Consumer complaint received 2022-11-30
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
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:
RE : Investigation Request to Demand & Comply to Delete Errant Credit Reporting To whom it may concern, This is not a letter from a credit repair company and is authored by my own hand. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 611 ( 15 U.S.C. 1681I ), I am exercising my right to challenge questionable information that I have found on my personal credit report after the credit reporting agency allegedly investigated the erroneous information on my behalf.

I have disputed the information listed below in good faith and request that the CFPB investigate the source, accuracy and validity of these accounts and ascertain that the creditor had a permissible purpose, and is able to verify my complete file information including full name, address, date of birth and SSN #. 

INCORRECT ACCOUNT INFORMATION The accounts below are reporting incorrectly please investigate these : XXXX. Creditor Name : XXXX { Account # XXXX } Reason for Dispute : Fraudulently Opened Account : XXXX opened the account in question absent my knowledge, authorization. XXXX submitted erroneous bills for services that were rendered in violation of Federal Law concerning Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as the Truth in Lending Act. Furthermore XXXX has violated the Fair Credit Reporting act by failing to properly investigate the initial dispute and then providing false information to the credit reporting agencies causing unjust damage to my credit score and related credit reports. In my request that XXXX verify and validate the alleged debt, I requested that the origination documents be provided for my review, these origination documents show that the consumer was not provided with adequate disclosure required under TILA therefore the account in question was opened under false pretenses without my explicit authorization and therefore should be rendered a nullity to remedy and balance the inequities XXXX has caused violating my consumer rights under FCRA.The FTC identity theft report has been filed and will be attached to this submission. 

Fraudulent Charges on Account : Incurred fraudulent charges. During the investigation period XXXX willingly violated the Fair Credit Billing Act of 1974, which is federal law designed to protect consumers from unfair credit billing practices. Specifically the credit issuer ( XXXX ) has 30 days to acknowledge receipt of a complaint. They then have two billing cycles to complete their investigation ; during that time the issuer is not allowed to try to collect the payment, or charge interest on it, { emphasis added } during the initial investigation period on XXXX XXXX unlawfully charged my ( allegedly valid ) checking plus account {$24.00} interest fees, this attempt is unlawful on its face according to the Fair Credit Billing Act for the reasons stated above and should be retracted and remedied accordingly. 


Incorrect Amount, Last Payment dates, Payment history : The account data pertaining to this account is incorrect specifically the amount due, is reporting incorrectly with different amounts and dates which are not uniform across all three credit reporting bureaus, I attempted in good faith to dispute these parts of the account with all three credit bureaus however they were unable to remedy the issue for whatever reason. 

The FCRA determines this failure to resolve by the credit bureaus should result in the complete deletion of the account if the information is not verifiable or reliable. 

According to the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act 611 ( a ) [ 15 USC 1681i ( a ) ], these disputed items must be reinvestigated or deleted from my credit record within 30 days. During the investigation period, these items must be removed from my credit report as the mere reporting of items prior to debt validation constitutes collection activity. I am also requesting the names, addresses and telephone numbers of individuals you contacted during your investigation.

Please advocate on behalf of the credit reporting bureau to notify me that the above items have been deleted pursuant to 611 ( a ) ( 6 ) [ 15 USC 1681j ( a ) ( 6 ) ]. I am also requesting an updated copy of my credit report, which should be sent to my current address on file. According to the provisions of 612 [ 15 USC 1681j ], there should be no charge for this report.

Duties upon notice of dispute from a consumer reporting agency Section 623 ( b ) ; 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2 ( b ) This section requires that whenever a person, such as a financial institution, receives a notice of dispute from a consumer reporting agency regarding the accuracy or completeness of any information the person provided to a consumer reporting agency pursuant to Section 611 ( Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy ), that person must, pursuant to Section 623 ( b ) : 1. conduct an investigation regarding the disputed information ; 2. review all relevant information the consumer reporting agency provided along with the notice ; 3. report the results of the investigation to the consumer reporting agency ; 4. if the investigation finds the information is incomplete or inaccurate, report those results to all nationwide consumer reporting agencies to which the financial institution previously provided the information ; and 5. if the disputed information is incomplete, inaccurate, or not verifiable by the person, it must promptly, for purposes of reporting to the consumer reporting agency do one of the following : a. modify the item of information. b. delete the item of information. c. permanently block the reporting of that item of information.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation