Legal Issues with Credit Score

Omar Ha-Redeye was quoted by Erica Elini of Global News in “‘I really struggled’: How an Ontario teacher got stuck with a zero credit score for years,” on May 29, 2021,

If you believe the issue lies with the credit bureau, you can file a formal complaint with them. If you need to take it further, you can take your complaint to your provincial or territorial consumer affairs office, as credit reporting agencies are provincially regulated. In Quebec, send your complaint to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (CAIQ).

Finally, if all else fails, you can lawyer up, says Omar Ha-Redeye,executive director of the Durham Community Legal Clinic in Oshawa, Ont.

But legal action is the option of last resort, he warns.

“It’s a lengthier process. It typically involves some money in terms of hiring a lawyer. And there’s an uncertain outcome,” he says.

If you think you may have to go down that road, put as much as you can in writing, says Ha-Redeye. If you’re asked to speak on the phone, type up your recollection of the conversation shortly after and mail it or email it to the lender or credit bureau to establish a written record of what was said, he suggests.

“Having that type of information — with the date on the letter, that’s very important — will demonstrate that you have been trying to make efforts all along to rectify the situation and to fix the problem with your you,” he says.

And if you believe the credit reporting mistake has hurt you financially, it’s helpful to try to document and quantify any financial damages or lost opportunities, Ha-Redeye notes.