Waters said that consumers should speak up more often.

“I think consumers really must be more involved in resisting discrimination and inequality and not let it go that you’re too busy or you’re too embarrassed, or you don’t really know how to do it,” she said. “The first thing I say is to speak up. You would be surprised oftentimes in speaking up how you will be responded to and how this will put them on notice that they’re not to do the next person this way by catching them in a lie or fraudulent activity. Speak up, don’t just go away.”

She also urges consumers to communicate with their elected officials and members of the media.

“Let them know what happened to you. Put it in writing. Email it so that elected officials can take that experience and use it and put it into legislation to correct something. And then, if you have the opportunity to talk with the media about it, whether it is a talk show or whether you are on television, a radio program, Blavity — talk about it. And then other people will get talking about it. And then everybody is calling the elected officials and saying, ‘this happened to me, too.’ I think these are ways.”

While venting to a friend can be healthy, it can’t solve the issue.

“Don’t just tell a friend how angry you are about something that happened. Get it to your elected official and talk about it and let other people know that this is happening not only to you but ask them, ‘is it happening to you also?'”

The biggest thing to note, however, is how impactful credit scores are.

“Credit scores can determine whether or not you build wealth and whether or not you have wealth to pass on or wealth to invest in businesses or whatever you need the credit for,” Waters said. “And so this is very, very important.”

Waters said that if you have issues contacting your member of Congress, reach out to her office and she will assist in making contact.

“Let me know so that I can see what we can do, even though it may be outside of my district,” she said. “This is very important.”

Equifax

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