Consumer complaint received 2020-03-15
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: IA
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:
Please note references attachments, and evidence of support for each point are cited in letters and in { } Even though this is a very complex situation I will try to explain it in the best way that I can. Equifax has 3 public records and several accounts on my credit file that are displaying incorrect information. { a } Equifax claims that these records have been verified by their 3rd party vendor XXXX XXXX. { b } FCRA 611 ( 2 ) ( A ) ( B ) States Before the expiration of the 5-business-day period beginning on the date on which a consumer reporting agency receives notice of a dispute from any consumer in accordance with paragraph ( 1 ), the agency shall provide notification of the dispute to any person who provided any item of information in dispute, at the address and in the manner established with the person. The notice shall include all relevant information regarding the dispute that the agency has received from the consumer.

( B ) Provision of other information from consumer. The consumer reporting agency shall promptly provide to the person who provided the information in dispute all relevant information regarding the dispute that is received by the agency from the consumer after the period referred to in subparagraph ( A ) and before the end of the period referred to in paragraph ( 1 ) ( A ). Is XXXX XXXX the original furnisher of information? Was the court listed ever contacted? If so at what address? What was their response? 
A 3rd party can not legally verify information as they are not the original furnishers of information. In fact the article published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau XXXX XXXX and Processes in the US Credit System { c } ( XX/XX/XXXX ) state in section 7.4 states that XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) does not verify the content of the underlying public record as accurate or determine if an XXXX appropriately linked the record to a consumer. In the case of public records, the NCRAs retain responsibility for determining whether a public record should or should or not be attached to a consumers file. { d } However my dispute results state verified and even give a date. Verified by whom might I ask? information from 3rd parties is bound to possibly contain errors and incorrect information and could very easily end up reporting incorrectly when the original source is not being used for verification. As in this case each address for the 2 courthouses listed are inaccurate. I conducted a quick search on UScourts.gov to verify that the addresses they were using for the courthouses were actually the wrong ones. { d, e } I have initiated over 25 disputes to Equifax over the past 365 days. { f } My credit report is still not reporting with maximum accuracy. Equifax has known for quite some time that the public records contain incorrect information however they just keep updating it as verified and pushing the blame  on XXXX. I ordered a report from XXXX and the report they sent me varies greatly from the information that Equifax claims was verified to them by XXXX. I am unaware as to how Equifax is verifying these public records through XXXX  when my file there has been on a { g } security freeze since XX/XX/XXXX and I chose to { h } opt out and suppress my files on XX/XX/XXXX due to identity theft issues. How was Equifax able to even obtain this information from XXXX? XXXX XXXX does not verify information and and when contacted for information they respond in 3 ways 1 status changed 2 status unchanged 3 unable to verify but never do they verify  information. Equifax needs to provide to me the information and documents used to substantiate their records. So to break down each inaccuracy 1. Bankruptcy XXXX - case number is incorrect, liabilities, asset amount, and exempt amount are unlisted and represented by a dash ( - ) making the listing incomplete. Court name which defers on the mailed copy vs the electronic copy of Equifax file are both are incorrect or incomplete electronic report names court as ( XXXX XXXX  BK CT ) and mailed report names it as ( US Bankruptcy Court- XXXX  XXXX ) and neither mention the district of the court. XXXX XXXX has a different address on their records making it difficult to believe they verified the information as accurate. In fact the address they have listed is also incorrect and is a post office box. Courthouse address listed as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX on Equifax credit report is incorrect. XXXX XXXX states on their reports that the address is ( XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX ) which is also incorrect. The true and correct address is actually XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX. Equifax asserts they verified this information with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. The courts state it has never verified this to anyone including XXXX XXXX or Equifax. Equifax needs to provide proof of this claim and provide what information they received from XXXX XXXX as verification { d, i, j, } 2.  Bankruptcy XXXX case number is incorrect, liabilities, asset amount, and exempt amount are unlisted and represented by a dash ( - ) making the listing incomplete. Court name which defers on the mailed copy vs the electronic copy of Equifax file are both are incorrect or incomplete electronic report names court as ( XXXX XXXX BK CT ) and mailed report names it as ( US Bankruptcy Court- XXXXXXXX   XXXX ) and neither mention the district of the court. XXXX XXXX has a different address on their records making it difficult to believe they verified the information as accurate. In fact the address they have listed is also incorrect and is a post office box. Courthouse address listed as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX on Equifax credit report is incorrect. XXXX XXXX states on their reports that the address is ( XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX ) which is also incorrect. The true and correct address is actually XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IA XXXX. The courts state it has never verified this information to anyone including XXXX XXXX or Equifax. Equifax in their own words states they have never verified this even though its been disputed several times. Date verified says N/A. { a, d, i, j, k, } 3. Bankruptcy XXXX case number is incorrect, liabilities, asset amount, and exempt amount are unlisted and represented by a dash ( - ) making the listing incomplete. Court name is incorrect and defers from electronic report vs mailed report. ( US Bankruptcy Court- XXXX ) mailed copy ( XXXX XXXX BK CT-XXXX ) electronic copy. There is no Federal court that exists located in XXXX, XXXX . Courthouse address is incorrect and no bankruptcy court is located here ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ) and neither mention the district of the court. Phone number listed on Equifax records XXXX is incorrect. The number when called is actually disconnected. XXXX XXXX is listing the correct phone number and address of the court which is XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX So once again how was this verified to Equifax when their records clearly state something different. Equifax claims they verified this with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. The courts state they never verified this to anyone including XXXX XXXX or Equifax. Equifax needs to provide proof of this claim and provide what information they received from XXXX XXXX as verification. Also Equifax has stoped me from disputing this item any further by keeping it in a dispute status since at least XX/XX/XXXX. As of the date of this complaint it is still being listed as under investigation from previous dispute. { a, e, L, m, w } Since these public records have already been disputed and  still list inaccurate and incomplete data I am requesting they be removed from my credit file immediately pursuant to FCRA Section 611 ( 5 ) ( A ) ( i ) ( ii ) which states states If after a reinvestigation of any information disputed by a consumer, an item of information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or can not be verified the consumer reporting agency must Promptly delete that item of information from the file of the consumer, or modify that item of information to reflect the results of the reinvestigation ; and promptly notify the furnisher of that information that the information has been modified or deleted from the file of the consumer. 
Also note the original furnisher of information was never contacted for verification neither were they notified of any modifications. { n } Disputed Accounts Listed accounts have been previously disputed and still list inaccurate and/or incomplete data 1. XXXX  XXXX XXXX balance, actual payment amount, Date of Last payment, past due amount, scheduled payment amount, date of last activity, term duration, date closed, loan type, creditor classification, account type, credit limit, high credit, amount past due, months reviewed, activity designator, charge off amount and term frequency are all unlisted and instead represented by a dash ( - ) instead of a dollar amount or correct wording/terms making the listing incomplete and inaccurate.Account owner states individual not the actual owner of this account. Creditor address is incorrect. Equifax lists XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, TX XXXX XXXX address is XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, TX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX official website ). Letter from XXXX dated XXXX says they verified the correct information to Equifax and it is still reporting incorrectly. { o, o2, p, s } 2. Macys- balance, actual payment amount, Date of Last payment, past due amount, scheduled payment amount, date of last activity, term duration, date closed, loan type, creditor classification, account type, credit limit, high credit, amount past due, and charge off amount are all unlisted and instead represented by a dash ( - ) instead of a dollar amount or correct wording/terms making the listing incomplete. Months reviewed is inaccurate ( 46 ), date of first delinquency is inaccurate, creditor phone number is inaccurate ( routed to a chat line on XX/XX/XXXX ) { q, r, r2 } 3. XXXX XXXX XXXX creditor name inaccurate balance, actual payment amount, past due amount, scheduled payment amount, date of last activity, date of last payment, date closed, loan type, creditor classification, account type, credit limit, high credit, amount past due, activity designator, charge off amount, term duration, and term frequency are all unlisted and instead represented by a dash ( - ) instead of a dollar amount or correct wording/terms making the listing incomplete and inaccurate. Months reviewed is inaccurate ( 46 months ) which would mean the account began to be reviewed in XX/XX/XXXX. Date of XXXX delinquency XX/XX/XXXX is greater then date of major delinquency XX/XX/XXXX. No phone number is listed for creditor. { t, u, u2 } 4. XXXX XXXX balance, actual payment amount, past due amount, scheduled payment amount, date of last activity, date of last payment, date closed, loan type, creditor classification, account type, credit limit, high credit, amount past due, activity designator, charge off amount, term duration, and term frequency are all unlisted and instead represented by a dash ( - ) instead of a dollar amount or correct wording/terms making the listing incomplete and inaccurate. Months reviewed is inaccurate, Date of first and major delinquency is inaccurate. { v, v2 } Since these accounts have been previously disputed and still display inaccurate and or incomplete credit information I request they be removed in their entirety immediately from my credit file pursuant to FCRA Section 611 ( 5 ) ( A ) ( i ) ( ii ).

Negligent and willful noncompliance by a Credit Reporting Agency carries hefty fines and penalties. 

XXXX ( XXXX ) does not verify the content of the underlying public record as accurate or determine if an XXXX appropriately linked the record to a consumer. In the case of public records, the CRAs retain responsibility for determining whether a public record should or should or not be attached to a consumers file.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation