Consumer complaint received 2019-05-22
Company: TIDEWATER FINANCE COMPANY, INC.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
Please help me. I am asking for you to look into the XXXX  XXXX XXXX/ Tidewater Finance Company because they are destroying my credit report. I say this because They are currently reporting an account to all 3 credit bureaus as having 21 late payments. To clarify the nature of the situation, I will describe to you why what they are doing is illegal. 

I understand that an account that isn't being paid on time or at all can have late payments reported to the credit bureaus. I also understand that the late payments can accrue if you make multiple of them consecutively. For example, if you do not make a payment for two months in a row you would get a 30 and 60 day late payments. If you fail to pay for 3 months you would get the two late payments mentioned previously as well as a 90 day late payment. I also know that if you are making payments on time but are still past due on a previous month due payment you would get what is known as a rolling 30 day late payment. For example, If I made XXXX 's payment on time but then skipped XXXX 's payment, and then began paying on time starting XXXX for 3 months, then I would have a 30 late payment in XXXX and a consecutive or " rolling '' 30 day late payment in XXXX and the three months afterwards. 

Well what is occurring with XXXX XXXX the XXXX Tidewater Finance company is something that is not allowed by federal regulation. Those companies have decided to report me with 18 consecutive 90 day late payments even though I have not paid them any money in 2 years! I am not proud that I have not paid them, and it actually is a very stressful thought which is always on my mind, but that does not excuse XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX/Tidewater to hold my credit report XXXX or ignore federal regulations because they feel like it. According to the FDIC 5000 - Statements of Policy, UNIFORM RETAIL CREDIT CLASSIFICATION AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT POLICY, 1, Closed-end retail loans that become past due 120 cumulative days and open-end retail loans that become past due 180 cumulative days from the contractual due date should be classified Loss and charged off. In other words, this account should have been charged off after the 180 day mark. That was nearly 2 years ago. 

I have attempted to call the XXXX XXXX XXXX/Tidewater and even the store where the account originated from which is XXXX XXXX. I have attempted to get them to correct this reporting as is mandated by the FDIC but they refuse. I have done so on numerous occasions over the past year. Every time I communicate with any of the companies, I am told that the only way to fix this reporting is for me to pay them what I owe. 

Again, I understand I owe money, but that does not mean that a creditor can keep an account open indefinitely if it hasn't been paid. That is against the FDIC rules. If they could keep it open indefinitely, they could keep it on my credit report indefinitely and then the 7 year statute of limitations for credit reporting would be irrelevant. Please help me in getting tidewater/ XXXX XXXX XXXX to charge this account off starting at the 180 day of no payment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation