Consumer complaint received 2018-08-09
Company: EQUIFAX, 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: Personal information incorrect

Complaint:
I am writing this to address my late student loan payments. I am requesting that these late payments be assessed for accuracy. I also understand that these loans are my responsibilities but these are the circumstances that caused the delinquency on my account. 
In XX/XX/2017 I did my exit counseling on the FAFSA website. I was under the impression that I was good to go and I would hear back from my loan officer by email, mail, or phone in a subsequent time frame letting me know it was time to start repaying my loans. There is one page on the FAFSA website where they ask you to update your account information. I made sure that my information was updated before moving on to the next page. I then completed the rest of my exit counseling. The way the fafsa website works, when you continue to the next page it is supposed to automatically save the page prior. So while doing my exit counseling I assumed that all of the pages I had completed were being saved. To my surprise, I had not heard anything by any avenue of communication after six months regarding my student loans so I went back on the FAFSA website to make sure I completed my exit counseling correctly. There I discovered that my account information did not save correctly. I realized that my email and address where not updated with FAFSA. So for those six months my payments were being send to an incorrect email and address. The information I had updated on the FAFSA website did not save because I never received any notification that my student loan payments were due. I had no idea that my payments had even started and I am not one to miss payments for any bills I have. I also never received a phone call and neither did my parents who had their phone numbers listed with those loans as well. When I logged into my XXXX account I realized that my information was not updated there either and had to physically update that account as well. My account information from FAFSA did not transfer correctly over to XXXX and that is why I never got any notice that my payments had started. As soon as I realized that I had missed payments on the XXXX website in XX/XX/2017 I paid the entirety of what I owed ( {$1700.00} ) that moment and re-updated my information. I have since then never missed a payment and I always pay more than the minimum payment. I am considered paid ahead on my account and have enrolled in direct deposit so I will never miss a payment again. If you check my credit you will see that before this event that I never missed a payment of any kind and always paid on time. 
Since XX/XX/2017, I wrote an email to XXXX requesting the late charges to be removed but I never got a response. I have also called multiple times trying to contact someone in the loan department but have been told there was nothing they could do for me. I have also more recently called three times and spoke to a loan officer asking if I could have a letter from them to give to a mortgage lender explaining my payment history. The first call I left a message and got no response and the last two times I spoke with someone saying I would get a letter in my email and both times never did. Since I have not been given very good customer service for any of my problems I thought I would take one step further. That is why I thought I would this.

The mistake of the FAFSA website is currently causing problems with me trying to get a mortgage to buy a house with my fiance. This is because when the payments were being sent to the wrong address my credit score dropped from a XXXX to XXXX. I would rent but renting is more expensive than buying where I live. Because of this we have been forced to live with my fiances mother. We currently are having a hard time getting approved for a loan because of my credit score. I am a teacher and my fiance is a barber so we really need both of our incomes in order to be able to afford anything in this market. 
I should not be at fault for the mistake the FAFSA website made during the exit counseling process. I also know that I am not the only person that this type of mistake has happened to. I realize that this was not a mistake made by XXXX, but rather, a mistake made by a glitch in the FAFSA website. I am hoping that XXXX can understand that while I failed to submit a timely payment, I had no knowledge that my payments started and that when I realized the payments were late I paid the amount in full. If the delinquencies can not be removed entirely, I would still be appreciative if there could be a goodwill adjustment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation