Consumer complaint received 2016-01-16
Product: Credit reporting — 
Issue: Incorrect information on credit report — Account status
Company: EQUIFAX, INC. (CA)

I wrote this letter to my new Mortgage Holder ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). It explains everything .... 
I purchased the home at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX through XXXX XXXX XX/XX/2003. I have never been late on a payment or had any issues in the, almost, 13 years since. Since the inception of the loan I have had the mortgage taken directly out of my checking account. I 'm sure you can verify that this is the case. 
XX/XX/XXXX, after a 3 month interview process, I was offered a job in XXXX XXXX. I started with my new company on XX/XX/XXXX. From the day I accepted the offer my life has been upside down. I have a stay-at-home wife, a XXXX year old and a XXXX year old. I had one month to find a place to rent in XXXX XXXX, tie up loose ends with my employer, figure out health care ( a must with XXXX little ones ), find a new pre-school etc. Since we did n't have any time to look for a new home we are renting a small condo in a rough part of the city. My wife agreed to the area because it was " temporary ''. We were to move here for a couple of months while we found a new house. We are now past the holidays and are starting to look for a new home. With everything going on I did n't notice that the mortgage had n't been deducted from my checking account. I have n't given this a thought in the last 13 years! I thought that an automatic deduction was the safest way of paying the mortgage. Whatever letters your company sent to my attention were mailed to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX address, but this house is used as a rental. I do n't receive mail at that address. The renter must have thrown them away. 
On Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX I received a call from someone in your organization. This was the first inkling that something was wrong. Your employee, XXXX, had called me in the middle of a meeting. I had to tell her that I would call her back. I have to commend her on finding me, apparently I had n't updated my account since I purchased the home. She called my parent 's phone number, as it was originally on the account, and my mother gave her my new number. I really hate to think what could have happened if she was n't that thorough. You have a great employee! 
That night I looked my checking account and realized that the mortgage had n't been taken out since XX/XX/XXXX. As you can imagine, I was upset. Anything negative on my credit can potentially ruin my chances to get a new home loan. I called XXXX back the next day ( Thursday XX/XX/XXXX ) and gave her my checking account information to pay off all of the unpaid balance. Of course, I had all of the money ... it had just been sitting in my account. On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I called back to follow up on the payment because I did n't see that it had been taken out of my checking account. It was at this point that I realized how this could truly harm my family and me. You informed me that your organization had reported a 90 day late and 60 day late to the credit bureaus. I will not be able to get a loan with this on my record. This would effectively take me out of the market for a new mortgage for years to come. I know that I should look at my account carefully and I usually do. The last couple of months have been crazy for my family and me and it just did n't dawn on me that this would ever happen. It was a total surprise that I rectified as soon as I could. I set up the automatic deduction from my checking account tonight and this time I will be checking to make sure it does happen.