Consumer complaint received 2018-02-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
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:
Dear CFPB Representatve. Unfortunately and frustrating, this is my third or fourth complaint, on the same issue, regarding Equifax maintaining a debt on my credit report that does not belong to me. The first time, Equifax never responded to me, the 2nd time, they did not respond within 30 days and you all allowed them to take an additional 30 or so days to resolve ; which I believe didn't need to take that long if they had valid proof. I believed the FTC to protect individuals from non-fair collection practices, including the ability for credit reporting agencies to keep a debt that is not yours on their report because they were paid by the collection agency to do so ; and without valid investigations and information. 

Still to this date, the debt of {$170.00} remains on my credit report, that a 3rd party collection agency named XXXX XXXX ( which is not a a state collection agency, just named that way ), placed on my report. As stated the last 3 times in my complaints, I have never received anything from this credit agency ( and they didn't even have the correct information on me ) and I have never had any dealings with the above named 3rd party credit agency and therefore, they should not have any personal information about me, nor do they have any contracts with me. I had also explained 3 or 4 times that I have never had any dealings with the above named 3rd party collection agency. I have never signed any agreements with them, nor provided them with any personal information about myself. Because of this, they should not have in their possession, any personal information about me. The last investigation that Equifax claimed they made, XX/XX/XXXX, was that they had received information provided by the " original source ''. I believe that Equifax has fabricated such statement, as they did in their previous response. The " original source '', which Equifax speaks of is the hospital that the named above 3rd party agency included on my credit report ( as I have explained in my prior complaints through CFPB ). Besides, if the above named 3rd party collection agency is not the " original source '', then they should not be able to have put such debt on my credit report when it does not concern them -as I have had no dealing ( ever ) with them. Additionally, when I first saw this debt placed on my credit report, I contacted the hospital to dispute ; however, a representative from the hospital stated that once they " sell '' debts to collection agencies, they do not maintain those files, nor do they provide information on them, and therefore, could not provide me any information on such debt and that I needed to contact the name above 3rd party collection agency. This was also explained in my last few complaints to the CFPB. The rep at the hospital also informed me that the state collection agency may be an agency that another collection agency sold the debt to because the " state collection agency '', above, is not one that they deal. Therefore, meaning that this {$170.00} has been through a couple of collection agencies ; which is illegal because they are harbering, selling, and sharing, my personal information ; and it doesn't help with Equifax 's recent breach. To my knowledge, it is illegal for a collection agency, the " original source '', to sell or disclose one 's personal information. And this is the case. Also, Equifax did not state who the " original source '' is, nor what information they provided them to validate that the debt belonged to me, as they know due to their recent breach of personal information, that anyone can steal someone's information. This is the only credit agency that has kept that non validity debt on my credit report, which does not belong to me. XXXX and XXXX had deleted this information from my report because of not being able to validate the debt belonging to, as it does not. CFPB has provided Equifax lenient, extended time ( over 30 days -about 60 days ) to try to prove the debt is mine and I believe that to be unafair to me, as the consumer. And to date, they have only stated that " the original source '' provided them information. The original source could be a collection agency which is not valid. I would like for the debt to be removed immediately. I am going to also report them to the BBB and write an official letter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation