Consumer complaint received 2019-12-25
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: TX
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:
I am directing this complaint at Experian Credit Reporting. The original error occurred with XXXX XXXX XXXX, however XXXX has corrected the error on their end ( if poorly ). The only error remaining is with the negative credit reporting and the unsatisfactory resolution to my credit dispute. Specifically, the response to my credit dispute was a single word : " Updated ''. However, the negative credit reporting remains. A FAQ on their website explains that the single word response can mean a half dozen different things and that I am meant to derive the results of their investigation by the changes ( or lack there-of ) I see on my credit report. I've narrowed it down to two possibilities : 1.They have reviewed my dispute and found it invalid or 2.They have updated to the newest version of XXXX.

I want a written summary of my dispute resolution that includes at least 3 full sentences. This should be trivial to provide, assuming they actually reviewed it. I want the reasoning behind their denial of my dispute, including either specific regulations preventing the repair of my credit or layman 's logic explaining how the situation reflects poorly on my credit worthiness. 

Below is an explanation of the root error which caused the negative reporting : I originated an auto loan with XXXX XXXX late XXXX. During XXXX I made several bulk monthly payments, advancing my due date well ahead to provide a safety cushion and some measure of comfort. I asked XXXX if I could apply some of the funds as a principal deposit instead and they replied that they were unwilling to do so unless I provided the request in writing. They said ( and the website says this still ) that their website payment portal was for monthly payments only. I assume this policy was created to deny customers the benefit of lowered interest, but I simply did not care to fight the issue for the trivial potential savings. 
In late XXXX I began fostering my younger sister, this shifted my financial priorities and I allowed several months to go by without a monthly payment. ( With the understanding that my previous payments ahead would prevent any negative impact. ) After a couple of months, I got a threatening phone call telling me that I was delinquent on my auto loan and " would I like to pay the delinquent amount in full now? '' Thus began the 4 month long process of explaining the situation to a long string of incompetent debt collectors who repeatedly asked me if I wanted to submit my payment for the full delinquent amount now. ( No I did not have an extra {$700.00} sitting around while caring for a teenager without any warning. ) The first sentient being I came across was eventually able to determine that all of my bulk monthly payments had been applied to principal ; regardless of what I had been told before. He said that their policy is to deposit funds to principal if a customer pays more than a few months ahead, without informing the customer. I see the logic behind this policy, and it would be a consumer friendly policy only if the customer were made aware of it when it was put into practice. The agent escalated to account services management, however the threatening phone calls continued at a time in my life when losing my car would have been a life changing tragedy. Account services management did not respond. 

After a month or so I wrote an email to their board of directors and was finally put in touch with a seemingly competent and friendly assistant. After another TWO MONTHS of back and forth, she explained to me that their Account Services management could not reverse the principal deposits and reapply them as monthly payments, because it was too complicated to go back that far in time. Please note that it would not have been too far back if the problem had been corrected after my first phone call with them instead of 4 months later. She said that they would advance the due date of my loan and waive the late fees. She said that this resolution method would achieve the same result. After a few days I saw that my due date had been corrected on the website and I called her back to thank her. As a follow up, I asked her how long it would take my credit reporting to be corrected, she said that the reporting may not be corrected because they did not reverse and reapply payments, so the payments still showed as " paid delinquent '' in their system. 

I waited a few months, and saw that some, but not all, of the negative reporting had been corrected. My account currently shows that the XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX payments were made 30+ days late. All of the other monthly payments show a pretty green color but these two delinquent payments are enough to have a moderate impact on my credit score because I do not have a large number of open accounts. 

I filed my first dispute with who I thought was Experian and I received a letter in the mail asking that I mail them back the original copy of my birth certificate or social security card and either my driver 's license or passport. They would not speak to me further before I proved my identity this way. I assumed this was a scam as it would be absurd to mail any of these, let alone my license which I am required to have while driving in the state of TX. 

I called Experian a couple weeks ago and they confirmed that they did not have any disputes on file for me. They said that I could file a new dispute over the phone with them. I gave the agent a summary of the above and he filed the dispute. Yesterday I received an email stating that my dispute results were ready. It included a link to my results, which contained a single word " Updated ''. 

The amount of time I have put into fixing this single issue so vastly outweighs the benefits of paying ahead on my debts that I am fully convinced that I should never give a penny more or a second earlier to any lender than I am legally required to. I will also make sure to keep the bulk of my correspondence in writing, ideally through this CFPB portal when relevant.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation