Consumer complaint received 2023-04-22
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NY
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:
Account ending in XXXX The basis for dispute : unclear first delinquency date ; payment/status history discrepancies between reports. 

The first big mystery I have been trying to solve on this account is the date of first delinquency, which is crucial for calculating how long a charge-off will stay on consumer reports. The XXXX report as of XX/XX/XXXX shows this date as XXXX, indicating 30 Day Past Due in its Payment History. However, on the XXXX report as of XX/XX/XXXX, no information is available on such date. Conversely, as of XX/XX/XXXX, Equifax 's 'first delinquency date ' is XX/XX/XXXX, while the account status 'closed by the credit grantor ' is 11 months prior, XX/XX/XXXX. 
XXXX informs when a negative item will be removed from the report instead. Thus, according to the report as of XX/XX/XXXX, the charged-off account will stay until XX/XX/XXXX or should have been gone by XX/XX/XXXX ; on another report as of XX/XX/XXXX, it is swiftly changed to XX/XX/XXXX. However, in the XXXX reports, these dates differ again : XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, respectively. What is worse, none of the reports match data from the creditor. According to the bank statements, the account became delinquent in XXXX and has never been current. Credit reporting agencies should have indicated XXXX as 30 Day Past Due but failed to do so. 

The next big mystery is the payment history. To illustrate, in the XXXX Annual Credit report as of XX/XX/XXXX, the account was closed in XXXX XXXX. On the contrary, in the XX/XX/XXXX report, the account is current and active in XXXX XXXX the same months of the same year except for XXXX ( No Data ). Is it even possible? Then, XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : 30 Days Past Due ; XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : ND ( No Data for this period available ). Moreover, XX/XX/XXXX, being reported as '30 Day Past Due ' is False, for the factual payment history could not support the data posted. Hence, XX/XX/XXXX, and the months that come right after, should have been corrected as follows : XXXX XXXX. 

Furthermore, XXXX XXXX report XXXX proceeds : XXXX Past Due ; and in the XX/XX/XXXX report, the same payment history looks different : XXXX late. Then, if we look at the Equifax report dated XX/XX/XXXX, we will see that No Data is available for the same months. The " No Data '' mark goes up until XXXX XXXX on Equifax. The XXXX payments line is simply missing, though clearly stated on Equifax Report, and here is the quote : " View up to 7 years of monthly payment history on this account. '' Conflicting with their statement, the only history they have reported is for the first two months of XXXX : XXXX. At the same time, XXXX and XXXX file these dates as XXXX ( XXXX ), except that XXXX adds a remark " Profit and Loss Write-Off '' under XXXX ( XXXX ) in the XX/XX/XXXX report. So, who is right and who is wrong : Equifax ( XXXX ), XXXX ( XXXX ), or XXXX ( XXXX )? Or, maybe, none of the above if the bank statements tell otherwise? 

Next comes the XXXX XXXX XXXX, which has 4 Sections : Balance, Past Due Amount, Creditor Remarks, and Account Status. First, compare the older ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and the newer XXXX reports. According to the XX/XX/XXXX report, the account has been in default since XXXX : XXXX which means 'written off for Profit and Loss '' in XX/XX/XXXX and 'closed by a credit grantor ' in XXXX, respectively. On the contrary, based on the XX/XX/XXXX report, the account became delinquent in XX/XX/XXXX and was charged off in XX/XX/XXXX. The question arises : Was it a mistake? Or was the data altered and the account re-aged? It is rather suspicious, considering that Equifax started reporting the account as charged off only in XXXX XXXX! 

Finally, the 'Past Due ' amount and 'Balance history ' charts were left empty by XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. Where is the balance from previous years? How can XXXX report the account as current and omit its balance history? Or, to report on months such as XXXX of XXXX and not show the Past Due amount? A consumer has a right to know a principal balance and see in dynamic how late fees and interest charges accrue. XXXX shows it on other accounts, so what is the deal? 

After all, account ending XXXX has been reported with violations of these Fair Credit Reporting Act sections listed below : 15 U.S.C. 1681c FCRA 605 ( a ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ), credit reporting agencies may not report negative information such as collections/charge-offs which antedate the report by more than seven years.

15 U.S.C. 1681e, Section 607 ( b ), shall follow all the necessary procedures to deliver the maximum possible accuracy on the report.

15 U.S.C. 1681i, Section 611 ( a ) ( 5 ), states that any item that can not be verified, incomplete or inaccurate should be deleted from the consumer report or modified by a credit reporting agency.

15 U.S.C. 1681s-2, Section 611 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( A ), states that a person shall not furnish any information relating to a consumer to any consumer reporting agency if the person knows, has reason to believe or ( i ) has been notified by the consumer that information is inaccurate, and ( ii ) the information is, in fact, inaccurate. 

Section 623 ( a ) ( 5 ) ( A ), states that when a delinquent account is being charged off, a furnisher should notify a credit reporting agency within the next 90 days of the date of the first delinquency.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation