Consumer complaint received 2020-01-10
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: FL
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:
I was a holder of 2 XXXX XXXX Credit Cards. One was a XXXX XXXX Credit Card that I had for 23 years, the second a XXXX Card. Last XX/XX/XXXX my sister was involved in a very severed car accident and nearly died. At the time I spent several weeks at the hospital attending to her. When I realized that on the XXXX XXXX XXXX account which the terms are pay the full balance at the due date, I missed my XXXX payment with XXXX XXXX and was getting close to the 30 day past due mark, which would affect my credit report. I called the customer service line and I explained the situation that I was involved in, asking for either and extension or a payment plan, as long as I did not have to worry about my credit reporting getting affected, otherwise I could borrow the money from a family member and take care of it. The customer service rep from XXXX XXXX assured me that my credit report would not get affected and in fact I could schedule payments but to try to pay it as quickly as possible. At the time of the call near the end of XXXX XXXX, my balance was nearly {$4500.00}, I advised to him that I could pay {$1000.00} and break the difference in 2 more payment for the next 60 days, with the undersanding that my credit report would not be affected. He insisted that as a good faith I should make a payment for {$1500.00} and make the second payment a small one of {$500.00} to be in the safe side. and the rest could happen after. I agreed on his proposal and went ahead on scheduling 2 payments over the phone for {$1500.00} around XX/XX/XXXX and {$500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. the difference would be paid in XX/XX/XXXX. Which I did on XX/XX/XXXX were I paid {$2600.00}. A month later I get notified by a credit report alert that not only XXXX XXXX hit my account with a 30 day late payment they also hit it with a 60 day late payment causing my credit score to crash. I called at least 5 times during the month of XXXX, spent several hours, escalated the issue to have those late payments removed from my credit report and was assured in each call that they would look for the recordings and get back to me after an investigation but never did. Time after time, the next call was to report that no one from XXXX XXXX got back to me with the findings of their investigations, and the next call became a new investigation wihtout a resolution. After a year has passed I have called again and their answer was the probably I spoke to customer service representatives located out of the US, and probably they dont understand our laws and that nothing cant be done to over turn the reporting they provided to the credit bureaus. At this time I am reaching out to you to help me try to rectify this injustice about how XXXX XXXX conducts business and how they mislead their customers into believing that everything will be fine as long as we work together. I need those 2 marks remove from my credit report as it is affecting my chances to secure financing for my first home. Please advise as what do I need to do. Thank you

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation