Many tax liens and civil judgments soon will be taken off credit reports, the latest move to omit negative information from the powerful financial scorecards, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The decision by the three major credit-reporting firms—EquifaxInc., Experian and TransUnion—could help boost credit scores for millions of U.S. consumers, but could pose risks for lenders. The reports and scores often help decide how much consumers can borrow for a new house or car as well as determine their credit card spending limit.
But the credit reporting agencies recently decided to remove tax lien and civil judgment data starting around July 1, according to the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group that represents them. The unusual move by the influential firms comes partially in response to regulatory concerns.
The firms will remove the information if those data don’t include a complete list of at least three data points: a person’s name, address and either a social security number or date of birth.
Many liens and most judgments don’t include all three or four. This change will apply to new tax lien and civil judgment data that are added to credit reports as well as existing data on the reports.
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