Consumer complaint received 2021-05-06
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem — Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (NY)

My Chase credit card account will not offer me a Covid-19-related accommodation pursuant to the Cares Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( F ), which amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act XXXX FCRA XXXX. 

At the beginning, I must acknowledge that my account was paid 30 days late in XX/XX/XXXX, ( and is being reported as such to the credit reporting agencies ( CRAs ) ). 

However, the lateness is related to a XXXX hardship I endured around that time when a couple of months earlier my mother-in-law ( XXXX y.o., XXXX patient, residing in XXXX, NY XXXX fell and XXXX XXXX XXXX while in New Jersey. She went into hospital there for double XXXX XXXX XXXX and contracted XXXX. She was gravely XXXX  for two months. 

Thankfully, she survived the ordeal although she will never be the same, having continuing difficulty breathing. 

During this time of anguish and uncertainty I completely lost track of my mail, including the Chase Freedom account statements. After my mother in law emerged from the hospital I was free to give attention to my growing stack of mail. This is when I first recalled that the payment was overdue, and on XX/XX/XXXX, at my earliest opportunity, I posted a payment for the full remaining balance on the account. ( Incidentally, the account had never been late before, and has remained current ever since. ) Now, being an informed person who sees Chase 's advertisements on its website and across social and traditional media expressing its concern for its customers, its offers of Covid-related relief, and its commitment to help customers of XXXX ( like me ) to achieve equity in light of the XXXX nationwide XXXX awakening following the XXXX XXXX XXXX, I sought from Chase an accommodation pursuant to the Cares Act. 

I was shocked when my first phone call to customer service was met with a failure to even attempt to understand what I was asking for. Perhaps my request was too nuanced. Perhaps it required more consideration than a telephone customer service representative was authorized to provide. 

So on XX/XX/XXXX I tried again, and was rebuffed again. But this time, upon my request I was politely connected to an escalations specialist, a courteous and knowledgeable representative who I could tell was trying hard to understand my request, but it was clear that he was constrained in his authority to help. 

I urged the escalations specialist to consider that my request falls into line with not only Chase 's accommodation policy for payment deferral, but with Chase 's FCRA obligations, the Cares Act, and CFPB guidance for creditors to work constructively with consumers in these trying times. 

It was to no avail. The escalations specialist politely informed me that Chase 's policy would not allow the accommodation I requested, and there was no one else at Chase I could speak with or go to about it. I hit a dead end. This CFPB complaint is what follows. 

Before I detail the requested accommodation and how it complies with all of Chase 's policy, the FCRA, the Cares Act, and CFPB guidance, I wish to explain the urgent reason why I need an accommodation. 

I have been on a waiting list for XXXX subsidized housing in New York XXXX for the last 13 years. I am a woman of XXXX, of low income, of advancing age, and I have my own health concerns. Qualifying for subsidized housing in which I can pass my remaining years in relative peace has been my goal for decades. After 13 long years my application number was finally called last year. However, the housing company requires a minimum credit score of 700, and this one late payment dropped my score below the minimum threshold. I am devastated. The housing company has graciously volunteered to hold my application in abeyance while I try to bring my score back up. 
But they can only help me for so long before my housing application goes to the back of the line, which, with another wait of a dozen or so years, means I will never again have the chance to qualify. 

Now that I have given you the background of my case and why it is so important to me, what follows is an explanation of the accommodation I seek. 

I grant that as a furnisher of consumer credit information to the CRAs Chase is obligated to comply with the requirements of the FCRA, and its rules and regulations at 12 CFR Part 1022. 

The escalations specialist courteously, yet erroneously persisted under the false premise that Chase 's credit reporting to the CRAs could not be changed. What he failed to consider is that the FCRA was amended by the Cares Act precisely to allow Chase to change its credit reporting pursuant to an accommodation. 

Specifically, Cares Act 15 USC 1681s-2 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( F ) amends the FCRA to allow Chase to make changes to its credit reporting if certain conditions are met. 

An " accommodation '' thereunder includes includes " an agreement to defer 1 or more payments, make a partial payment, forbear any delinquent amounts, modify a loan or contract, or any other assistance or relief granted to a consumer who is affected by the coronavirus disease XXXX  ( COVID19 ) pandemic during the covered period. '' Moreover, if the furnisher makes an accommodation for an account that was already delinquent ( which I acknowledge my account was XXXX, " and the consumer makes the payments ... pursuant to the accommodation ... XXXX which ] brings the credit obligation or account current during [ the accommodation period XXXX the furnisher shall ... report the credit obligation or account as current. '' My request falls squarely within Chase 's policy of payment deferral accommodations. 
Were Chase to grant the retroactive payment deferral, then the payment I made which brought the account current on XX/XX/XXXX would be deemed to have occurred within the accommodation period, and Chase would then be FRCA compliant in reporting the account as current. 

In further support, the definition of " accuracy '' in FCRA reporting does not prohibit Chase from changing its credit reporting as customer circumstances change. Quite the opposite. 

Pursuant to 12 CFR 1022.41 ( a ), " accuracy '' is flexibly defined to accommodate both the terms of the credit relationship XXXX as they would be amended by the requested accommodation ), and the consumer 's performance or other conduct, XXXX as would be reflected in my having brought the account current during the accommodation period ). 

In other words, by granting a Cares Act retroactive payment deferral ( such that my XX/XX/XXXX payment of the full balance would fall within the accommodation period ), not only would my credit score and hopes of housing greatly increase, but Chase would be free to report the account as current in full compliance with the FCRA, and in furtherance of CFPB guidance to work constructively with consumers in this pandemic era. 

The escalations specialist further insisted politely that I did not request a payment deferral in advance. But I must remark that the very nature of a pandemic is one where uncertain and unpredictable events are the norm. I did not expect Covid-19 to befall my family. I could not have prepared for that by anticipating I would need payment deferral. To have expected that from me is absurd and the equivalent to requiring that everyone, everywhere should have requested payment deferrals for all their creditors as soon as the national emergency was declared because of the mere possibility that an account could be paid late. 

Nowhere in the Cares Act are creditors limited in the type of accommodation that can be offered. Rather, 15 USC 1681s-2 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( F ) ( i ) ( I ) expressly allows for " any other assistance or relief '' to be offered. Chase 's adherence to a payment-deferral accommodation policy that does not take into account situations such as mine is unduly strict, arbitrary, without support in the expressed provisions of the Cares Act, and is counter to the CFPB guidance for creditors to work constructively with consumers in these trying times. 

To not grant me the requested accommodation results in a perverse result that surely is not in the spirit of the Cares Act or CFPB guidance. Namely, I am in a worse position for having been a good customer and paying off my balance in full immediately upon discovering a lateness during a global pandemic, than if I had somehow had the foresight to anticipate a late payment, request a deferral, and hold my payments back from my creditor. I am being denied relief for doing the right and honorable thing as soon as I discovered my mistake. 

As it stands, Chase got the benefit of receiving payment of the balance in full without having to accommodate me for a lateness caused by an unanticipated Covid-related emergency, all against the text and spirit of the Cares Act, CFPB guidance, and its own ubiquitous public professions of helping its customers. 

I am forced to conclude that Chase does not really want to help. Surely this mega-bank could tailor a solution to my needs. But it's public message is apparently just words. 

I am terribly disappointed, and frankly embarrassed to have to prostrate myself to a mega-corporation with no shame taking staggering amounts of public bailout funds while real people like me suffer for lack of a few more points on a credit score because of an honest mistake during a pandemic, and which was corrected as soon as I had the chance.