Consumer complaint received 2023-07-26
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NC
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information is missing that should be on the report

Complaint:
I am a transgender person and legally changed my first and middle names in XX/XX/2022. All of my credit grantors are aware of my new name and paperwork was submitted correctly to all of them. I did not directly contact Equifax, XXXX, or XXXX with this information because I was told by a Social Security Administration employee during my appointment to update my social security card that this was an automatic process. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I was informed by a XXXX dealership that my Equifax was frozen. I called Equifax and discovered that my name technically did not exist in their system, though my previous name still did. My address was also incorrect. I filed a dispute with Equifax to have my name changed the same day. I did not see a way to correct my current address. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I woke up to an email saying my dispute had been handled. When I checked the documents Equifax provided, I confirmed my name had been changed, but my accounts list 'No Data Available ' for each month over the past year with XX/XX/2022 being the most recent data provided. I filed a separate dispute to have my address changed and spent several hours trying to sort this out over the phone. During one of my calls, someone was able to change my address in their system. However, I discovered after hanging up and having the edit processed that they had combined my current address and previous address so it was still incorrect. 

When I finally was able to get on the line with a supervisor, I did have my address corrected. However, he claimed that the reason I had missing credit history was because my credit grantors were not submitting reports. Both XXXX and XXXX have data from the past year, so I know that is not the case. When I asked if I would be having these issues if I were a woman changing my last name due to marriage or if this was a case of discrimination against transgender individuals, the supervisor told me all their consumers were equal, but I felt more like he took me seriously after that. He put me on hold for several minutes and then told me that either I could contact each of my grantors and prompt them to send in reports or he could file disputes for me. However, he could only do that for one of my accounts because the other two had never made it into my credit report to begin with, so I would need to contact those two. He filed a report for the one he could. When I asked if I had a split account due to having two names in the system, he told me that would not happen because I still have the same social security number. That is exactly why I am confused about this, so that did not help much. He then told me that it was likely they were receiving reports but since the names did not match up, they did not input them into my file. I view that as negligence, especially considering how much faith is put into Equifax and the fact that XXXX and XXXX had no issues with this. 

I am incredibly upset that negligence on the part of Equifax is creating a significant issue in my ability to finance a new vehicle, which is something I urgently need, and will have potential long-term ramifications in the future. My credit score has tanked, according to Equifax, because they have no credit on file for me for the past year. I have fantastic scores with FICO, XXXX, and XXXX, but Equifax is the one that I need here and that is causing me these issues.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation