Consumer complaint received 2024-07-09
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Problem with personal statement of dispute
Company: EQUIFAX, INC. (CA)

On XX/XX/2024 I received credit reporting information from my home mortgage loan XXXX indicating that I had a serious delinquency with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), who I used to have a XXXX  account with in the past. I did not know about this delinquency because XXXX claims that I was sent numerous EMAILS indicating that there was a charge generated via linked XXXX since my XXXX XXXX  account was still linked with their service despite my closure of the XXXX account in the past ( exact date unknown, but I have not banked with XXXX  for over XXXX years now due to moving away from the service location of XXXX XXXX, XXXX to XXXX, XXXX ). I never received these emails and have shown XXXX support searches within my XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX folders that these notifications were never received in the email address they indicated. I received no mail or phone calls regarding this delinquency as well, so naturally I thought everything was in order until generating this credit report through my loan XXXX. 

I went to a XXXX branch on XX/XX/2024 to pay off the delinquency and then to ensure that the XXXX account was cancelled, which it wasn't for whatever reason -- XXXX couldn't give me a reason why the XXXX account wasn't cancelled despite me calling their support line in the past when it was no longer in use. The representative was ultimately able to perform these actions but they could not answer why I never received further communications regarding the delinquency and that a credit score-impacting write off would be put into place if I didn't pay off the amount ( {$190.00} ). 

I proceeded to contact XXXX support via phone on XX/XX/2024 and got in touch with a representative who told me the exact cause of this delinquency ( the charge via XXXX and subsequent attempts to bill me with no response from my end ). They said that they could not do anything to remove this write off from my credit reporting record as it was already reported from their financial institution and that no changes could be made. 

I'd like to contest these claims as I feel that as a consumer who never carried a delinquency with any financial institution, that there should be some kind of further review as this relatively low amount of {$190.00} -- which I've paid off in full as soon as I learned about it -- is now potentially changing the premiums I have to pay for mortgage loan insurance when planning to buy my first home. My mortgage loan officer is adamant that there should be a way to contest this write off with XXXX, but they're not offering me any way to escalate this matter as they feel it's a resolved issue now that I paid off the delinquency. 

The credit-score impact is what I'm concerned about as it results in a nearly XXXX point credit score difference across Equifax, XXXX, and XXXX ( from high XXXX XXXX to low XXXX ) that would drastically impact the monthly premiums I'd be responsible for with loan insurance. This credit score impact is also reflecting with other mortgage loan officers ( such as with home builders like XXXX who have in-house financing options ) and prevents me outright from buying homes that I thought were within my budget.