Consumer complaint received 2023-09-22
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
Due to the XXXX XXXX pandemic, like most of the global community, I experienced an unexpected financial hardship that affected my ability to repay all of my bills including my Discover credit card bill. When reaching out to Discover in XX/XX/XXXX, after being in the hospital with what my doctor later believed to have been a XXXX XXXX XXXX, Discover refused to work with me despite my having XXXX years of timely payments with the exception of XXXX late payment. I continued to call Discover each month throughout XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX to resolve the matter. Discover refused to work with me and during XXXX of these calls, I was verbally abused by a Discover customer service agent who deliberately misgendered me. For XXXX years, Discover refused to work with me and eventually turned my account over to a third-party debt collection agency. When contacting their third-party debt collection agency, I shared with the agent that due to the affects of the ongoing pandemic, that I was unable to pay the amount in full. I was informed in XX/XX/XXXX by the third-party debt collection agent that the Discover balance was {$800.00}, however, I could resolve the matter entirely by paying {$220.00}. I then stated that I would agree to pay this amount, only if the item was removed from my credit reports as it had adversely affected my XXXX credit reports. The third-party debt collector agent agreed that Discover would either XXXX ). Remove the item in its entirety or XXXX ). Update the late payments to on time, remove the charge off status and indicate the account closed by me. Neither of these agreements were adhered to by Discover. When reaching out to Discover numerous times, I was informed that it is not their policy to remove or revise anything and this would be on my credit report until XX/XX/XXXX. I have contacted Discover numerous times and filed several disputes with the XXXX credit reporting agencies based on Discover refusing to audit the situation involving the aforementioned agreement by the XXXX XXXX collector agent. Additionally, Discover had refused to provide all paperwork and all audio recordings from the third-party debt collection agency. There has never been a proper investigation by the credit bureaus either. This Discover account is an old account from XXXX, and its 35 months of negative marks from Discover is adversely affecting my credit report and ability to get educational loans ( as this Discover account with 35 months of negative marks, has prompted that I have a co-signer for educational loans ) which as a result has stalled my XXXX studies. I acted in good faith to resolve this matter with their third party debt collector, who I believe said whatever he wanted to in order to get money from me. I was very intentional in my negotiating with the Discover third-party debt collector and have been abused by Discover, their third party debt collector, and as as a result, by the credit bureaus, especially XXXX. XXXX and Discover have refused to honor my requests of any information pertaining to my negotiation with the third-party debt collector, as this agent willfully misrepresented his authority to honor the aforementioned agreement. The XXXX report contains XXXX late payments yet XXXX has never held Discover accountable for conducting a proper investigation and thereby, XXXX has also failed in their ability to conduct a proper investigation as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation