Steve Carter (R)
INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline)- A national credit reporting agency has reached a settlement with Indiana to resolve allegations by Attorney General Steve Carter that the company broke the state's credit-freeze law.
Equifax Information Services, LLC will pay $65,000 as part of a consent judgment to settle claims it waited too long to freeze consumers' credit reports. The $65,000 will go to the Consumer Protection Fund in Carter's office.
Indiana's credit-freeze law requires credit-reporting agencies - including Equifax, TransUnion and Experian -- to freeze credit reports within five business days of being notified by consumers.
Equifax was also accused of failing to notify consumers within 10 business days after their credit reports have been frozen.
"This law was enacted to give consumers a layer of protection against identity theft and other forms of personal identity fraud," Carter said. "The freeze doesn't provide the protections it was designed to give our citizens when the required time-frames and other requirements of the law are not followed."
The state's credit-freeze law took effect Sept. 1, 2007. In 2009, the law will expand methods of contacting credit reporting agencies from mail requests to include e-mail.
From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.