Equifax Agrees to $100M Settlement Over a Three-Week Coding Error That Affected Credit Scores in 2022

What happened

Between March 17 and April 8, 2022 — a period of roughly three weeks — a coding error inside a legacy, on-premise server environment at Equifax caused certain credit scores and credit attributes to be transmitted to third parties with values that differed from what accurate calculations would have produced. The error has been referred to in case materials as the 'OMS Issue.'

The coding error did not alter the underlying data in consumer credit reports — account balances, payment history, and tradeline information were not changed by the error. What was affected was the mathematical output: the credit scores Equifax sent to lenders, insurers, and other third parties during that three-week window.

A class action lawsuit followed, alleging that the erroneous scores violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s requirement that consumer reporting agencies follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy. Equifax has denied violating the law and characterizes the $100 million settlement as a compromise of disputed claims.

Why a score error matters even when report data looks unchanged

When a lender, insurer, or landlord makes an underwriting decision, they typically receive two things from a bureau pull: the underlying report data (tradelines, payment history, balances, inquiries) and a calculated score. The OMS Issue produced score values — and, per coverage of the case, other credit attributes — that were different from what accurate calculations would have generated.

Per coverage of the class action, some consumers’ scores were transmitted lower than accurate calculations would have produced. The downstream effect for those consumers could have included a loan denial, a higher interest rate, a larger required down payment, or a higher insurance premium than their actual credit profile warranted.

Equifax has stated that the vast majority of consumers whose scores were pulled during the three-week window saw no change, and that a large number actually saw a positive shift in their transmitted score. The class action alleged, however, that consumers whose scores were understated paid a real price for a number their own bureau produced incorrectly.

The FCRA accuracy duty this case turns on

The FCRA’s accuracy requirement under Section 607(b) requires consumer reporting agencies to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information in consumer reports. A coding error that systematically generates wrong score outputs during a three-week window is the kind of systemic procedure failure that provision is designed to prevent.

This is also why class actions from bureau errors can be significant beyond the individual consumer: when an error is embedded in a calculation procedure rather than confined to a single account, it can affect millions of files simultaneously. The enforcement mechanism that exists alongside the FCRA dispute process is designed to address harm at that scale.

Separately, in 2025, the New York Attorney General secured $725,000 from Equifax for harming approximately 77,000 New Yorkers through inaccurate credit scores during the March–April 2022 window — the same OMS coding error, enforced from a state-law angle.

Who may be eligible for the settlement

The proposed class is described in coverage as consumers whose Equifax credit scores or credit attributes were affected by the OMS Issue and transmitted to a third party in connection with a credit-related transaction. Approximately 4 million consumers are described as potentially affected.

Equifax’s position is that the vast majority of consumers pulled during that window saw no change, and a large number saw a positive shift. Identifying whether you are specifically in the affected subset may not be straightforward without the official settlement notice, which the settlement administrator will send to identified class members by mail or email.

The $100 million fund is proposed to cover consumer compensation, attorneys’ fees, and the administrative costs of class notice and claims processing. The settlement — formally ​In Re: Equifax Fair Credit Reporting Act Litigation, No. 1:22-cv-03072, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia — was submitted to the court for approval on August 13, 2026. Claim-filing instructions, deadlines, and the official claim portal will be established after the court grants preliminary approval; this article will be updated with those details once available. If you received an official notice in the mail from the settlement administrator, that document is your primary source.

• Error window: March 17 – April 8, 2022
• Estimated affected consumers: approximately 4 million
• Settlement amount: $100 million (proposed; described as the largest FCRA settlement in history)
• Equifax’s position: denies violating the law; settlement is a compromise of disputed claims

What the FCRA gives you the right to do — regardless of the settlement

Class membership in the OMS settlement and your FCRA dispute rights are two completely separate things. Your rights under the FCRA do not require a settlement, a class action, or a lawyer.

Right one: you can pull your Equifax report for free right now. Under the current free-report policy, all three bureau reports — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — are available at no cost, every week, at AnnualCreditReport.com, the only federally authorized source. The OMS error affected scores transmitted to third parties; it did not alter the data on your report. But if anything on your report today is wrong, that data error can be disputed.

Right two: you can dispute any current inaccuracy. FCRA § 611 gives you the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information with the bureau directly, at no cost, and the bureau is generally required to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation within 30 days. If the information cannot be verified, it must be corrected or removed. This right applies to any inaccuracy — related to the 2022 coding error or not — and it has no expiration date.

How to dispute an inaccuracy on your Equifax report

The steps below apply at any time, independent of the settlement.

• Pull your free Equifax report at AnnualCreditReport.com. Review each tradeline: account name, balance, payment history, account status, and the date of first delinquency (DOFD) on any negative marks.
• Identify exactly what is wrong. The more specific your framing — 'this account shows a 30-day late in March 2022 that I paid on time, and here is my bank statement' — the more concrete the reinvestigation obligation becomes.
• File the dispute in writing. Equifax’s online dispute portal or certified mail both create a dateable record. Written disputes are generally easier to escalate if the result is unsatisfactory.
• State what is wrong, why it is wrong, and what the accurate information should be. Attach copies (not originals) of supporting documents.
• Track the 30-day reinvestigation window from the date Equifax receives your dispute. If information cannot be verified, the FCRA requires it to be corrected or removed.
• If the result remains wrong, escalate to the CFPB. File a complaint at consumerfinance.gov/complaint — but per the CFPB’s 2026 portal intake rules, the bureau dispute must be filed first and you must either have waited 45+ days or have confirmation the dispute is no longer pending.

What Athena Access does with this

Athena Access is designed as an auditor — not a law firm and not a credit repair company. The 2022 OMS Issue illustrates the core problem we were built to address: a bureau’s internal coding error can transmit a different picture of your creditworthiness than your actual history supports, and consumers often have no practical way to know it happened until they apply for credit and face a worse outcome.

Our software helps you pull and review your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion reports, flag items that appear inaccurate or inconsistent, and prepare FCRA dispute draft materials for your own review and use. We do not file disputes on your behalf, contact bureaus or creditors for you, give legal advice, or promise any outcome — including any outcome affecting your credit score or credit report contents. The rights described in this article come from the FCRA. Our job is to make them practical to act on.