate its own records. If it keeps verifying the same wrong data without checking, that can be a separate FCRA violation.
A buy-here-pay-here dealership never updated my account after I paid it off. Is that a violation?
Reporting a balance or delinquency on an account that has been paid in full, or failing to update status after payoff, can violate the furnisher’s duty to report accurate information, particularly once you have disputed it and given the furnisher a chance to correct its records.
Do I need to dispute with the furnisher directly, or is disputing with the credit bureau enough?
Disputing through the credit bureau triggers the furnisher’s investigation duty automatically. You can also dispute directly with the furnisher for a separate, independent obligation. Doing both often builds a stronger record if the dispute is not resolved.
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