Consumer complaint received 2021-02-06
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: ME
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:
My husband and I have an auto loan through XXXX XXXX XXXX for our XXXX XXXX XXXX. We took this auto loan out in XXXX of XXXX and ALWAYS made timely payments without fail, with payments being automatically deducted from our bank account on a bi-weekly basis. In early XXXX of XXXX, my husband and I were both furloughed from our jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we were unable to make our payments through NO fault of our own. I immediately contacted XXXX XXXX and explained the situation and they said that we should put our payments on pause until we were able to return to our jobs. The very first concern that I brought up was about our credit reporting. My husband and I have worked EXTREMELY, EXTERMELY hard over the last two years to bring our credit scores up to where they need to be to build our dream home. I was assured by XXXX XXXX that this would NOT harm our credit scores because it would be reported that we were affected by a natural disaster/pandemic and that all credit reporting for any payments that we would miss as a result of this pandemic would be FROZEN so as to NOT harm all of the hard work we have put into improving our scores. Long story short, we put our payments on pause for a few months until we finally went back to work. We have been making on-time payments ever since then, with even a little bit extra added on top of our normal payment amount. Fast forward to this morning, XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I both received email alerts from Experian stating that our XXXX scores had decreased and a new late payment had been reported. Having no idea what this could possibly from as we pay ALL of our bills on time and being extremely distraught by this alert, we logged into our credit bureaus and immediately saw that XXXX XXXX had reported us as 180 days late. This is NOT, I repeat NOT accurate. Our credit reporting was to be FROZEN for those missed payments last year because of the pandemic and we have made EVERY SINGLE PAYMENT IN A TIMELY MANNER WITHOUT FAIL SINCE THEM. Now, our credit scores have dropped nearly 20 points as a result of this, RIGHT when we were about to obtain a mortgage for our new home, effectively HALTING our home purchase plans, all because of these fraudulent predators at XXXX XXXX. My husband and I have been EXTREMELY diligent about our payments and ensuring that our good credit remains intact, and now these people have illegally gone back on their word, after making as feel as though we could actually trust them to help us during this pandemic, which had a huge impact on our lives last year. They have DESTROYED our good credit. NO LATE PAYMENTS SHOULD HAVE EVER BEEN REPORTED to our credit bureaus. We will also be consulting our attorney about this. What these people have done is ILLEGAL and DISHONEST and we need our 3 credit reports corrected IMMEDIATELY.

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