Equifax reportedly gave millions of faulty credit scores, and some led to higher rates and denied loan applications

• Equifax sent banks inaccurate credit scores for millions of consumers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• The faulty scores were sent to lenders over a three-week period.

Equifax sent lenders incorrect credit scores for millions of consumers over a three-week period earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The faulty scores led to higher interest rates and rejected loan applications, the paper said, citing unnamed bank executives and other sources familiar with the situation.

The incorrect credit scores impacted people applying for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, and were sent to banks and non-bank lenders.

Equifax, for its part, said that it has fixed the issue and that only a small number of consumers received a different credit decision due to the mistake.

"We have determined that there was no shift in the vast majority of scores during the three-week timeframe of the issue," the company said in a statement. "For those consumers that did experience a score shift, initial analysis indicates that only a small number of them may have received a different credit decision."

Equifax said that fewer than 300,000 consumers had their scores shift by at least 25 points.

The error was first reported by National Mortgage Professional, a trade publication, in May.

One person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that several thousand consumers working with one large auto lender had their scores changed by 25 points or more. Some went from having a high credit score to no score at all, the person said. Banks and other lenders are asking Equifax how to proceed with people who were affected by the erroneous scores, sources said.

In 2017, Equifax said that a massive hack had exposed the personal data — including social security numbers and addresses — of more than 147 million Americans.