Consumer complaint received 2020-08-19
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: GA
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:
On XX/XX/2020 I contacted XXXX XXXX, XXXX in care of  XXXX XXXX XXXX at the address listed on my XXXX XXXX credit report ( Appendix A ). I received confirmation that my letter was received on XX/XX/2020 at XXXX ( Appendix B ). I wrote to them to validate the debt since XXXX XXXX had been emailing me to settle the debt with them ; they never mentioned XXXX XXXX XXXX in their correspondence, only XXXX   XXXX  and the original creditor ( Appendices C-J ). 

When I did not receive a response from XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX XXXX within 30 days of them receiving my letter, I contacted XXXX  on XX/XX/2020 explaining that I was not sure who payments should be made to ( Appendix K ). In the meantime, XXXX XXXX XXXX began reporting the account to Equifax in addition to XXXX. My letter to XXXX  was received around XX/XX/XXXX ( Appendix L ) and without responding to my request, XXXX  replied that the account was being reported accurately around XX/XX/XXXX. A few days after I mailed the letter to XXXX, I received a letter from XXXX XXXX XXXX concerning the same debt ( Appendix M ). I wrote to XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/2020 explaining to the them the steps that I had taken to find out who should actually be paid to resolve this debt ( Appendix N ). XXXX XXXX XXXX received my letter on XX/XX/2020 at XXXX ( Appendix O ). To date they have not responded to me. 

On XX/XX/2020, I made the decision to pay XXXX XXXX since they were the company listed on my credit report. I went to their website and was given the option to pay 80 % to settle the account ( see Appendix P ). On the XXXX website the payment showed as pending ( Appendix Q ). Note that to the right of the account information, they state that when a payment is made that resolves the account is processed, they will submit a request to the credit bureau to have the tradeline deleted from the credit report. The payment showed up on my bank account the very next day ( Appendix R ), yet the XXXX website showed that no payment was made or scheduled ( Appendix S ). I immediately called the office and spoke with XXXX who verified that they had the payment and stated that I should receive a letter within five days stating that the account was settled. On XX/XX/2020 I called XXXX again because I had not received the letter and the account was not showing as settled on their website. The individual that I spoke to this time told me that I should have received a receipt for the payment in five to seven business days and that I would receive the letter stating that the account was settled within 20 days. This person went on to say  that it would take about 30 days for the account to be removed from my credit report. I was also told that there was a delay in processing my account because they had put my account into a dispute status when they received my letter ( that they never responded to ). 

On XX/XX/2020, I received a credit alert advising me that the balance on the account had decreased with XXXX  and that I have a balance due of {$170.00}, the exact amount of the discount that they offered. There is nothing on the credit report indicating that the account has been settled or is being deleted. In fact, my credit score dropped 33 points and this account was the only change on the report. The payment has not been posted to Equifax at all.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation