Consumer complaint received 2020-03-17
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: GA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
The credit reporting agencies, Equifax, XXXX  and XXXX   accept data from businesses and collection agencies and place it on a consumer 's credit report no questions asked. The original item has usually been purchased by a debt buyer who does not care whether the item is valid or not, typically makes no effort to collect on it, and has purchased it in order to receive a write-off by from the IRS. Often the original item is an error, a blunt show of power or force by, say, a property manager or an aggrieved business entity with an axe to grind, or a flat out fabrication. When the outraged consumer tries to challenge inaccurate or unfair information he typically gets an exhausting run around from Equifax or the others who make demand after demand that the consumer " verify '' their identity so that Equifax can keep it's database up to snuff. Otherwise they have nothing to sell to the banks who collude with the credit reporting agencies in the manufacture of the " credit score '' software that is provided free of charge to their retail clients such as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The banks also outsource their underwriters to these retailers who essentially pose as employees of said retailer rejecting credit applications. This is fraud on the part of the banks and they all do it : XXXX  XXXX, XXXX  XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX -- all of them. This is a scandal and the government should put a stop to it. Equifax and the banks are lawless and unregulated. Equifax will do everything in its power to hang on to negative information because otherwise they have nothing to sell to the banks, who in an effort to eliminate " risk '' have become both a social ill and a quasi-criminal enterprise engaged in unauthorized misuse, distribution, disclosure and sale of social security numbers, a federal offense which is not enforced. Challenged by the consumer, Equifax will insist on being supplied with the consumer 's name, date of birth, addresses going back three years, a daytime phone number, a driver 's license, a social security number, a social security card, as well as enlargements of all documents including a recent utility bill. Equifax will typically then say " we are unable to verify your identity '' and refuse to correct or delete anything they would prefer to keep. This experience is akin to being XXXX   and XXXX. Hire a law firm to challenge Equifax and they will stonewall by claiming to have " verified as accurate '' information obtained from the know-nothing collection agencies who as previously stated have no idea nor do they care whether the " debt '' is valid or not so long as they get their write-off. This is a vicious circle and the upshot is the consumer can not get a mortgage, buy a home or achieve the American Dream. Somebody please put an end to the ability of the credit reporting agencies and the banks to act with complete impunity, knowingly lawless, unregulated and sanctioned by Congress to keep inaccurate information in their database for SEVEN years.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation