Consumer complaint received 2018-10-01
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: IL
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 opened the account in XX/XX/XXXX and signed up for auto-payments. They indicated that it would take 30 to 60 days for the auto payments to commence. There was no payment due in XX/XX/XXXX. I made a payment online in XX/XX/XXXX. The XX/XX/XXXX bill indicated I was now signed up for auto payments and that a payment would be taken from my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. When I received my statement it indicated that the auto-payment had indeed been made on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called me to inform me that the payment had not been made as previously told. I was astonished as I knew there was ample money in the account to make several payments. The customer agent looked into my account and found there was a transposition in the account number for the checking account from which the payment was to be made. To ensure they had the correct number the agent made the XXXX payment while I was on the phone, and it went through. When I received my next statement I found that they had not only charged me {$25.00} for a returned check, but they also reported to the credit reporting agencies the payment was made 30 to 59 days late. The payment was due on XX/XX/XXXX, by the time they noticed that they had messed up the account number, contacted me, and obtained a payment was only 6 days. I do not know what party was responsible for the transposition, but I know they had 2 months to verify the account numbers. And they also could have called me when the payment did not go through, rather than waiting an additional week. 
The following month no payment was made from my account so I called them and they informed me that auto payment had been cancelled, without any notification. I told them that I wanted it to continue for which they apologized and re-instated the auto-payments and made a payment again while I was on the phone. XXXX then subsequent to my phone call, mailed me letters saying that my auto-payments had been cancelled, then another stated they had been reinstated. Both on the same date. No late payment fee or late payment report was made for this payment, even though I believe it was past due. They just took responsibility for the error, as they should have done the first time. 
I made complaints on two separate occasions to XXXX regarding this matter. I received XXXX unsigned form letters in response, all identical, indicating they they were correct to report the payment late. I do not believe this to be the case. It was XXXX 's fault that payments were made late on both occasions. I made honest efforts to make the payments and even had to follow up on them. I had the money in my account for payments to be made. This was a simple mistake, likley on their behalf, and should have no bearing on my credit score. 
The bill XXXX-XXXX attached to this report show that the payment had been made. The XXXX XXXX bill shows the payment unmade, the remade, as well as the {$25.00} returned check fee.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief