Consumer complaint received 2019-04-03
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MI
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Unable to get your credit report or credit score
Sub-issue: Other problem getting your report or credit score

Complaint:
CFPB Complaint To the CFPB Complaint Dept : My husband and I are registering a complaint against Equifax XXXX XXXX because they refuse to put my husband, credit report online, even though, under its Family Plan, I am paying for exactly this service. Furthermore, they refused to inform us as to why they refuse to put his credit file online. Instead they mailed us a credit report which gave NO CREDIT SCORE, ( see attached ). Equifaxs Consumer Affairs Division told us that was all they were going to give us as far as my husbands credit file was concerned. And that anyone, lenders and vendors included, who wanted to see his credit file would need to call their department specifically. Mind you, there is no direct number to Consumer Affairs. You must call customer service, wait in the queue, and keep asking to be switched to Consumer Affairs until someone transfers your call to their department. 
On XXXX XXXX, 2019 we called Equifax Customer service because we could not locate the PIN number needed to unfreeze my husbands credit file. Customer service then switched us to Consumer Affairs, and I spoke with XXXX who, after having us send in quite a bit of information, including drivers licenses and social security cards made my husbands credit file " Permanently Unfrozen '' so we would not have any issues seeing his credit file. By both phone and mail, ( see attached ), we were assured his file was then ready for online access and monitoring. 
Upon having the file unfrozen, we then called Customer Service again to have the online monitoring set up for his file as well. They informed me that we should have my plan changed from the Complete Advantage Individual Plan to the Family Plan which cost a little bit more, but is a much cheaper per credit file monthly charge, provided, of course, Equifax actually provides and monitors both credit files as advertised. 
So that is what we did. 
However, upon being switched to the Family Plan, and going online to see our credit reports, we saw that only mine was accessible. For 3 days we called and talked with XXXX different young men and six different young women all from 5 different departments who each successively tried to fix the problem, and then assured me that within 2 hours we would be able to access both credit files. 
Nonetheless, none of their attempts were successful, and waiting the two hours after each one tried never changed anything. Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, one of the technicians after speaking with his manager, discovered that my husband was on the VIP list, and transferred us to Consumer Affairs. There we spoke with XXXX who said she would speak with " someone on the upper level '' of her department, and request that my husbands credit file be released from Consumer Affairs so that it would then be available to be seen online. We were to wait 2 more days for an answer. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we called back. And after much holding and transferring, I was finally able to get to XXXX at Consumer Affairs who told us that they would not release my husbands credit file, as they had decided not to put his report on line. She said they would not divulge their reasoning or justification for withholding his file, and that we would need to call Consumer Affairs every time we wished to view his file and they would then mail it to the address on file. Any potential vendors or lenders would have to do the same thing as well. I asked to speak to the upper level, but was told they did not take calls. 
Please intervene on our behalf as we really do not appreciate the obvious age discrimination behind the quarantine of my husbands credit file. And we very much need the same access to his credit file that everyone else has. Thank you very much for your help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation