Consumer complaint received 2023-05-04
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MI
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Received unsolicited financial product or insurance offers after opting out

Complaint:
COMPLAINT # 1 against EQUIFAX : I am a paying member of Equifax Credit monitoring system. On XX/XX/XXXX, for the second time, after my first complaint and request that Equifax not submit " soft inquiries '' on my credit report without my authorization because every time they do so, it causes my credit score to drop. I first complained about this occuring on XX/XX/XXXX where I noticed that my credit score dropped by XXXX points when their system automatically submitted a " soft inquiry '' -- without my permission. When I contacted them and asked why did their " Soft Inquiry '' which always post with the description of " CONS RPT ( Consumer Report ) under the company name of " Equifax Consumer Services. '' Equifax explained to my that as part of my membership, it offers " promotional offers '' and that they are simply " monitoring my credit report for fraudulent activity. '' I advised Equifax that no where in their service description does it states that their soft inquiry will cause your credit score to descrease. Equifax stated it is not true that the score drops because of their soft inquiry. The falsely tried to state something changed, but could not indentify a change. I explained to Equifax that nothing had changed on my credit report ( except that my score had increased recently ) and, at the time my score dropped after their soft inquiry, I had not apply for any credit, my credit report had a " Freeze '' in place, I had already Opted out of Promotional Offers by calling XXXX, and I did not have any boxed checked on my Equifax Membership to receive Promotional offers from them directly. 
Equifax could never explain why my credit scored dropped after their " Equifax Consumer Services '' completed a soft inquiry. I specifically requested that they never do it again, as I do not authorize them to complete soft inquires on my credit. 
Nevertheless, it happened again on XX/XX/XXXX ( have screen shots showing my credit score dropped by XXXX points on XX/XX/XXXX and by XXXX more points on XX/XX/XXXX after I made my second complaint on XX/XX/XXXX ). On XX/XX/XXXX Equifax completed another soft inquiry, however, this time it cause my credit score to drop from XXXX to XXXX. My account balances were the same, there were no new account updates, and the only inquiry was completed by Equifax Consumer Services. I immediately contacted Equifax, and the stated they made the same statements the first time I filed a complaint. This time I asked them to provided me with the complaint # XXXX in which I requested that they never complete another soft inquiry on my credit report again because it is causing my credit score to drop. I asked the Equifax rep to show me where she saw a change on my credit report that see could blame for the score drop, and she could not. The Equifax rep stated she understood my concerns. In summary, I believe that Equifax intentionally uses " Equifax XXXXonsumer Services '' soft inquiries to target specific geographic location, and target individuals whose credit card scores are increasing, possibly because they are receiving payment from 3rd party credit card company to make high interest rate offers, or someone within Equifax is intentionally sabotaging my credit score so that it drops, as the Soft Inquires by Equifax only appear after I've had a recent credit increase. I believe this is discrimnation and sabotage done either by how they have coded their algorythms, or it is being done by a " bad actor '' at Equifax. I have proof via screen shots that there were no changes on my credit report on XX/XX/XXXX when my scored dropped from XXXX to XXXX and from XXXX to XXXX after I filed a complaint on XX/XX/XXXX. I would like for Equifax to remove the " soft inquiry '' as it was done after I specifically advised them the first time it happened that they are not authorized to run soft inquiries on my credit report, and they agreed. I would like this matter investigated. 

COMPLAINT # 2 against EQUIFAX : As a paying member, I have the option on my membership to have 2FA authentication activated, but it does not work. The box to turn it on remains grayed out, and my account is often compromised, every other day, because I have no protection outside of using a basic password -- which offers no protection at all. I was already impacted by EQUIFAX 's credit breach in XXXX, yet Equifax, still, has not allowed more security on the account outside of using a simple password. This is unbelievable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation