7 On Your Side: Credit reporting bureaus agree to help consumers

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The three major credit reporting bureaus have agreed to change their ways. They are supposed to be more consumer friendly, but will they be?

The state attorney general in New York went after the bureaus saying they weren't treating consumers as well as they should.

There were two women in the U.S. that go by the name Lisa Marie Allen. There's our local Lisa Marie Allen in Fremont, California and a Lisa Marie Allen in Texas. They were sharing the same credit report. Our Lisa Marie tried to get things fixed, but couldn't get the credit agencies to work with her.

Allen said: "They would ask for my credit report, so I would go online and try to pull..."

Finney: "Wait a second... A credit reporting agency asked YOU for a credit report?"

Allen: "Yes. They told me through a letter."

Finney: "I am laughing with you, not at you."

Allen: "I know! It is absurd, absolutely absurd."

She eventually went to attorney Mark Anderson who got the two reports untangled and a settlement.

As it turns out, Allen was not the only one who couldn't get her credit report fixed on her own.

7 On Your Side looked at a settlement between the New York attorney general and the major credit reporting bureaus.

They promise to be more consumer-friendly and have highly-trained employees available to handle major issues like Allen's.

"A better-trained employee at say Equifax, would have fixed the problem," Anderson said.

That's the good news. The bad news is Anderson says it is too early to say if this will really work for consumers.

"The devil is in the details. I mean, it is fine for them to sign an agreement saying, 'We're going to enhance our system.' And, by the way, it will take them six months to a year to implement it. What's all that mean? I mean it's in the control of these companies, and it's unknown what it really means," Anderson explained.

However, there is another provision that the National Consumer Law Center says will help consumers across the board. It does not allow medical debts to be posted for at least 180 days.

"A medical bill might not be paid because the provider made a billing error to the insurance company, or the insurance company wants more information and this back and forth. And the problem is during this back and forth sometimes the bills are sent to a debit collector and then they end up on the consumer's credit report, hurting the consumer's credit," Chi Chi Wu from the National Consumer Law Center said.

7 On Your Side will be keeping track of this and will let you know when the changes are made and if they're working.