Consumer complaint received 2018-01-27
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: PA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else

Complaint:
Recently I applied for a personal loan and was declined. I was shocked because I've always had great credit. The following morning ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I accessed my free credit report to try and figure out why it was declined. 

It said I had a delinquent account on file - which I immediately knew was an error as I've never paid a bill late let alone seriously delinquent. It showed it was a joint XXXX 's account w/ a balance of {$250.00} & is 120+ days past due. I promptly filed a dispute and then contacted XXXX 's to find out why they had my name on the delinquent account. 

Being as the credit report does not list the last four digits of the account number, they used my social security number to pull up any accounts I was on. They had a record of only my personal account, which had a XXXX balance and good credit history. I explained the situation and they said they would contact Equifax, to let them know the delinquent account was not mine and was an error they needed to further investigate. 

I was pretty excited about this, as I figured it was pretty black-and-white and this issue would not take the estimated 30 days to get corrected. ( Again, I am in serious need of this loan which I am unable to get because of a credit score that is incorrect due to this error ). I called Equifax the following day to ask if they had received the information from XXXX 's which I was told they did not. I called XXXX 's back and was informed that everything happens through the postal mail, and that all I could do at this point was wait. 

A day or two later, I used the online feature on equifax 's website to check the status of my dispute. After entering my personal information however, it was declining my efforts stating it did not match the information on file. Again I was stumped. I had no choice but to call in and after explaining the situation, they repeated my personal information back to me to verify it was correct and I learned they had a Texas address on file for me! Not only have I lived at my PA residence for the last 5+ years, but I have never lived in Texas ! 

At this point I'm infuriated and wondering who is at fault for all this incorrect information on my credit report. Thankfully I had already uploaded my drivers license, when filing the dispute, so they could verify the information I provided them. ( they did all but demand I mail a copy of my Social Security card but I was adamant that I would not do that! It does not have my address on it & I find that incredibly risky. ) It's been almost a week and a half and the issue is still not resolved. Not only has this been incredibly stressful but I have since had ( I was notified on XX/XX/XXXX ) two credit cards completely slash my credit limit, due to a tanking credit score because of this incorrect information. This will further damage my credit score, as it looks like I maxed out those two credit cards when indeed I did not. One of those cards is what we use actively for purchases. So we basically lost our lifeline and I had to borrow money from family, just to pay our bills because of this situation. 

I desperately needed that loan, as I had some interest free credit cards that were coming due and now I'm paying 20+ % interest, when if this incorrect information had never been on my credit report - I would have easily been granted a personal loan & would have a much lower interest-rate. 

I would like to know who is responsible for these two issues. Why is my name on a joint account, that I do not have and why despite ALL of my open credit cards and bills being a PA address did they have a Texas address on file? 

This has caused so much emotional distress and financial damage And I think it's incredibly disturbing that nearly everything is done virtually, except for issues revolving our credit score which is a huge deal in today society. A simple phone call could have verified this account was not mine. A simple email could have done the same But instead I am left waiting, watching my credit tank even further which I'm not even sure it will fully recover, since even after the dispute those credit cards are not required to reinstate the credit they cut. I recently checked & my credit score was in the mid 700 's before all this happened. It is now in the upper 500 's & that was BEFORE they started cutting my credit limit down to just above my balance - which I read that Credit utilization is the 2nd most important part of my credit score. So again - more damage. 

Ps. It appears a purchase was made in XX/XX/XXXX on this joint XXXX account & no payments were ever made. So that means since XX/XX/XXXX my credit has been decreasing. The card was then reported on XX/XX/XXXX - just 2 weeks before I applied for the loan.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation