Consumer columnist and West Hartford resident Harlan Levy has more than 20 years of experience writing stories about everyday experiences that anyone could encounter. 

By Harlan Levy

Do you know any woman undergoing menopause who suffers from those chronic, hateful, long hot-flash moments?

They’re the obvious targets of the TV ads for Veozah littering the airwaves recently. But consumers should beware.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration released a Drug Safety Communication warning that the hot-flash medicine Veozah (fezolinetant) “can cause rare but serious liver injury. Patients should stop taking Veozah immediately and seek medical attention, including liver blood testing, if they experience signs and symptoms that suggest liver problems such as feeling more tired than usual; nausea; vomiting; unusual itching; light-colored stools; yellowing of the eyes or skin, called jaundice; dark urine; swelling in the stomach area; or pain in the right upper abdomen.”

If you’re taking Veozah, talk to your doc about the risks and benefits.

Rating agency errors

If you think the three national credit-rating institutions – Experion, TransUnion, and Equifax – are the safest, up-to-date repositories of your most significant credit information, think again.

Last week I was randomly searching the most recent complaint list on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau website for possible column topics when I came upon a long list of complaints about the credit rating agencies’ failures to keep accurate the following customers’ accounts. That’s significant, because they’re regularly checked for your numerical score, often on a scale from poor to excellent. Lenders and financial institutions use these scores to figure the risk of lending money to borrowers. A low score means higher fees to consumers seeking to get mortgages and gain loans for other important purchases, among other financial decisions.

Here’s some of the head-scratching complaints I found filed on Sept. 3:

9/3/2024:

• Atlanticus Services Corp. Issue: Incorrect information on the report. Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else [Yikes!].
• Narrative: “I requested for the credit agencies to dispute the information back in XXXX, got response in XXXX stating ‘accurate response from the creditor,’ so I asked the creditor to send the info. He never did. I told the credit agencies I never got the response, and they simply ignored it so I need help.”
• Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation. Timely response? Yes.

9/3/2024:

• Sunrise Credit Services Inc. Issue: Improper use of my report: Violation of 15 U.S. Code 1681s-2.
• Narrative: “It has come to my attention that any payments during the COVID-19 pandemic are required to be deferred or forgiven. Despite this, my credit report reflects payments [debts] that were neither deferred nor forgiven, which is a clear violation of the law.”
• Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation. Timely response: Yes.

9/3/2024:

• Experian. Product: Telecommunications debt collection.
• Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action. Sub-issue: Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged.
• Consumer narrative: “This company has damaged my credit by reporting inaccurate and false information on my credit file without my consent, and I have asked them to send a copy of the purchase agreement and the bill of sale to show [alleged] proof that I owe the debt they say I owe.”
• Company response: Closed with explanation. Timely?: Yes.

9/3/2024:

• TransUnion. Product: Credit reporting.
• Issue: Incorrect information in report. Sub-issue: Account status incorrect.
• Consumer narrative: “I have taken a ZIP loan (line of credit ) from XXXX XXXX which was managed by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have repaid the amount and initiated account closure from their end. I received confirmation from the XXXX support team, but upon checking my credit information, my account status was not updated.”
• Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief. Timely response: Yes.

Suggestion

You should regularly order free credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, which must provide consumers with one free credit report every 12 months. But you can get one every four months: Simply ask one agency for it, then ask a second agency in four months, and the third agency for the last four months.

To order your free annual credit reports visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call 877-322-8228. Then complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

In addition, the three bureaus have permanently extended a program that lets you check your credit report from each once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Now you know.

NOTE: If you have a consumer problem, contact me at [email protected] (“Consumer” in subject line), and, with the power of the press, maybe I can help.

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