Consumer complaint received 2020-09-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NV
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: Investigation took more than 30 days

Complaint:
A consumer reporting agency has an obligation, pursuant to section 611 ( a ) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( " FCRA '' ), 15 U.S.C. 1681i ( a ) ( XXXX ), to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation of information on a consumer 's credit report alleged by the consumer to be inaccurate. Equifax Information Services ( Equifax ) is in continual breach of its obligations and refuses to remove obsolete and/or inaccurate information on Mr. XXXXXXXX credit report in violation of the FCRA. Equifax is on notice that its respective CRA is either willfully and/or negligently violating the obsolescence provision of the FCRA pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1681c ( a ) by reporting information regarding Mr. XXXX student loans which should have been removed as obsolete at least three years ago. 

Consequently, Mr. XXXX submitted a letter of dispute to all three credit reporting agencies : XXXX, XXXX, and Equifax. Significantly, only Equifax Corporation is refusing to honor its obligations under the law and pursuant to the FCRA. This letter was sent to Equifax via certified mail on XX/XX/XXXX tracking number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. A copy of the return receipt is attached hereto. XXXX  and XXXX  have removed the obsolete accounts from Mr. XXXX credit report. A copy of the letter submitted is attached to this complaint. Notably, this dispute is significantly over the 30 day proscription. 

Equifax responded without honoring its obligations pursuant to the FCRA and 1681i ( a ) and sent a boilerplate letter on XX/XX/XXXX claiming that Mr. XXXX credit file could not be located. Mr. XXXX promptly responded to Equifax on XX/XX/XXXX, in good faith, and submitted the requested identification by Equifax, this is despite the fact that all of the required documentation was submitted to Equifax via the XX/XX/XXXX letter. Again, this second letter was sent via certified mail, tracking number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and was received by Equifax on XX/XX/XXXX. A copy of the return receipt is attached hereto. 

Equifax has seemingly removed some of the obsolete loan information but not all of it. A copy of the remaining obsolete inaccurate accounts is submitted attached hereto for your perusal. As a threshold matter, a complaint was filed with the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau ( CFPB ) to which Equifax notably gave no meaningful reply ; but Equifax did delete some of the inaccurate information, but significantly not all of the information has been removed and no explanation has been proffered by Equifax whatsoever. Therefore, this is NOT a duplicate complaint, because the information has been updated since the last CFPB complaint was submitted. Most notably, as it pertains to whether this complaint is a duplicate is the fact that Equifax has removed the dispute status from the obsolete accounts which is disconcerting and Equifax has not lived up to its obligation under the FCRA and other consumer law statutes and regulations. 

The FCRA was enacted in order to ensure that " consumer reporting agencies adopt reasonable procedures for meeting the needs of commerce for consumer credit, personnel, insurance, and other information in a manner which is fair and equitable to the consumer, with regard to the confidentiality, accuracy, relevancy, and proper utilization of such information. '' The FCRA was prompted by " congressional concern over abuses in the credit reporting industry. '' In the FCRA, Congress has recognized the crucial role that consumer reporting agencies play in collecting and transmitting consumer credit information, and the detrimental effects inaccurate information can visit upon both the individual consumer and the nation 's economy as a whole. See, Philbin v. Trans Union Corp., 101 F.3d 957, 962 ( 3d Cir. 1996 ) ( quoting 15 U.S.C. 1681 ( b ) and Guimond v. Trans Union Credit Information Co., 45 F.3d 1329, 1333 ( 9th Cir. 1995 ) ) ( citations omitted ).

Title 15 U.S.C. 1681i ( a ) provides in relevant part : If the completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in [ her ] file is disputed by a consumer, and such dispute is directly conveyed to the consumer reporting agency by the consumer, the consumer reporting agency shall within a reasonable period of time reinvestigate and record the current status of that information unless it has reasonable grounds to believe that the dispute by the consumer is frivolous or irrelevant. If after such reinvestigation such information is found to be inaccurate or can no longer be verified, the consumer reporting agency shall promptly delete such information. 

Sections 1681n and 1681o of Title 15 respectively provide private rights of action for willful and negligent noncompliance with any duty imposed by the FCRA and allow recovery for actual damages and attorneys ' fees and costs, as well as punitive damages in the case of willful noncompliance. '' Philbin, 101 F.3d at 962. 
No valid explanation can be proffered as to why all of the loan accounts have not been removed, because these accounts are being reported on MrXXXX XXXX credit file are in clear violation of the FCRA. Equifax has failed to investigate the obsolete accounts in question and has not promptly deleted this information as is mandated by law. 

Mr. XXXX is requesting that the CFPB take enforcement action against Equifax or at least make an independent determination to facilitate a lawsuit against Equifax by Mr. XXXX, which will be filed shortly. The CFPB specifically supervises financial companies to ensure compliance with federal consumer financial laws. This supervision is clearly needed in the instant matter because Equifax is essentially thumbing its nose at Mr. XXXX letters, not conducting an investigation as required under the law, and simply proffering boiler plate nonsensical responses to letters received and the prior CFPB complaint. 

Mr. XXXX is suffering significant financial harm by being denied consumer credit which includes but is not limited to a SBA Loan for his law firm. Please use your enforcement authority to assist in this matter against Equifax who is behaving in palpable bad faith. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX, Esq.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation