On July 1, about half of tax liens and almost all civil judgments — both big negatives — were expunged from consumer credit files.
The big three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — no longer report a tax lien or civil judgment on a consumer’s credit report unless it includes the person’s name, address and either Social Security number or date of birth. Existing liens and data missing this information has been expunged.
Studies suggest that people with liens and judgments could see their credit scores rise after these items are expunged, generally by less than 20 points but in some cases by 40 points or more.
Those who want the missing data will have to ask borrowers on a loan application if they have outstanding liens or judgments or search public records.
