Credit Acceptance is reporting your car loan wrong?

Who Credit Acceptance is and what it reports

Credit Acceptance Corporation is an indirect auto lender. Rather than lending to you directly, it funds and services car loans that dealers arrange for borrowers, and the CFPB has described its customers as subprime and deep-subprime borrowers. If you bought a used car from a dealer that offered financing despite poor or limited credit, your retail installment contract may have been assigned to Credit Acceptance.

Credit Acceptance reports those loans to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. For someone with a thin or damaged credit file, a single auto loan can carry real weight in a credit score, so an error on it matters. When it reports, the FCRA treats Credit Acceptance as a “furnisher,” with a duty to investigate disputes the bureaus forward to it.

Credit Acceptance and state and federal regulators

Massachusetts. In August 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General sued Credit Acceptance over its origination, collection and securitization of subprime auto loans, alleging unfair and deceptive practices under Massachusetts law, including hidden finance charges that allegedly exceeded the state’s usury cap and unlawful collection practices. On September 1, 2021, the parties filed a settlement under which Credit Acceptance agreed to pay $27.2 million into a trust for relief to eligible borrowers and related costs, without admitting liability. Under the agreement, at the Attorney General’s request, Credit Acceptance must ask the credit bureaus to delete tradelines for eligible Massachusetts loans whose balances were extinguished or waived under the settlement.

New York and the CFPB. On January 4, 2023, the CFPB and the New York Attorney General filed a joint lawsuit against Credit Acceptance in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging deceptive and abusive acts or practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. On April 24, 2025, the CFPB moved to withdraw as a plaintiff, and the court granted the request on April 29, 2025. The CFPB’s page does not say how the New York Attorney General’s claims stand.

None of this decides anything about your loan. The Massachusetts settlement shows a concrete link between a lender’s loan balances and what appears on credit reports: if a balance is legally reduced or wiped out, the tradeline has to reflect that.

Errors that show up on Credit Acceptance accounts

• Balances you don’t owe. Amounts that were waived, settled, discharged in bankruptcy or reduced by a court still reported as due.
• Wrong delinquency dates. A date of first delinquency that resets or moves forward, keeping a charge-off on your report beyond the seven-year limit in 15 U.S.C. § 1681c.
• Repossession deficiencies. A post-repossession balance that doesn’t credit the sale price, or adds charges you never agreed to.
• Missed postings. A payment you made by phone, app or a third-party service that was not credited, followed by a reported late payment.
• Surrendered vehicles still open. A car returned and sold, but the loan still shown as open and past due month after month.
• Loans you didn’t authorize. A contract a dealer submitted in your name without your agreement, or one opened by an identity thief.

How to dispute a Credit Acceptance account

1. Pull your reports from AnnualCreditReport.com and save dated copies.
2. Collect proof. Your contract, payment receipts and bank records, repossession and sale notices, any settlement or bankruptcy discharge papers, and letters from Credit Acceptance.
3. Dispute with each bureau showing the error through Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Be specific, such as “This balance was waived in a settlement dated May 5; it should show $0,” and attach the documents.
4. You may also dispute directly with Credit Acceptance through your online account or the contact information on your statements. Keep copies. A direct dispute does not by itself create a right to sue.
5. Save the results. Bureaus generally have 30 days to reinvestigate, and Credit Acceptance must complete its investigation within that window (§ 1681s-2(b)(2)).

Here is why the bureau dispute matters: there is no private right of action to enforce a furnisher’s general accuracy duties under § 1681s-2(a), including its identity theft duties in § 1681s-2(a)(6). The claim you can bring is under § 1681s-2(b), and it arises after a bureau notifies Credit Acceptance of your dispute and Credit Acceptance fails to reasonably investigate and correct the information. For identity theft, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov and ask each bureau to block the account under § 1681c-2.

Your FCRA rights

• Furnisher investigation (§ 1681s-2(b)). Credit Acceptance must review the information the bureau provides and correct, delete or block anything inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable.
• Obsolete information (§ 1681c). A charged-off loan or repossession generally must come off your report seven years after the delinquency began.
• Identity theft blocking (§ 1681c-2). Bureaus generally must block fraudulent information within four business days of a proper request.
• Bureau duties (§§ 1681e(b), 1681i). A bureau that keeps reporting Credit Acceptance’s error after your dispute may face a separate claim.

What you may recover

For a negligent violation, you may recover actual damages, such as credit denials, higher rates and emotional distress, plus attorney’s fees and costs (15 U.S.C. § 1681o). For a willful violation, you may recover actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, punitive damages as the court allows, and attorney’s fees and costs (§ 1681n).

Get a free case review before your deadline

FCRA claims generally must be filed within two years after you discover the violation and no later than five years after it occurred (15 U.S.C. § 1681p). If Credit Acceptance is reporting a balance, late payment or deficiency that isn’t right and a bureau dispute didn’t fix it, gather your paperwork and request a free case review. FCRA Attorneys, with offices in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta, files FCRA cases in federal court and works on contingency: no fee unless we win. Learn more about our FCRA lawyers or see our other company guides.

Questions about suing Credit Acceptance

Can I sue Credit Acceptance over my credit report?

Possibly. Credit Acceptance is a furnisher of credit information. If you dispute a Credit Acceptance loan through Equifax, Experian or TransUnion and it fails to reasonably investigate and correct inaccurate data after the bureau notifies it, you may have a claim under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b).

Didn't the CFPB sue Credit Acceptance?

In January 2023 the CFPB and the New York Attorney General jointly sued Credit Acceptance in federal court in New York, alleging deceptive and abusive practices. Those are allegations, not findings. The CFPB withdrew as a plaintiff in April 2025, and the court granted that request on April 29, 2025.

My balance was waived in a settlement. Why is it still on my report?

It should not be reported as owed. In its 2021 settlement with the Massachusetts Attorney General, Credit Acceptance agreed, at the Attorney General's request, to ask the bureaus to delete tradelines for eligible Massachusetts loans whose balances were extinguished or waived. If any balance of yours was waived or settled and still reports as due, dispute it through each bureau with the paperwork.

What does it cost to hire FCRA Attorneys?

Nothing up front. We handle FCRA cases on contingency, so there is no fee unless we win, and the FCRA shifts reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the company when the consumer prevails (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681n, 1681o).

Sources

• CFPB enforcement action: Credit Acceptance Corporation (filed January 4, 2023)
• CFPB press release: CFPB and New York Attorney General Sue Credit Acceptance for Hiding Auto Loan Costs, Setting Borrowers Up to Fail
• Massachusetts Attorney General: AG Healey Secures $27 Million for Thousands of Massachusetts Consumers From Subprime Auto Lender (September 1, 2021)
• Massachusetts Assurance of Discontinuance with Credit Acceptance (SEC filing)
• Credit Acceptance news release on resolution of Massachusetts litigation

Updated November 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice.