Consumer complaint received 2021-02-01
Company: Express Collections, Inc.
State: CO
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:
Had a dental bill go to collections in XX/XX/XXXX8, a dental bill which was due to the original creditor in XX/XX/XXXX. Bill was sent to " Express Collections '' of XXXX XXXX, South Dakota. Bill was in the amount of {$210.00} USD. 

I was first made aware of this bill in XX/XX/XXXX. Company states that I contacted them XX/XX/XXXX, and made payments on this account for the dates of XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXXand XX/XX/XXXX. 

I made my first payment either on, or within days of my first contact with EC, and was informed that so long as I began making payments, I would not ever have this item reflected on my credit report. 

Company claims that this statement was never made and can't be verified as a promise, and that they in fact began reporting my bill to the bureaus 10 days later. Company claims that they submitted data to the bureaus on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. 

The debt in question was paid in full in XX/XX/XXXX, and EC claims that they began reporting my collection as paid in full as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, this account did not begin showing up on any of my Credit Bureau reports until XX/XX/XXXX. This is nearly 6 months after I was first made aware of this debt and was told that I would not have it show up on my reports at all as long as I began making payments. 

Furthermore, there is absolutely no reporting data on my account whatsoever, nor is there any stated " original debt amount. '' The account also states that it remains open. Despite having disputed this account multiple times, there also remains no " account in dispute '' notation on my report for this collection. 

Each of these are a violation of the FCRA. 

I have attached the company 's response to my XXXX complaint - you will notice several discrepancies in their response itself. I have also provided a transcript of their response, which is as follows ( sans identifiable information ) : Contact Name and Title : XXXX XXXX, Operation Contact Phone : XXXX Contact Email : XXXX This debt was originally due by the original creditor in XX/XX/XXXX. The creditor referred it to collections in XX/XX/XXXX. We started reporting it to the credit bureaus in XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, XX contacted our office stating she received a letter from our office and wanted to set up payments. She made payments in XXXX, XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. The account was paid in full XX/XX/XXXX. Our office notified the credit bureaus that the account was paid in XX/XX/XXXX. We are required to send three paid in full reports before we no longer are required to update the report. These were sent in XXXX, XXXX and the last one in XXXX. We have reviewed the notes on the account and there was no notation that XX mentioned anything about wanting the account removed from her credit report. Our office does not do " pay for deletes '' as this goes against our agreement with the credit bureaus. The copies of her credit reporting she submitted with her complaint show the most current reporting we have sent, it does not show a reporting history. We can not report a " paid '' account without first reporting it as owing. We also do not report to all three credit bureaus. We report to XXXX and XXXX. We do not report to XXXX. The images that XX supplied with her complaint are from XXXX XXXX, a third party and not directly from the credit bureaus. We have no control how XXXX XXXX pulls or obtains their information or how accurate it is. We are also just a data furnisher, we can not control how or when the credit bureaus report or update their information, we just supply them with the account info each month. I attached a screen shot showing the metro contact reports that are created whenever our system runs a report to send to the credit bureau. The dates this account was sent to XXXX  and XXXX was on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. We are sorry that this account has affected Ms. XX credit score, but we have accurately reported the account as required by the FCRA. 

First and foremost, they claim that there is no notation that I wanted it " removed from my account. '' This is because I contacted them on XX/XX/XXXX, a full ten days prior to when they claim they first reported this account to the bureaus. It was not on my credit report, ergo, there was no need for me to ask it to be removed from my report. 

I simply asked, " So if I start paying this right away, it's not ever gon na show up on my credit report, right? '' Their response : " Oh no, definitely not! As long as you start paying and you are making monthly payments, we aren't going to report this. '' I took this on good faith and began paying the collection. I did not negotiate, I did not attempt to settle, I paid the amount in full. 

And they held their word for about 6 months, and then began reporting it. This is a violation of FDCPA 807 ( 10 ) regarding false and misleading practices. 

Another discrepancy of note is where they say " The copies of her credit reporting she submitted with her complaint show the most current reporting we have sent, it does not show a reporting history. We can not report a " paid '' account without first reporting it as owing. '' This is true, and yet that is exactly what they have done. 

While my original XXXX complaint did include only a screenshot from XXXX, that is because I forgot to upload my screenshot from XXXX 's 3 Bureau Credit Report. I have included that screenshot in my XXXX rebuttal and here on my CFPB report. They state that they can not accept any information from my XXXX reports, so I have omitted everything involving data pulled from XXXX. 

A careful review of my XXXX Report will show that over almost 3 years later, there is absolutely no reporting history, nor an original debt amount owed. So this account was first reported as paid, with nothing owing - contrary to their own statement. 

Again, they are right in the fact that they can not report a paid account without first reporting it as owing, and in doing so, they have violated FCRA 607 ( b ), 15 U.S.C. 1681e ( b ) twice, and have admitted to doing so. The account has been disputed on the grounds that this is incorrect, and EC has not fixed it. 

A third violation of the FCRA 607 ( b ), 15 U.S.C. 1681e ( b ) is that this account is still shown as " open, '' despite their claims to having forwarded information to XXXX and XXXX that this account has been paid and closed. The account does reflect paid, but it does not reflect closed. The account has also been disputed on these grounds, and again EC refuses to fix it. 

In having disputed these ( the earliest having been 38 days ago, and the furthest being 46 days ago ), this account should have been updated to show as " in dispute '' with the credit bureaus within 31 days of receiving the dispute. My records show that EC received and " investigated '' these disputes and told the bureau that their information was " correct. '' If that is the case, simple math would state that as of 39 days ago, these reports should show an " in dispute '' notation on the report. There is no such mark. This is a violation of FCRA, 611 ( a ) ( 8 ) ( c ). 

If you're keeping track at this point, this means that Express Collections has violated the FCRA four individual times with this single account, and the FDCPA once. 

A final discrepancy is this : " We can not control how or when the credit bureaus report or update their information, we just supply them with the account info each month. '' This is intentionally obtuse. If the data furnisher provides data that is not in compliance with the law, the bureau has no responsibility to report it, and can in fact be held liable for publishing an incorrect report. Furthermore, it has been 925 days since EC states that they first reported this account. Either this data was not compliant with the standards set forth by the FCRA, FCBA, FDCPA, FACTA, the CFPB and Metro2, or the files were corrupted, never sent correctly, or otherwise lost in some capacity. 

Making sure the data reported reaches the bureau, and the accuracy of those reports is not the responsibility of the bureaus. The accuracy of these reported items and accounts are the responsibility of the data furnisher. If that responsibility is neglected, then the company in question has a legal and moral imperative to remove the negative data from the affected consumer. 

Express Collections misled me, lied to me, took my money, violated the law multiple times, and continue to violate the law with every step of the dispute process I take. 

Oh, and one last thing - this account has never been reported to my XXXX report. Ever. I've included a screenshot of that too. What are the chances of one bureau never receiving the info, and the other taking 6 months to report it? What are the chances of this company lying out their nose to cover their behinds? A lot bigger than the bureaus messing up, right?

Company public response: Company believes the complaint is the result of a misunderstanding
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation