Spanish-language credit reports a big win for financial empowerment

On Sep 29, 2021

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Being able to review a credit report in Spanish will be a huge help for Rosalie Remarais in her job as the Community Development Mortgage Loan officer at Five Star Bank in Rochester, New York.

Remarais works with low- to moderate-income families, many of whom are first-time homebuyers, to help them purchase a house. One of the first things she does when working with potential homeowners is to go over their credit score and look at a credit report — something many have never done before.

For the clients she works with who speak Spanish, having the document in their native language will save her time having to translate the report for them, and will help customers fix any errors they find by themselves.

“It would give them that power to say, ‘I’m in control,'” she said. “Because when it’s in English, the only one that has any control of that credit report is me.”

Spanish language credit reports available now

In September, Equifax began offering credit reports in Spanish.

“This is the first and only time that a bureau has been able to offer a fully Spanish translated report to consumers,” said Beverly Anderson, president of global consumer solutions at Equifax. She added that people can request Spanish reports online as well as by mail, and that the company also offers customer service support in Spanish.

The move was a long time coming for the Hispanic community in the U.S., as Spanish is the second most common language spoken after English. About 62 million people in the U.S. are of Hispanic origin, and more than 40 million speak Spanish as their first language.

“This is something we’ve been asking for for a very long time,” said Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, adding that some advocates have been working on this for decades. “It’s positive.”

Credit reports are an important financial tool

Building solid credit is important for many things from purchasing houses to cars.

“It’s a big step not only for the immigrant community but also for Americans who are bilingual, and English is their second language, but Spanish is their first,” said Marlene Cortes, manager of CASH-Roc Your Refund Project and Language Access at Empire Justice Center, a non-profit law firm focused on social and economic justice in New York state. It will also help children with parents who don’t speak English and thus must interpret and translate, she said.

Having access to your credit report — a compilation of the financial data your credit score is based on — means that you can better understand the score and fix any mistakes. That’s because if a consumer thinks there is an issue with their credit score — which could be lowered by incorrect information or identity theft — they cannot dispute it with…