Consumer complaint received 2023-02-10
Company: EQUITY LOANS LLC
State: FL
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:
At the very beginning of our Mortgage loan, while I was on the phone with Equity Prime Mortgages ( EPM ) Representative, she was helping me set up the account and enter my banking information so that I could process my mortgage payments. At that point the account number that was entered by the representative was missing the final digit. This caused my first payment to be returned on XXXX  ( XXXX days after I initiated the payment ). I was able to catch it in time and also was able to correct the account number online. At that time I initiated another payment in the system on XXXX. That payment went through and was credited properly to my account. The company also did not assess a late fee for this transaction as they recognized that the clerical error had been on their part. 
In XXXX, I initiated my payment on XX/XX/, however the payment account had defaulted back to the bad account number entered into the system by their service rep. By the time I realized that the payment had been returned it was the beginning of XXXX and my payment was already 30 days past due. As soon as I realized there was an issue, I made the payment on XXXX Part of the reason I was unaware of this issue was that when you initiate a payment through EPMs payment portal online the screen says Payment Confirmation at the top. ( Picture attached ). By this I assumed that my payment had gone through. 
I have disputed these facts, the fact that it is not due to lack of funds or refusal to pay, it was simply a clerical error on the part of the company ( which they now deny ) to both the XXXX major credit bureaus and also with the company directly. 
The late payment has been removed from my XXXX report, but it has remained on my XXXX and XXXX as well as remained on my husbands XXXX credit reports. Most recently when I was on the phone with the Credit Bureaus, they told me to contact XXXX directly. When I did that, the supervisor that I ended up speaking to said that it had all been cleared up on their end and that it should have been removed back in XXXX. However, in a subsequent call they contradicted this supervisor and said that they can not remove the 30 day late reporting because it shows in their system that I am the one who entered the account number incorrectly. I did in fact enter the correct account number after I realized that the rep had originally entered the account number but had omitted the final digit. Now Im left to wonder if this is the account number that their system shows that I entered. 

Recently my husband and I got denied for refinancing our car loan to a much better interest rate and the bank cited this late payment as one of the main reasons we were denied credit. We have been working desperately since XXXX to recover from some delinquencies and derrogatories on our credit report and are simply trying to build our credit. This is really hurting our progress and holding our family back. Had we been approved for the car refinance the payment would have gone down over {$100.00} a month, which would provide us with some needed relief. All we are asking is that the 30 day late is removed, we have made every payment before and since and this is a simple clerical error that should be understood as a reason to remove this negative item from our credit reports once we brought it to their attention. 

A recent check of my credit report shows a XXXX late in XXXX of Last year on XXXX, but in XXXX on XXXX. 

A recent check of my husbands report shows it's late in XXXX on XXXX, in XXXX on XXXX, and in XXXX on XXXX. None if this information coincides and needs to be removed. 

After hours of time on the phone and trying to get this company to help us out, we turned to the CFPB for help. Please help!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation