Consumer complaint received 2024-08-10
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: EQUIFAX, INC. (GA)

Notice to agent is notice to principal notice to principal is notice to agent You [ XXXX, XXXX, Equifax replied that the alleged transaction you furnished as late was { accurate/ verified } but my previous dispute did not ask you for accuracy or validation. 
On { XX/XX/XXXX } you { XXXX, XXXX, Equifax } reported an alleged transaction as Late.

15 U.S. Code 1666b - Timing of payments ( a ) Time to make payments A creditor may not treat a payment on a credit card account under an open end consumer credit plan as late for any purpose, unless the creditor has adopted reasonable procedures designed to ensure that each periodic statement including the information required by section 1637 ( b ) of this title is mailed or delivered to the consumer not later than 21 days before the payment due date. 
15 USC 1681e ( b ) ( b ) Accuracy of report Whenever a consumer reporting agency prepares a consumer report it shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates.

I requested the information that you must have or possess by law in order for you to report a payment as late.

This is being request pursuant rule 1002.

In other words, to properly report information as verified, the furnisher must have sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that the information was true, and in doing this the conditions required by 15 USC 1666b must be met.

You failed to provide the required requested information, you failed to proceed in accordance with the requires for a creditor to treat a payment as late and the evidence that must be sent to you to prove that this transaction was late. 
It has been over 30 days and you have not properly verify the information. 
Id. at XXXX ; see also XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX. XXXX ) ( defining verify as [ t ] o prove to be true ; to confirm or establish the truth or truthfulness of ; to authenticate ). 
15 U.S. Code 1681i - Procedure in case of disputed accuracy ( a ) Reinvestigations of disputed information ( 1 ) Reinvestigation required ( A ) In general Subject to subsection ( f ) and except as provided in subsection ( g ), if the completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in a consumers file at a consumer reporting agency is disputed by the consumer and the consumer notifies the agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller, of such dispute, the agency shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether the disputed information is inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the item from the file in accordance with paragraph ( 5 ), before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the agency receives the notice of the dispute from the consumer or reseller. 

Importantly, a furnishers inability to conclusively determine that the disputed information is inaccurate does not mean that the furnisher is permitted to report back to the consumer reporting agency that its investigation verified the accuracy of that information. Instead, if the evidence available to the furnisher is insufficient to establish the truth or falsity of the disputed information, then, under the statutory framework, the furnisher must report that its investigation concluded that the disputed information can not be verified. 
XXXX, XXXX XXXX at XXXX. So, for example, if a furnisher is unable to verify that a consumer missed a payment, then it may be appropriate for the furnisher to delete any mentions of the missed payment while continuing to report other information about the account. 
I am requesting pursuant 15 USC 1681i ( 6 ) Notice of results of reinvestigation ( B ) Contents ( iii ) a notice that, if requested by the consumer, a description of the procedure used to determine the accuracy and completeness of the information shall be provided to the consumer by the agency, including the business name and address of any furnisher of information contacted in connection with such information and the telephone number of such furnisher.

when disputed information can not be verified is to delete that information. In particular, Section 1681i outlines consumer reporting agencies responsibilities in responding to consumers disputes and, like Section 1681s-2 ( b ), provides that when a disputed item of the information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or can not be verified, the consumer reporting agency must delete or modify it as appropriate, based on the results of the reinvestigation. 15 U.S.C. 1681i ( a ) ( 5 ) ( A ). Section 1681i goes on to provide that, [ f ] ollowing any deletion of information which is found to be inaccurate or whose accuracy can no longer be verified, the consumer reporting agency must in some circumstances notify certain people who previously received a report with the now-deleted information. That provision thus contemplates that when information can no longer be verified, the proper response is to delet [ e ] it. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  Delete the information you are Reporting as Late from account : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Without Recourse UCC 1-308