Consumer complaint received 2024-03-11
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: EQUIFAX, INC. (CA)

I closed my account with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and had XXXX balance owed at closing, which I confirmed with an agent via their message center. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I was alerted XXXX placed a derogatory status ( " Charge Off '' + balance due ) on my closed account. I reached out immediately requesting information as to what caused this derogatory status. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX ( at XXXX ) responded " I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this has caused. I do see where we received your request to close this account back on XX/XX/XXXX. It appears that there was an oversight and the account was not fully closed at that time. I have reversed any fees that were charged and closed the account. '' The next day, she confirmed that " any derogatory marks or balances will be removed from your credit report. This can take 30 days to reflect but it will be removed! '' XX/XX/XXXX : The derogatory mark had not cleared from my credit report and was still negatively affecting my credit score. I requested that XXXX contact the credit reporting agencies immediately to remove it ( and explained I was trying to obtain a loan ). XXXX responded " XXXX XXXX XXXX reports this information to the credit agencies on the last working day of the month. Your specific information would have been reported on XX/XX/XXXX. Have a wonderful day! '' XX/XX/XXXX : I contacted Equifax about the matter ; they explained XXXX updated my account to " Paid Charge Off '' instead of removing the " Charge Off '' status, which was still a negative impact to my credit score. I relayed this information to XXXX on the same day via email. 
XX/XX/XXXX : After a phone call and another email on XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX, I filed another round of disputes with the credit agencies. I also created a complaint with the XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX replied to my complaint with the XXXX, " The member is correct. The Credit Union has taken the necessary action to correct this with the credit bureau. '' I waited until the beginning of XXXX to review my credit report, but nothing had changed, so I reopened my complaint with the XXXX  explaining that the " Charge Off '' status was still on my report. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX replied " All records have been updated and the file upload to Equifax, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX occurs on the XXXX day of the month. The updated information was submitted to the bureaus yesterday. I do not know when the newly submitted information becomes available via the credit report. '' About a week later I reached out again because, once again, nothing had changed. XXXX XXXX reply was " We have done everything as directed by XXXX XXXX to correct the reporting. The entire record was just deleted, so this should completely remove the record from XXXX XXXX. '' Since XXXX, I've opened XXXX disputes with both Equifax and XXXX, providing my email history and XXXX  complaint history which clearly reflects XXXXXXXX XXXX admittance of error, and explaining in detail the issue with them on the phone a handful of times. 
Even with this support, because of the information they have/had received from XXXX, they are not able to make any changes to this " Charge Off '' status.

They have instructed me to file a police report and contact a legal representative as XXXX is not reaching out to the credit bureaus directly to resolve this ( they're just submitting reports via their uploads, apparently ). 

It's wild to me that XXXX made this mistake, but it's too much for them to get on the phone with the credit bureaus to figure out what they need from XXXX to correct it- especially when I've made it clear how this is affecting my ability to apply for a loan. It speaks volumes to the ethics of the company. It's the only one I've ever worked with that demonstrates such a deficiency in integrity.