Consumer complaint received 2018-08-11
Company: TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC.
State: NY
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:
I recently received a cash bequest which I used to pay off large amounts of debt. I did this for 2 reasons ... 1. I am now a retiree and I wanted to reduce my monthly outgoings and 2. I wanted to improve my credit score as I am about to purchase a new car ; I wanted to finance this. 

I paid off my ~ $ XXXX mortgage and my $ XXXX HELOC with XXXX and I paid off my $ XXXX Auto Loan. I still have another auto loan ( ~ $ XXXX ), a 0 % interest credit card with about $ 16k outstanding, my XXXX Platinum Card and I have no serious delinquencies. 

My initial complaint was with XXXX as they were still reporting my ~ $ XXXX HELOC as outstanding nearly 2 weeks after I had paid it off and this was affecting my credit utilization which was at 51 % before the loan payoff was acknowledged ; this gave me a credit score of around 700. I applied to XXXX XXXX for an auto loan for my new car and I was turned down flat by every lender. I was told that my credit utilization was too high. I complained to XXXX and the Credit Reporting Agencies that old data was being reported and this was detrimentally affecting my ability to borrow money and XXXX fixed the reporting on their end. 

I didn't need my HELOC anymore and I was not going to use this for my Auto Loan as the interest is too high and it's an adjustable rate. XXXX asked me if I wanted to close the account which, of course, I did as the account is redundant. Nobody warned or advised me that this could have a damaging effect on my Credit Rating.

Once TransUnion acknowledged that the loan had been paid off, they sent me a mail alerting me to a change in my credit score. I had paid for credit monitoring and I logged into my dashboard to find that my credit score had dropped to XXXX. I called TU to discuss this and I was told that the act of closing my HELOC was/is viewed negatively but they were unwilling to explain why. 

I have an excellent ( 24 year ) record of responsible borrowing and on-time payment. I now own my house free-and-clear ( ~value $ XXXX ) and my current car ( ~ $ XXXX ) and I have liquid assets of around $ 450k and semi liquid assets ( investments ) of around $ 450k. 

Why did XXXX not warn me of the potential negative outcome of closing my HELOC account? 

Why am I being penalized for paying off my debts? I can now no longer borrow money at all. If I could borrow, it would be at exorbitant rates of interest. 

How can this be fair or even legal? 

Why are people not given clear information on what affects their Credit Ratings so that they can make the appropriate decisions? I would not have closed my HELOC account if I had known that this would cause my credit score to crater. 

It seems that I am being blackmailed into staying in debt to avoid my credit rating being damaged ... this is extortion.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation