Consumer complaint received 2020-02-12
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: NY
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
RE : XXXX XXXX  Account Credit Card # XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Experian, I am requesting removal of incorrect information on my Experian account regarding my XXXX account with XXXX XXXX. The history is currently showing a series of late payments and it shows as a charged off account. I disagree with the history of late payments and the current charge off status reported and I request that my account shows paid and closed with no late payment history or charge off status. This dispute is meant for Experian only. 

In additional to the reasons that were previously sent to you which I am attaching below, a few more additional information I would like to bring to your attention : Per reviewing my disputes, both XXXX  and XXXX  have now removed XXXX XXXX  XXXX account information, including charged off status and all late payments from my credit reporting files with them. Their investigation results are consistent finding that XXXX account should not be reported to my credit report. 
Your previous investigation result has indicated that XXXX XXXX was about to verify the disputed information was accurate as reported and there the disputed information remains on my Experian credit report. I would like to remind you that per my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information. As the I previously explained to you in writing ( also attached ), the XXXX  account ends with XXXX is inaccurate because I was given no methods or means to pay off a balance regardless of my attempts to do so and my capability to do so, which can be verified through XXXX phone records ( that only XXXX has access to ), and my balance in my bank account the entire time. Thus, when you decided to keep the inaccurate information on my credit reporting only because XXXX has verified the debt, you have decided to inaccurately describe my nature, my motivation and my qualification as a responsible renter, a capable loan borrower. Most importantly, you disregard all other aspects of the situation that reflect this balance XXXX  verified to be a result of their system failure. 
Adding onto # 2, per disputing the issue with XXXX  directly, they have responded with At your request on XX/XX/XXXX, we consolidated your credit line from your XXXX card to your XXXX card. Please note that even though they said theres no record of me requesting to close my account only to consolidate the two account, that was a play of words to explain the situation. However, they did not deny I have asked them to pay the remaining balance in full of my XXXX  card ( in order to close it off ) with my saving account with them, and they did not deny it was OVERPAID BY MISTAKE by their employee by saying this payment left a credit balance of {$2.00}, which kept the card open when it was supposedly paid in full and closed. If you feel the need to dig out whose fault this was, please request XXXX  to explain to you who made the payment that resulted in the card remained open. The truth is, their staff did. ( XXXX   responding letter is attached ) For the past 5 years my credit history has prevented me from being able to rent, loan, or even get a credit card. My life has been placed on hold and I couldnt find housing as a result of something that is not my fault. I ask you to be responsible and instead of taking the verification XXXX  tells you, please take on the role of a responsible credit reporting agency that looks out for particular situation like mine where outside of the numbers, situations come into play as errors/ mistakes by the banks that put customers into a extremely disastrous situations for years. I am writing to you with the truth, please listen and look at the supporting documents that describe what really happened. 

My previous letter sent to you explaining the situation that got me here is paste below : XXXX XXXX   Account Credit Card # XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I am a XXXX  card holder since XXXX. I had an issue with my XXXX  credit card back in XXXX that I have been trying to fix my credit report errors by disputing the information through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, all three credit bureaus, and over the phone, in person and online with XXXX  with no result. My XXXX account history is currently showing a series of late payments and it shows as a charged off account. I disagree with the history of late payments and the current charge off status reported and I request that my account shows paid and closed with no late payment history or charge off status. This errors on my personal record are limiting and preventing me from renting apartments and applying for credit cards and mortgage. 

The reasons why I request this change are : 1 ) This account should have been closed on XX/XX/XXXX when I went to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  branch and authorized customer service agent XXXX XXXX to use money from my savings account to pay the remaining balance in full for this credit card and close it. I believe that if this request was handled correctly, I would not have been able to make any further charges to the account. However, I am not disputing the charges occurred after the account was closed. In fact, those charges are paid now. 

2 ) After my account was closed and I received a letter from XXXX indicating that I had a balance remained that need to be paid off. I promptly attempted to make payments through online, in person visits, and over the phone MULTIPLE times soon as I received the notice. However, all the branches that I personally visited indicated that they DID NOT SEE ANY remaining balance and started that that THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN CLOSED AND IS IN GOOD STANDING and that I did not need to make a payment. I was adviced by XXXX employees at different departments at different times that this notification letters I received could be scams. This multiple visits and phone calls should have been documented in the account by the XXXX  team, but they refused to release them to me per requested.

3 ) As you can see in my payment history, I have always made timely payments and I NEVER had a single late payment prior or after this event. This was a unique and unfortunate chain of events started with a single missed payment which was caused by the mistake made by XXXX employee who overpaid my credit card and thus was kept the credit card alive while it was supposedly paid in full and closed as I requested and was promised. Since then, I have received notifications on the remaining balance and have the ability and have physically called, login online, and visited a brand to make a payment but no payment option was made available to me the ENTIRE time, because the employee of XXXX could NOT access records that showed such remaining balance. I am and was at the time financially capable to have made those payments if given the chance. In fact, while this issue was happening I owned a XXXX  checking and savings account with a balance of over {$15000.00}. 

4 ) A total of over 40 hours of my life have spent in disputing this error that incorrectly reflect my qualification as a consumer on my credit reports. Attached are my emails with information regarding all the visits and phone calls I made to try to address this issue. Furthermore, As a result of this inaccurate reporting, XXXX  XXXX XXXX closed my credit card with them due to serious delinquency and the only issue I have ever had was with XXXX. I was not able to rent apartments or obtaining a place to live because of this history. I was denied the possibilities of opening new credit card or opening a new bank account with different banks because of this history. My ability to get loans, mortgage, or housing are limited and my credit score was lowered significantly because of this error. 

In the latest complaint filed with all three Credit Bureaus, my case was denied of any modification on my credit reports. XXXX stated in their response letter they claimed there were notifications sent to me to alert me with past due payments. However, I am not disputing that I did receive the letter in the mail. I am disputing that per receiving those notifications I personally went to XXXX  with XXXX XXXX who can be my witness over multiple times, I called XXXX from overseas in attempts to make payments, but I was denied the need and the opportunity to do so because XXXX employees in the physical branch and over the phone did not see any records of remaining balance needed to be paid. Therefore, their response to my complaint filed was irrelevant to my dispute. 

ALL THREE CREDIT BUREAUS have the obligation of reporting ACCURATE information and of removing any inaccurate information from my credit reports under law. I ask you to do a thorough investigation and make sure a fairly and accurately credit history reflects my true characteristics as responsible individual.

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 non-monetary relief