Consumer complaint received 2022-07-08
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CO
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern at the CFPB, On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a dispute to Equifax regarding XXXX months of missing positive, on-time payments that were mistakenly removed from the tradeline XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX a credit card account. 

These XXXX months of missing payments, spanning XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, were mistakenly deleted from this tradeline on my Equifax report, but are still listed on my XXXX and XXXX reports. 

My Equifax XXXX score is XXXX points lower than my XXXX and XXXX scores , so I figured it would be a good idea to try to get the missing payment history restored before applying for an auto loan next month. This was a mistake! 

I sent Equifax XXXX years worth of XXXX XXXX statements and a cover letter explaining that this was about a XXXX XXXX credit card account. There is no mistaking that this dispute was only in reference to that specific account. 

However, Equifax went ahead and opened up a second, unnecessary dispute against my federal student loan serviced by the Dept. of Education / XXXX a dispute which I did not request! 

All I wanted was to restore XXXX months of missing XXXX XXXX credit card payments. My correspondence said absolutely nothing about any student loans whatsoever. 

Now I am concerned that EquifaxXXXX horrific incompetency and disorganization will cause positive, on-time payment data to be removed from my student loan account as well. 

I called Equifax as soon as I received an emailed notification of this dispute on XX/XX/XXXX, and their customer service agent told me It is an error through Equifax that the student loan was included in the dispute. 

They transferred me to a XXXX who put me on hold until they hung up on me, which has happened to me multiple times when reporting Equifax technical errors -- such as the original XXXX XXXX payment history deletion error. The idea of speaking to anyone who can actually resolve this is completely hopeless. 

Despite admitting that this was their company 's mistake, Equifax is also claiming that they are unable to remove my student loan from being included in the open XXXX XXXX dispute. 

In their words, they simply can not close or revoke the student loan dispute, even if it was opened on the wrong account in error. 

This is absolute nonsense. Opening up a dispute that I did not request or consent to is fraudulent activity. 

All I want them to do is NOT dispute an account that was in perfectly good standing, and I fear that this is going to seriously harm my credit score directly before applying for an auto loan. 

Please help me, CFPB! I just wanted those XXXX months of positive, on-time XXXX XXXX credit card payments restored, and did not want Equifax modifying any of the data regarding my student loan. XXXX! 

I could close the dispute altogether and start over, but this would mean going back through the trouble and wasted ink of printing and mailing XXXX entire years ' worth of XXXX XXXX credit card statements. I really don't want to have to do that. 

I simply do not want them touching any of the 100 % correct information about my student loan account and creating further inaccuracies on my credit report. 

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. 

Sincerely, Disappointed in XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation