Consumer complaint received 2022-05-22
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: IA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account information incorrect

Complaint:
TLDR : XXXX has opened a new account called XXXX without my permission and against the direction I asked them to follow. It will cause an issue with an upcoming mortgage for a new house that has been being built for us during the last 6 months. 

I received an email from XXXX telling me that my current account was being closed and that they were opening up a new account in XXXX for any accounts that were still open. On XXXX, I called XXXX customer service on the phone to tell them to close my current account immediately and that I did not want the new account opened up in my name, specifically the upcoming new XXXX account. The customer service representative told me that there was no worry, that the old account was closed and that the new XXXX account would not be opened. 

The new XXXX account, as it was explained, would not have any of the old history ( My XXXX account had 11+ years of history at this point. The old and new accounts are both serviced by XXXX so it seems weird that the history was not included in the new account. ) and would show up on the credit bureaus as a brand-new account with a 0 month age. On XXXX, I started getting notifications from the credit bureaus that I had a new account listed on all 3 bureaus. This caused my average age of accounts to lower and also added an account to the list of new credit accounts opened within the last 24 months. Both are detrimental to Fico scores and credit Bureau profiles, especially mortgage scores and my scores have already lowered and my average age of Accounts has already lowered and taken the hit. 

The mortgage company that we are using to finalize the purchase of the home that is currently being built for us warned us against opening any new accounts during this building phase as it could get in the way of the financing altogether or cause our interest rates to rise or it could increase the down payment money needed to close. 

If XXXX wanted to close my account, then I would be fine with that but the big issue I have is that they opened a new account without my permission and even after I called them to tell them that I did not want the new account opened. This is not fair to open up new accounts when a customer does not want them! I called them to let them know before the XXXX cutoff date. This is probably going to affect our mortgage terribly and I havent even discussed it with the mortgage company yet as I do not want to lose this house or possibly have to scramble to look for new financing. We have been locked in at 2.5 % interest since last fall but if this changes we could go to the new rates of today which are upwards of 5.5 %. This could add {$500.00} to our monthly payment easily. 

I have called XXXX to talk to them about this and the last time I spoke with someone she said that she was going to mail me a letter that I could send to the 3 credit bureaus to take care of this issue. But then she said that the letter will explain that the new account was opened up because they were changing the account numbers so it was necessary. The representatives said there was no one else to talk to about this issue and I was not convinced that this letter would solve any issue with the credit bureaus. Also, I do not want to dispute it, I want XXXX to fix it themselves because I am on a limited timeframe before I have to finalize this mortgage the summer. Disputing it will cost me extra money and time that I do not have. I do not feel this is fair at all for XXXX to do this and I am asking that you help me resolve this issue with them. All I want is the problem resolved, otherwise if this doesnt resolve, we are contacting our attorney and giving him all the paperwork and I will ask him to do whatever is necessary. 

I am involved with a credit forum online and there are many customers on there complaining of the exact same issue. They directed XXXX to cancel their accounts and not open a new account but they are now reporting that these new accounts are starting to hit their credit bureaus as well. 

If this website will let me, I am going to try to attach the new listing ( on my XXXX report ) for you to see. The identical listings have posted to XXXX and Equifax as well. 

I was a longtime happy customer of XXXX but unfortunately this has not ended well. My hope is that XXXX will make this right, since I canceled my account and told them not to open a new one. Otherwise we will continue the fight to get it fixed. 

Thank you for your help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief