Consumer complaint received 2017-05-06
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: CA
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:
Simply put, the credit reporting company, Experian, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into my dispute with a data furnisher, who is illegally ( I believe  )  reporting a debt that should be reported as a balance of  XXXX . Experian instead has made my situation worse by allowing the data furnisher to falsely claim that I was a victim of identity theft ( which I never claimed ), and has put a fraud alert on my credit report. That is all Experian has done, and has since sent me a report stating that their investigation is complete, without explanation of what was investigated or even a summary of their findings. They just send a credit report that just shows that the creditor is increasing the balance owed each month, even though the creditor is claiming the debt is charged off.     To provide a background into my situation, the creditor is  XXXX   XXXX  Mortgage  XXXX  a separate complaint was submitted to this creditor ) who was servicing my purchase second mortgage on a property located in  XXXX , California. I had to walk away from this property back in  XXXX  since I had changed my employment to  XXXX   XXXX , California. Neither the primary mortgage nor   XXXX   XXXX     Mortgage offered assistance for a short-sale or deed-in-lieu, and I was told I did not qualify for HARP or HAMP since I no longer lived in the property. I could not afford to pay for the mortgages and rent in  XXXX   XXXX  at the same time. The primary mortgage holder ultimately foreclosed, and I was not aware that  XXXX   XXXX  was sending in a negative report to all  XXXX  credit agencies on a monthly basis stating that I still owed the balance of {$41000.00}, even though   XXXX   is a non-recourse state, and since the foreclosure was non-judicial, the second purchase mortgage should have been discharged. I discovered this when I applied for a FHA mortgage this  XXXX   XXXX . I disputed this with Experian in writing on  XXXX   XXXX , with proof that this second mortgage is a purchase mortgage with legal justification of why this debt amount should be  XXXX  here in  XXXX , but all Experian has done was to place a fraud alert on my credit report, which I never claimed. I have also sent Experian a letter, certified mail, requesting that they remove the fraud alert, which they have failed to do so. Experian is in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to do a reasonable investigation and by placing a fraud alert without proof that any fraud was occurring. It should be clear to Experian that   XXXX   XXXX   is providing false information for the purpose of extortion, considering that after my application for a FHA loan,   XXXX   XXXX     has since increased the balance owed amount to {$55000.00} for a debt   XXXX   XXXX   already charged off, and continues to increase the balance month over month.

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