Consumer complaint received 2023-05-18
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: MA
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:
Hello, This complaint is in regards to Experian credit bureau. 
I had filed a dispute with the credit bureau itself in regards to the way they where reporting an old credit card debt on my credit report. 
I have been working diligintly to improve my credit since an error I made trying to open an old bankruptcy that I misfiled and it appeared as a new bankruptcy filing in XXXX. This HUGE mistake cost me XXXX points on my credit report in XXXX. I had on e bankruptcy in XXXX and have never missed a payment on anything when this occurred, I was devastated! 
I thought with time it would be noted I had not discharged any debts, I had corrected the error made so believed within a few months this decrease in points would correct itself, it didn't. My score at the time this happened was XXXX and climbing then plumeted to XXXX! 
Who has a score of XXXX with 100 % payment history with no lates? 
Anyway, my account never bounced back and now since then I have been working to rebuild my score again. During the XXXX XXXX Pandemic I ran into an issue with a XXXX credit card. I joined a credit relief program as I was struggling, out of work to pay my debts, XXXX XXXX XXXX  was included however the program I joined was a scam and was costing more to me than if I had made some arrangements with the card itself. 
I had never been late on this card yet this company told me I had to be 90 days behind before they could help. Long story short it was a huge mistake, I got out of the program and by the time I tried to work out somthing with XXXX it was too late, they had already Charged Off the account. It has been over 3 years now since that occurred. 

I continued to pay all my other debts on time and in fact I paid a car loan and a personal loan off XXXX XXXX years early but to my suprise again instead of getting a boost in my score for an early pay off my score dropped about XXXX points, I was disgusted and was told it was because I now did not have various types of accounts therefor I took out a small personal loan, not due to need but simply to have a broader array of accounts. 
My account has been building since and was at XXXX on XXXX XXXX XXXX 

I filed the dispute with Experian because they where taking this charged off XXXX XXXX  account which has been CLOSED for XXXX years now and they wrongly are continuing to add the balance of this account into and with the amount and total of all my OPEN CURRENT accounts. 
They also have listed under my OPEN ACCOUNTS at total of " XXXX '' open accounts, which gives the impression this account remains open, as I truly only have " XXXX '' OPEN and Curent accounts. 
Even though this closed account is not listed with the open accounts, and can not be looked at until you open the drop down accounts listed under, CLOSED accounts, Experian is being decieving to anyone who would looks at my credit profile quickly, as I truly only have " XXXX '' Open Credit card accounts which together the outstanding balances are usually " XXXX '' or carry a very low balance, by Experian doing this when you go onto my it is not reflective of what is the thruthful balance of all accounts OPEN & Debt owed, instead they see Old charged off closed information mixed with my current. 
This is deceiving, and has, and is harming my personal credit history and present score. 
THIS is what the problem is : I filed the dispute specifically to Experian to correct the way they where reporting this account as it is NOT an open account but a CLOSED XXXX, and asked them to PLEASE not include the Charged Off OLD account information and amount in with my CURRENT OPEN Accounts. It is deceptive and decieving information. 
This dispute was TO EXPERIAN not XXXX! Experians Error Experian handled this dispute by ignoring what I asked of them and instead took the complaint as if I was diputing the XXXX XXXX as if not mine and sent a confirmation request directly to XXXX which obviously came back confirmed. 
How I found this out is I received an email the dispute had been updated so when I went on line to EXPERIAN I immediately noted my XXXX credit score had dropped by XXXX points and it now stated my score to be XXXX!!! I am so upset by this! At first I could not understand what could have caused the drop in score however Experian specifically guided me to the reason for the change and what it took e to was the dispute I had requested. I could see no obvious changes in what the dispute was showing me so I called EXPERIAN and I was on the phone for over 3 hours with customer service. No one seemed to be able to help me and I was transferred to 4 different departments. I finally reached a woman in the DISPUTE department who finally understood what had happened, she stated that EXPERIAN must have misunderstood the request, and that she was filing a complaint asking for a correction on my account. 
She stated that the reason my credit score dropped XXXX points was due to Experian sending the Dispute to XXXX, She stated this reaged the account as if new! 
I was horrified but I was grateful, as she told me I would have to wait till the next updates at the beginning of the following month however, XXXX has come and the new scores have come out for the month yet I see no reflection of this call nor any change made to my credit score! 
I am furious! I know how difficult it is to get a correction from these agencies!! 
This is not fair! MY score should be at XXXX and climbing! We all know how one thing drops a tremendous amouts of points yet it takes a year or longer to get even close to XXXX points added to a score! This is outrageous! I spent almost a year arguing about XXXX of my other credit cards which was wronfully reporting a 30 day late that took almost a year for it to be removed! It was removed yet I never gained the jump up in points which I had needlessly suffered when it dropped when they originally reported it! Its not right! 
We are not talking XXXX or XXXX points, my score dropped XXXX Points! I might as well have been 30 days late on a payment to receive a drop such as this! 
Due to only being at XXXX although in the good range but not high enough for this not to effect my credit I have gone from a GOOD CREDIT Rating DOWN to a FAIR Rating! 
This is wrong! I told you the situation with the Bankruptcy error I made in XXXX which dropped me XXXX points, despite 100 % payment history and no lates I never recouped any of those points! 
The only true Bankruptcy I had was in XXXX which I built myself up and over XXXX when the error happened in XXXX but I just wanted to mention the XXXX bankruptcy dropped off my credit report in XXXX, I thought my account would receive at least a decent boost from this being removed yet was shocked when after it dropped off it did not reflect even XXXX positive point after! 

These question I have which correspond with my downloaded pictures : DECIETFUL LISTED INFORMATION ON MY REPORT ; a )- The first screenshot is of the email I received, it states its regarding an update to my dispute filed : Report Number XXXX, Date generated XX/XX/XXXX view details > When I did, what I first saw was, " Could Hurt '' in red, then said : " The percentage of your accounts always paid on time has *decreased by 10 %. '' ( There had, nor has been any decrease in accounts always paid on time, this is fraudulent information, my accounts are and remain paid 100 % on time, never late ) It then said, " Your Percentage of accounts with no delinquencies decreased, which means since your last report there is at least XXXX XXXX delinquency on an account that previously didnt have any. '' ( This is flat out " wrong, '' & deceptful information! In fact I had expected an increase in my score due to bringing an account balance to " XXXX '' that month! 

b )- Under XXXX account " Status '' it states Account Charged Off {$11000.00} written off " XXXX Past Due as of XX/XX/XXXX '' - If account is Charged Off, written off, why is it listing a past due amount? 
- Why does it list an amount of days past due of XXXX? 
- If charged off, written off, why is this reporting in a current status of " past due " as of XX/XX/XXXX ''? Yet below " Staus '' it lists " States Updated '' XX/XX/XXXX ''? 
- If this is true, & the last staus update states XX/XX/XXXX, why is a current staus listed for XX/XX/XXXX? 
- In the payment History shown in this report it shows the Charge Off occured XX/XX/XXXX - In another photo you can see on the bottom it states : " Reinvestigation Info '' " This Item was updated from our processing of your dispute in XX/XX/XXXX. '' This statment is PROOF the change in my score of a XXXX point drop and the drop was directly a consequence of Experian not handeling my dispute properly and instead deflecting my compaint to XXXX instead, this then caused the reaging of my account, looking as if new information reported, rather than the old stale info it is, all due my complaint being handled improperly. The devastating dive in my score is a direct cause of XXXX error themselves, certainly not mine. 
c ) - You will notice in another screenshot at the top it states : " You have " XXXX '' open accounts Total Balance {$12000.00} Please understand, my credit score was XXXX and in my reports it would say I need to have more diverse accounts, yet even with my score reaching XXXX I would still be denied credit. I was always told it is due to this XXXX card issue. This is what made me look at it closer and realize what the reason for these troubles where and why this was happening. 
By Experian listing " XXXX '' under the number of my Open Accounts and then also adding in the total mount of that closed charged off account to the total balance of open accounts, they made my total outstanding balances state {$12000.00} outstanding, as opposed to my true balance of {$1300.00} outstanding from my actual XXXX accounts. 
Experian was creativly and deceptivly keeping my report account inaccurate, still looking as if this closed account was open and I actively owed and stll had over a {$12000.00} current open ballance of Debt therby creating the delusion I was a high risk borrower who owed thousands of dollars in debt! 
d ) - In another screenshot you can see it states : " XXXX closed accounts '' which is a drop down menu, once it is open This is where I have XXXX closed accounts and where Experian does however list the XXXX account were it belongs with XXXX other prior closed accounts. Although in the correct spot here the damage is done from there wrong actions noted above. 
XXXX ) - Next screen shot you will see a picture dated XX/XX/XXXX where it shows my credit score at XXXX, There is also another screenshot when I received the email of an update to my dispute where the first thing noted on XX/XX/XXXX my score now states XXXX! 
On XX/XX/XXXX my score was still XXXX it was this next day the XXXX it dropped to XXXX. 



I am so upset! Experian obviously made an error when they sent my dispute to XXXX rather than properly reading and realizing this dispute was sent to them to fix and I should not pay for their error and I DEMAND THEY RAISE MY SCORE THE XXXX POINTS THEY SUBTRACTED! 
I FOUGHT FOR THE POINTS TAKEN AWAY AFTER THE XXXX ERROR IN REPORT YET NEVER RECIEVED REPERATION THERE, I HOPE AND PRAY THIS REQUST WILL HAVE A DIFFEENT OUTCOME, PLEASE! 

Thank you, XXXX XXXX

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