Consumer complaint received 2023-08-11
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: FL
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: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone

Complaint:
I desperately and urgently need help in resolving this or will face catastrophic ramifications, If there is someone I can speak to by phone, I would be so grateful! I apologize that my complaint does not fall into the typical categories and specific issues that you list, I chose the closest one... My problem is one in which I had never heard of, and due to that, I have been unable to obtain help, support or assistance in resolution, from any of the typical options, i.e. Credit Repair companies, Attorney's who specialize in credit reporting issues, etc.  The "problem" is that I have a perfect credit report, and all three bureaus have continually dropped my "score' so low that it completely excludes me from getting a mortgage, which I am desperately trying to obtain. The law allows scores to be affected to a certain limit I am told (i.e. 35% for utilization) yet, my score over the last XXXX months has been so volatile, swinging between XXXX points, to XXXX points to XXXX points, up and down, literally every few days.  

Most of the "volatility" is reportedly based on my use of my credit cards, having nothing to do with my on time payment of my credit cards, or any failure to do so.  The scores assigned by all three bureaus do not factually represent my "credit worthiness" and the "problems" as explained to me by the bureau's, as well as those who have denied my Mortgages, Private loans and HELOC's, are impossible for me to "correct", at least in no time within my remaining life expectancy! 

 The basis for the Fair Credit and Reporting Act, I believe, or at the least the congressional intent I believe, is that if there is a credit problem, or an issue with someones credit, which renders them unable to obtain credit,  or ends up causing them to pay so much greater than any other person for any credit they may be able to obtain, or in this country, prohibits them from having fair access for a chance to a reasonable and fair life in America today, is that the laws as they exist would offer each person know about their credit "issue" and provide a manner in which they can work to improve their credit, and eliminate the problem, which ostensibly their behavior has caused. 

 However, my problem is not able to be fixed, not any time soon, not in time to preclude  catastrophic damage to my life, the loss of my businesses, and causing me to default on obligations I have, and some of the issues cannot be fixed in my lifetime, as I am XXXX years of age.  I will soon be too old to work, so the thought that my credit will improve is not accurate, or even reasonable to assume, as my income in a few years will decrease, certainly not increase, as I get closer to retirement age.  They have literally destroyed my credit, yet, I have not one thing which is negative on my entire credit report, certainly nothing I can fix!  I have been turned down for every mortgage and the bureaus report my terrible credit score today on the issues they claim are causing my terrible score,  as follows :  

XXXX My oldest credit account is too young (I have had credit given to me, since I am XXXX years old, I have paid with exceptional history, and have paid off all my debts and have few new ones!)  Therefore, now that this issue has destroyed my credit, nothing I am capable of doing NOW can add years to a credit account.  Had I understood what paying my debt could cause, I would have not paid them over the years!  Even though my XXXX years history is being ignored of all that I have paid, and paid timely!  

XXXX  My use of my (low limit ) credit cards is causing my "utilization of my available credit to be too high" - I use my credit cards to pay some bills, put gas in my car etc and I pay the cards off in full each and every month, on time, sometimes I make a payment to the card as soon as i  charge something on it,  I carry no balances.  I use my cards as a payment vehicle. I had feared using my debit card due to the high incidence of fraud and didn't want anyone to have direct access to my bank funds.  I thought this was wise. I do use my cards each month, but I carry no balances, but have now been destroyed because i use the cards (some have a limit as low as $XXXX  It doesn't take much to go over 30% which is what the bureaus tell me "the computer wants to see"- had I known this, I would have requested an increase in my limit years ago, but not knowing this info until it has killed me, the limits I had have worked fine for me- however, now that I do know and understand the 30% thing, I can't request increase now, because my score is so low I would be denied anyway, and every inquiry for an extension of credit is another inquiry on my credit report, which lowers my score)  

 XXXX  The final reason they all give me is that I have had too many hard inquiries on my credit.  The law states that while shopping mortgage rates, or automobile rates, the credit score can only be penalized for one inquiry, if the applications are within I believe a XXXX  day time frame.  Due to problems with my XXXX  mortgage application,  beyond my control, I have had to shop numerous times for mortgage this year, and every inquiry is listed on my credit report.  They tell me they must list them all, but are only counting them all as once, yet, every application I make is denied due to the "number of inquiries" I have had.   I cannot change this, yes, they will fall off in two years, but where shall I live during that time? 

 Now, since i sold my original home, and because my mortgage lender backed out of my mortgage approval XXXX hours before closing, due to aa cracked outdoor patio slab, they told me, I used all my available cash, the cash in my companies,  etc to be able to close my home purchase contract with cash,  so I would not default on my purchase contract, yet now I am being penalized for "not having a first mortgage in place" yet nobody will give me a mortgage now that my score has dropped as low as XXXX- and today is listed at XXXX in my latest denial- 
Also, the craziest thing, beyond my control, as my score has dropped so very low, other credit relationships I had in place, like a store credit card, which I hardly ever even used, without ever contacting me, or asking me what was going on with my score, or giving me any opportunity to explain, nor did they even look at my credit report, when my score dropped by XXXX points, they unilaterally closed my account, or dropped my "line of credit to $XXXX  or lower, in this crazy chain reaction to my score dropping so low, which further hurt my score!  How on earth does all this represent my credit worthiness!  

Yet, when I open the account which I pay for,  with XXXX Equifax, XXXX, which I pay for,  for the purpose which they sell it to me,  to "monitor and be aware of my credit score" Yet, every lender reports a score number to me which they are getting upon doing a credit check on my application,  and they are informed of a much lower score,  when they run my credit score,  on the exact same day as I am seeing my score level through my "monitoring service" directly with the Bureaus!   I am at my wits end, this horror I have lived for the last XXXX  months since my credit score has bounced from a XXXX down to a XXXX, and now seems to hover around the low XXXX, yet the Bureaus tell me they can't give me financial advice when I challenge them to explain how their score keeps with the law, and how it represents my report,  and I ask them how can I improve my score, and I explain that I have low debt, my XXXX companies earn XXXX  million combined income annually, my personal income is very respectable, my assets are high, yet, all good without anything negative on my report, yet there is absolutely nothing I can do anything to "fix" credit score and resolve this problem.  

 I have been financially devastated, I am going to lose my companies because I can't recover the cash I took to close on my home, now, that I cannot qualify to get a mortgage, or LOC or HELOC.  I will default on a number of obligations I have, yet the only "sin" I have committed financially,  was that I sold my home, paid off my mortgage in full, I bought another home and paid in cash,  not because I wanted to, but because a mortgage lender walked out on me XXXX hours before my closing, in the same XXXX month period that my car died and I had to trade it in for a new one, thus closing another  'older account"!!  This is all incredulous!

This cannot be what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or the Fair Credit Act intended, when they established the laws on Fair Credit Reporting.  So, nothing is "factually" incorrect on my credit report, but they are penalizing me that I use, and I honorably pay my credit cards in full, at least once if not more often,  every month. Yet,  if i fill my car with gas and use my credit card at the pump, by the time I pull out of the station I get a notification that my credit score has gone down,  because I charged XXXX on my credit card!  Even if I immediately go online,  and immediately pay that XXXX from my bank and clear the balance on my card, which i do constantly, my credit sinks again because I "made use of my available credit at a ratio the computers don't like"  They tell me to use only 30% of my available credit, but now that i have all my cash trapped in my home, unable to get a mortgage and get my cash back, and now that I can only use 30% on the XXXX low limit credit cards I had before knowing all this, how shall I survive? 

 I just can't believe that I have done things so responsibly, paid everything I owe and pay on time, and my credit score today is a 603!  I literally will lose everything in my life if this continues even another few weeks, and there is not one thing I can do to fix it, and nobody I can go to.  Even the bureaus tell me that no human has interaction with the scores, they say they are all computer generated!  So, they are accurate, I have no old credit accounts, because I have paid responsibly, I have not asked for high lines of credit on my few little credit cards, because I never needed more credit than those cards gave me when first opened, and I have desperately tried to get a mortgage this year, and I cannot remove those inquiries from my report, just not sure why they are breaking the law by clearly penalizing my credit score for those inquiries, despite what the law dictates on protecting me from that, when shopping for a mortgage.  Also, when I went to trade my car in last spring I specifically requested the auto dealer not shop many rates for my loan, explained that I was in the mortgage application process, yet, despite my request, he ran so many, which are all listed on the same date on my credit report, so it does fall into the category of "shopping rates for a large purchase" which is not supposed to be held against my score,  legally, yet it is and it has!  Please see the attached denials, and the crazy variety of credit scores, all provided on same day, from same bureaus, and see the disparity between the figures they are reporting! If there was a way I could attach the history of my credit score since last spring, and the wild up's and down's based solely on the use of my credit cards, which are all paid timely, it makes no sense.  Even if the "computers" do not like the inquiries, and do not like how I have used my credit cards, Iwouldunderstnd If I lost some points of a perfect XXXX score, but to render my credit score down to a XXXX, or a XXXX, for doing nothing late, doing nothing irresponsible, etc. is beyond my comprehension how they get away with this and destroy lives, based on arbitrary computer likes and dislikes?  Are we already victims of Artificial Intelligence?  

That is the sound of what the Credit Bureau's are doing when they tell me that "they can't even explain what the heck is going on with my credit score and advise me that i should just give it time" , and they tell me that "the computer does crazy things sometimes that nobody understands, but that is the way it is!"

Hard to wrap my head around that when I have worked hard to honor all my commitments in life, have nothing wrong on my report, but can't recover from what they are doing to me!  Is there anyone there I can speak to regarding this ongoing unfair horror?

I have a plethora of supporting documents that the system here is not uploading for some reason. Can I please email or get this documentation to someone to send along with this complaint?  They are substantial proof of what I have complained about, the mortgage denials, the varying scores distributed on the same day by same bureau depending on who is requesting my score. etc.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation