In a word… no. Per all credit reporting agencies’ contracts with the national credit bureaus, “any costs or fees bureau charges client for the service will under no circumstances be charged back to the customer, either directly or indirectly…”
The reason for the credit bureaus implementing this policy over 15 years ago is based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FCRA section 611: Procedure in case of dispute accuracy, which states:
FCRA §611: In general. Subject to subsection (f), if the completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in a consumer’s file at a consumer reporting agency is disputed by the consumer and the consumer notifies the agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller, of such dispute, the agency shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether the disputed information is inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the item from the file in accordance with paragraph (5), before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the agency receives the notice of the dispute from the consumer or reseller.
A borrower already has the right under the FCRA to dispute any inaccuracies in their credit report directly with the bureaus which they must investigate for free during a 30 day period. As a Credit Reporting Agency the bureaus charge us, the reseller, the cost of a rescore because it is considered an expedited dispute process. We, in turn, charge the mortgage company client for that cost. However, because of FCRA 611, the bureaus do not allow the borrower to be charged for this service. This rule applies to all Credit Reporting Agencies.
Charging a borrower for a rescore can have some very severe ramifications. If an end user or reseller is found to be in violation of this policy by Equifax, Experian or Trans Union it can result in termination of their access to credit reports through the bureaus directly or through any reseller CRA. Legal action can also be brought against the end user or reseller in the form of statutory and punitive damages as a result of a willful violation of the FCRA.
All this being said, rescoring is a valuable service that has helped thousands of borrowers attain their dream of home ownership. When utilized by our clients they have seen a 10%+ increase in repeat and future business and a 15% improvement in their closing ratios.
Advantage Credit, Inc. processes hundreds of rescore cases each month with an average success rate of 92%. We have a dedicated rescore team to help you with your files and to answer any questions you may have. We want to help you help your clients!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Mindy Leisure, Rescore Express Manager
mindy@advcredit.com