Consumer complaint received 2020-11-06
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MI
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:
The date of this complaint is XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 

Under 12 CFR Part 1026 ( Regulation Z ) 1026.2 Definitions and rules of construction, while there is a permissible variance to account for weekends, holidays, and differences in the number of days in months, billing cycles MUST BE EQUAL. In this context equal requires that the actual date of EACH statement not vary by more than four ( 4 ) days from a fixed day or date. The interval between the statement with date XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and the next subsequent statement generated on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX clearly falls outside the statutory definition of equal as applied to billing cycles for my student loans. That is, each statement generated after XXXX XX/XX/XXXX constitutes a statement that is offset from the XXXX XX/XX/XXXX statement outside of the prescribed interval as established from the date of the first statement. 

The effect is that Wells Fargo is reporting inaccurate payment and balance history. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX XXXX, Research Remediation Associate for Wells Fargo, responded to complaint XXXX, and XXXX, attesting that Wells Fargo has billed and reported accurate credit information to the CRAs in compliance with the FCRA. Per XXXX XXXX WF considers the matter closed. As of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Wells Fargo states that I am thirty ( 30 ) days past-due for the month of XXXX. Yet, the month of XXXX just began and my due dates are the XXXX of each month. At this point an XXXX payment due XXXX XXXX wouldn't even be thirty ( 30 ) days past-due. 

Unfortunately, this is not new behavior for Wells Fargo as the CFPB brought Wells Fargo 's illegal student loan servicing practices to light and announced enforcement action against Wells Fargo on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. The CFPB found that Wells Fargo was engaging in action that constitued the following law violations : ( 1 ) unfair and deceptive practices related to payment allocation in violation of Sections 1031 and 1036 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 ( CFPA ), 12 U.S.C. 5531, 5536 ; ( 2 ) unfair practices related to payment aggregation in violation of Sections 1031 and 1036 of the CFPA, 12 U.S.C. 5531, 5536 ; ( 3 ) unlawful practices related to payment aggregation in violation of Section 623 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ), 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2 ( a ) ( 2 ), and Section 1022.42 of Regulation V, 12 C.F.R. 1022.42 ( a ) ; and ( 4 ) unfair practices related to the assessment of late fees in violation of Sections 1031 and 1036 of the CFPA, 12 U.S.C. 5531, 5536. Now, under the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB has the authority to take action against institutions engaging in unfair or deceptive practices. One of the terms of the consent order filed against in XX/XX/XXXX mandated that WF must " must remove any negative student loan information that has been inaccurately or incompletely provided to a consumer reporting company. '' In the XXXX XX/XX/XXXX CFPB press release, CFPB Director XXXX XXXX as states, Wells Fargo hit borrowers with illegal fees and deprived others of critical information needed to effectively manage their student loan accounts, Consumers should be able to rely on their servicer to process and credit payments correctly and to provide accurate and timely information and we will continue our work to improve the student loan servicing market. In my case Wells Fargo has charged illegal late fees on my account due to their billing practices stated above, supplied inaccurate and/or incomplete information to the CRAs, and failed to provide timely, accurate information in their billing statements. All of these are in violation of the consent agreement Wells Fargo entered into with the CFPB in late XXXX of XXXX. With a XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX dollar student loan portfolio, Wells Fargo 's practices continue to harm millions of individuals whose loans they service -- I appear to repeatedly be one of them within the past few months and WF continues to ignore the CFPB consent order. 

I have disputed the inaccuracies with XXXX  directly under report XXXX with dispute id XXXX. It was processed on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and the results were delivered XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX  continues to claim that the information is accurate despite the clear logical impossibility with the reported information. Additionally, I have filed complaints against both XXXX  and Wells Fargo with CFPB complaint IDs : XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX for this behavior. 

All of this started with questionable practices surrounding Wells Fargo 's refusla to place my student loans back into an in-school deferment. This refusal is undoubtedly related to a push within the organization to wind down student loan operations and to polish the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX dollar student loan portfolio for sale. The timing of the illegal action taken on my account is quite suspicious, considering XXXX XXXX published an article n XXXX XX/XX/XXXX quoting Wells Fargos website. The statement read " beginning on XX/XX/XXXX, only customers with an outstanding balance on a Wells Fargo Private Student Loan are eligible to be borrowers on a new private student loan for the XXXX academic year. In the article XXXX XXXX, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo is quoted as saying Wells Fargo has decided to narrow its student-lending focus. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX published an article stating that Wells Fargo is exploring a sale of its corporate-trust unit that could fetch more than {$1.00} XXXX and is considering whether to find a buyer for its student-loan portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter. The article goes on to say Wells Fargo holds a {$10.00} XXXX student-loan portfolio. The bank said earlier this month that it had notified customers of its planned exit from the student-lending business. 

Given that information, it is entirely conceivable that I have been caught in Wells Fargo 's internal push to force as many student loans into a repayment status as possible by a certain date to prepare their XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX dollar student loan portfolio for sale. The bottom line is that Wells Fargo appears to be a repeat offender of similar behaviors that have been exposed within the last decade and they need to be continually held accountable, especially during financially trying times for many individuals with student loans. Clearly, Wells Fargo continues to report the inaccurate information to XXXX  and XXXX  willing continues to post the inaccurate information to my credit file for months beginning XX/XX/XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX. 

Regardless, the payment history and information for my student loans that Wells Fargo supplies to the CRAs is incomplete and/or incorrect and must be immediately removed from all credit files for which WF has supplied the information to a CRA.

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