Consumer complaint received 2021-12-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: GA
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:
Hi, Quick background - Single mom, owned a XXXX acre farm and raised XXXX, also a XXXX. I was already struggling when I lost my job to COVID. I had taken out a couple of personal loans to try to stay afloat. That said, I was never late on my mortgage, not once. I did the forebearance during COVID but in the end decided to sell my farm and downsize. I sold at the end of 2020 and was able to purchase a smaller home with no mortgage. I am in a much better position now and have recently started to pay off and/or make payment arrangements on some things I couldn't pay during that time. There are two reasons I am writing today. The first is the most outrageous and is completely unfair. Being in the XXXX XXXX and now XXXX XXXX I have dealt extensively with credit scores. I have never seen anything like this. 
1. I made payment arrangements on an account with XXXX XXXX. They are happy now and I will pay this off. They then removed the account from my credit once payment arrangements were made. Equifax then on XX/XX/XXXX dropped my score XXXX points. This is insane. I have never seen a drop that drastic and certainly not for an account being removed. I am sure it dropped a small fraction of that when the account was in default. This makes no sense. I called Equifax and three different people would only say that it is system generated and they have no control. There is obviously a system glitch and they refuse to do anything about it. Dropping XXXX points is astronomical especially when it is for doing the right thing and making payment arrangements. 

The second issue is that when I sold my house and paid off my mortgage my score dropped about XXXX points. I am not sure if anything can be done on this. Also, now on the list of items that hurt your score, it states that I have no mortgage. Again, not sure what can be done here. It seems to me that if someone makes the financially smart choice to sell and downsize so that they have no mortgage payment then that shoul be a good thing. Makes no sense to me how this would be a bad thing on my credit. I understand the amount outstanding is gone and the account is closed. I also know that credit scores do not like to have accounts closed. But ... this is a mortgage and when you pay it off you have no choice but to close the account, it's done automatically. I shouldn't be penalized for this. 

Today, my biggest issue is the XXXX point drop by Equifax just because I did the right thing and made payment arrangements on an account. It's just not right. 

There is now another account showing up as a collection - XXXX XXXX I have made payment arrangements with them today. I am obviously concerned that if they also remove it from my credit I will again be penalized for doing the right thing. I am going to do the right thing anyway but Equifax needs to adjust their system. 

I am trying very hard to clear past items up and get my credit scores up. I should not be penalized for this. 
Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation