Consumer complaint received 2022-03-04
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MO
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX, our credit files ( husband and self ) were dumped with years of old files from before our bankruptcy, dropping our credit scores by XXXX points, from great-excellent to poor. This is the only thing that happened in XX/XX/2022 : I applied for a XXXX card. They said they couldn't verify me. I sent docs at their request, and I admit, I included a note with the tone of " sigh, is this really necessary, when you have my credit report, and you were talking to me several times on my home phone -- just because you couldn't send me a text, and you said that's the only way you can " verify '' people? So yes, I expressed my displeasure, and this is important. This was XXXX. 

Well, they held it in pending for the second time. Both times, I was not approved because I didn't have a cell phone, and they claimed they couldn't verify me. The second time, after being passed around to different reps, the rep said, " It wouldnt make any difference ; we don't have a cell phone number for you on these records anyway '' so she was obvsiouly looking through my credit report at the time. 

Several calls later, a rep told me to send ID and proof of residency to them. I sent ID and a mortgage statement from recent VA XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX statement. They hung me up as pending for several days again and then turned me down again. When I finally got a kknowledgeable rep this time, he said the docs were invalid. I said they were not. He said they were and that the ID was too small. I said I sent a mortgage statement and property tax and that the ID was regular size and could easily be blown up in size, when he repeated the docs were invalid. I asked for a supervisor. 

This was around XXXX ; the date is important. I was placed on hold and then passed to a " supervisor '' -- they were still talking -- the new person and the old and laughing together as she picked up the phone, kind of giggling, saying she was a supervisor, and I explained the problem.

She repeated that the ID was too small and docs invalid. I repeated my informatoin, and she then asked what I had sent. So all this time tellling me what I sent was " invalid, '' she hadn't known. I explained, and she said " That's not a mortgage statement. '' Now this was getting very tiresome. I had to repeat that it was, that it was from a VA loan, recent refi. By this time, I was feeling discriminated against I am XXXX. I do not use a cell phone. Asking me to send documents and then not accepting them and turning me down because I don't own a cell phone sounds like discrimination, but what makes it worse is that they would not accept a VA XXXX XXXX. I said I would send them again, but asked if she could understand my fruistration and that my docs were not invalid, perhaps just not what they accepted ( though I have no idea why not. I said I would send them again, still it would be nice if she could at least understand why this was frustrating for me. '' Her voice cold, as it had been all through the call, she rushed through these words " If-that-is-all-you-have-thank-you-for-calling-wells-fargo-and-good-night '' and hung up the phone! 

Here 's why this is important. That's the only deal either of us had with a credit agency that month, since our sterling credit record the first of XXXX. And they were snotty to me, asking me to send and not accepting what I sent -- AND they had my credit history right in front of them, so they knew my credit score and how to annoy me if they wanted to, Please don't think me paranoid ; this is the world we live in now. the doument dump into our file occured just after this on XX/XX/2022. Suddenly our score, STARTING WITH MINE, WENT DOWN XXXX POINTS at one agency, then my huband 's went down, then it was at all three agencies. We went from Great-excellent scores, getting any cards we wanted to " poor '' getting turned down for everythiing after that. 

As proof, with our records identical, my husband was approved for a XXXX card from XXXX XXXX before this happened. After the dump, I was denied -- - not even approved with a lower limit -- and we were both denied for any cards after that. We know because our 0 % cards were expiring and we were seeking to replace them, so this happened at the exact worst time. And I think somebody with access to credit records, who felt annoyed by someone " not even smart enough to have a cell phone '' as they probably saw it -- and somebody who thought it was a joke to pretend to be a supervisor on a problem call -- dumped this info in our files. 

Here 's what it consisted of. Records under my maiden name, which I haven't used in 25 years. Addresses and phone numbers from that long ago, from before everything was wiped out in our bankfuptcy, Various spellings of our names. It appears that in XX/XX/2022, we had excellent credit, but in ONE WEEK, We wen t out and opened a bunch of new accts, had late payments, opened and closed accts, ran up our balances, didn't pay off some accts at all, and dismissed others in bankruptcy. 

Example. When I read our credit report in XXXX it said " Your earliest credit report is NOT recent -- - it was long enough ago that this is no problem! Good going! 

Same question the end of XXXX read : " Your earliest account was opened too recently. You need to hold on to some of your accounts for awhile. XXXX your credit record will go up. '' I tried to complain at XXXX, the first agency reporting it wrong. The guy could barely speak XXXX, but got huffy with ME, asking for the NAME of the " early credit company '' if I wanted to file a dispute about it. I'm trying to explain " How could I know that? This is, in the first place, a baseless charge, and in the second, I don't know what account they were even referring to? So he said he couldn't help me. 

So here we sit, with our credit that we worked for approx 12 years without one late payment -- RUINED. " poor '' is what it says at every agency for both of us. There's no way we can file ordinary disputes. What's going on with our accounts is too complex ; it doesn't fall into the category of " This one acct is reported incorrectly ; tell us, and we'll fix it if we decide it's wrong, '' and that's the only thing the XXXX XXXX XXXX was able to hhelp anyone with. 

I first filed this against transunion and XXXX  XXXX, who turned me down and who were holding my husband 's acct in their " fraud dept '' because of all this craziness -- we just finally got it out of " fraud '' so we could transfer a balance to it last night. We've been working on this for months now ... not meaning to claim/blame emotion, but seriously, my anxiety levels are so high that I've had to see a doctor and get medication, and I'm still ( as you may be able to tell from this ) furious and sad, feeling like crying and yelling at somebody, unable to concentrate on anything and frankly, unable to think of anything but how it looks like some kids at a banking institution decided it would be fun to mess with us, so they did,., Nope, no proof, but how else can we explain scores dropping XXXX points in a month -- ( the XXXX guy read off his script " Please remember that credit scores are dyname and subject to change, '' and I just wanted to laugh. This is from excellent to poor, from the second quintile from the top to the second quintile from the bottom in one month. If people weren't all so algorithm-reliant and poorly-educated these days, they'd see immedialtey that this just doesn't happen. And to have our score reflect how we were doing 12 years ago, not how we were doing the first of XXXX? Just not fair! 

Please help us! ( BTW, this has crashed twice ; first time I've gotten all the way through this. What a relief. ) Yes, I DO want this printed so others can see what people or just fate ( since I have no proof of people, just awfully suspicious dates and circumstances. ) can have in store for you

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation