Consumer complaint received 2019-12-25
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I notified the credit bureaus of a Wells Fargo credit card account showing a charged off balance of {$0.00} on my credit reports that was the result of fraud. The bureaus removed the account from my report shortly thereafter. Four months later, in XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notification that my 'dispute ' was complete, the account was 'validated ' by Wells Fargo , and it was once again reporting as a charge off on my report, however the balance now showed {$1100.00}, not the {$0.00} that had previously been reported. 

There is no way Wells Fargo could have correctly 'validated ' the false charges on this account because they are not mine. I filed an FTC affidavit indicating such as well as more recently a police report attesting to this information. I have complied with all requirements of the FCRA Section 605b regarding identity theft and fraud to have this account removed from my credit report and to provide any relevant information i have to law enforcement for use in investigating and prosecuting this crime. Any assertion by Wells Fargo regarding the validity of this debt is wholly inaccurate.

Wells Fargo 's reinsertion of this debt on my report as a result of 'resolving ' my dispute was also far outside the legally specified 30-day period provided for their response, given that the item was reinserted on my report more than 90 days after I notified the bureaus of the issue. Furthermore, it is unclear to me how the fraud investigation conducted by the bank somehow managed to not only determine I was somehow responsible for debts that I never authorized nor had knowledge of, but also that the {$0.00} balance reported previously was incorrect and should actually be {$1100.00}. The impact of this 'update ' on my ability to obtain credit has been devastating as a small business owner relying on small, personally guaranteed lines of credit to provide operating capital for my business while waiting for vendors to pay outstanding invoices.

The reappearance of the charge-off on my credit file would have created difficulties on its own, however by Wells Fargo reporting a balance that represents 150 % of the original {$750.00} credit line reported for the account, the impact to my score was magnified dramatically as I was not only showing a charge-off, but also significantly over the limit on the account. In the following months during their periodic reviews, some lenders closed my lines of credit as a result of the decrease in my score. Those that allowed my lines to remain open dramatically reduced my available credit and increased the rates they were charging. I was forced to turn down consulting contracts for two clients that I had been trying to land for months because I simply did not have the cash to cover upfront expenses while i waited for reimbursements.

Throughout this time, Wells Fargo has continued to incorrectly reaffirm this debt and refused to correct their mistake. I have no way to reach a fair resolution on this issue because, even if I caved in to this extortion attempt and pay the balance, they would continue to report the account as charged off, resulting in continued harm to my credit score and perpetuating my inability to obtain credit.

While I have followed the letter of the law to report this and get it corrected, Wells Fargo has shown a blatant disregard for the legal requirements surrounding their handling of this issue. They have conducted a flawed and faulty investigation of the matter, responded over 60 days late to a dispute that was required to have been resolved within a month, and exponentially magnified the harm caused to me by these errors by reinserting the {$0.00} charge-off into my report as having a balance of {$1100.00}, while at the same time leaving me no avenue to resolve the matter through further disputes or even by paying the unauthorized and invalid debt.

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