Consumer complaint received 2018-09-27
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: CO
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:
The same exact issue that I submitted a formal complaint about in XXXX has occurred again. XXXX XXXX  refuses to apply the payments on this account appropriately and therefore they end up reporting late payments that are not late. Right now XX/XX/2018 is showing a 30 day late, yet there are 2 payments posted. This account has been paid as agreed for the past 6 years. 

The online payment system doesn't delineate where these payments are going ( principal, interest, pre-payment for the next month, etc ). The 3 options for payment include a past payment amount, the full balance, or the current amount. However, none of these options outline what that means. The past payment amount, is that for past amount due or just the payment you made last time? Is the full balance up to date for that days interest or from the prior statement balance? These are questions I tried to get answers to the last time this happened and they refused to give me that information nor tell me where I could find that information. For example a typical monthly payment is {$300.00}, yet there is an option to pay around {$1000.00} and one could assume this could be applied as 3 months worth of payments or it could be applied as one month of payments and the rest toward principal. The problem is that the system doesn't tell you what it's doing with any money above and beyond the current bill. XXXX XXXX  admitted that they just applied it to principal rather than clarifying where we would like the money to go, this was part of the last dispute, and they have yet to correct the issue. And here we go again, they're doing the same thing. 

From the last dispute, when they admitted they were applying payments however they saw fit, I requested a paper bill to be able to determine what the current payment amounts were and where any additional monies may be going and the paper bill they sent ( after MONTHS of requesting, it took about 6 months to get them to send a paper bill ) is even more worthless than the online statements. It merely states the dollar amount and the total balance of the loan. Again ZERO details, no way to decipher what they're doing with my payments, no calculations of interest or anything. It's a worthless statement. 

Unsurprisingly, XXXX  has managed to mess up the payments again. Not only have they not accounted for an entire month of payment and reported a 30 day late, they have now taken 2 payments in addition ( one for {$700.00}, another for over {$1000.00} ) which were not authorized. The {$700.00} payment was not made by anyone in my household, not authorized. But they took that {$700.00} and their system showed that we still somehow owed over {$1000.00}, which I paid assuming I'd correct their errors after the fact. Now XXXX XXXX is saying that the system was showing the {$1000.00} due because it hadn't applied the {$700.00} payment yet and therefore BOTH payments subsequently went through. The best part is that after going over this with them, sending screen shots of their ridiculous banking system and the fact that because of their convoluted system it has now drafted {$1700.00} for a monthly payment that is usually {$300.00} they STILL continue to claim their system is just fine and they've committed no errors?!? What planet are we on?! 

This joke of a company has now tanked my credit score over 100 points by their errors here and they are essentially telling me to go pound sand and won't correct anything. They won't even refund the payment of {$700.00} that was taken without ANY authorization?! 

Also this interaction and communication was with one of the executive members of the bank, not just a branch worker! XXXX in the executive department denies any responsibility for this and refuses to do a single thing to make the situation right. As a business owner myself I have dealt with dozens of banks and this is honestly the worst bank I have ever dealt with. I will be moving this account as soon as possible and will NEVER deal with XXXX XXXX again. 

I have attempted to dispute this with Experian and Experian will not let me dispute the item again?! They consider it an extension of the original issue. Experian is just as guilty of reporting fraudulent information on my credit report but each entity wants to point the finger at the other. XXXX XXXX says they can't fix the credit report because that's a violation of fair reporting, even though it is THEIR ERROR. And Experian says they can't open another dispute. So what is a consumer supposed to do here? When are these companies going to be held responsible for this, their errors are affecting a home purchase for my family. This is absolutely unacceptable.

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 explanation