Consumer complaint received 2021-02-18
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: OH
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Received unsolicited financial product or insurance offers after opting out

Complaint:
On XXXX, I was reviewing my credit report on Equifax and during the process, received a notation that based on my information, I could save money on my car loan. So, I agreed, and had to complete this box that wanted to know my interest rate, balance of months of payments, balance on my loan, and the type of car I had. I figured that since I was going through Equifax, they would have the majority of that information already and would need to have some additional, so, OK. What was NOT disclosed was that they take your information, ship it over to XXXX XXXX who then bombards you with phone calls and emails from lenders! Just before that happened, Equifax took the auto information and within in minutes, I was told that I was approved and given about 6 or 7 payment terms to choose from. Then, the phone started ringing along with the emails! So, as I was looking through the payment options, from their " RATE GENIUS '' pop up with the quotes, I decided to XXXX who this was and saw that they are nothing but some outside broker/vendor who shops you out to various lenders. I also saw that these 'lenders '' charge a MEMBERSHIP FEE (? ) inorder to get a loan, and each one is different. NONE OF THIS IS DISCLOSED ON THE EQUIFAX SITE ... PLUS, THEY DING YOUR CREDIT WHICH AFFECTS YOUR FICO SCORES TO LOOK INTO GETTING A BETTER CAR LOAN RATE! A girl called ( XXXX ) who said that she represents XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX and that she shops out the information to lenders, and then, each one has their own fee. She had nothing to say when I stated that was not disclosed and that this is technically HARMING THE CUSTOMER by " BATING '' someone to inquire and then having points removed from credit scores PLUS, having to pay a fee to get the loan to boot! I would venture a guess that a lot of people did not catch on to that until it was too late! NOTHING WAS DISCLOSED on this Equifax website about this! After that, some guy called from " XXXX XXXX '' ( XXXX ) and when I questioned him, " his company 's fee '' was {$390.00} to get a loan! I told him that was ridiculous and to remove my information immediately! He hung up, and that was it! 
XXXX XXXX is nothing but a massive marketing mule organization and now that they are locked in with our credit bureaus, they are given MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PERSONAL DATA as a result, PLUS, ACCESS TO PERSONAL CREDIT REPORTS as a result of their partnership with EQUIFAX! They probably then harvest that data and resell it continuously as well as farm it out to lenders! They SHOULD NOT have access to all of that! Meanwhile, Equifax is also a co-conspirator to this and with all of the bad publicity that they have already based on their history, I would think that they would want to steer clear of things like this ; but apparently not! They are definitely ignoring privacy rules, as well as HARMING people with these unscrupulous dealings with lender " membership/application fees, '' the loss of points on credit scores, and then the consumer having to deal with the harassment from salespeople calling/emailing to set up a loan. The points lost need to be reinstated and this business needs to stop, immediately!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation