Consumer complaint received 2025-03-05 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Investigation took more than 30 days
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
I am submitting this formal complaint against Experian and Equifax for unfair practices and violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ) regarding the inaccurate reporting and failure to provide validation for an account from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( Account number : XXXX ). 

The XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account has been incorrectly reported by Experian as having a past-due balance when it was charged off and sold to a collection agency. This account should be reported as closed and charged off with no past-due balance under FCRA 1681c , but instead, Experian continues to list it incorrectly, which is negatively impacting my credit report and causing harm to my financial standing. 

When I attempted to dispute this inaccurate reporting on XX/XX/year>, I referenced several legal provisions such as FCRA 1681i ( dispute resolution ), FCRA 1681c ( duration of negative information ), and FCRA 1681e ( b ) ( accuracy of information ), but Experians dispute system flagged these references as containing invalid characters or offensive phrases. Even after removing any special characters, my dispute was still blocked. This prevented me from properly filing a dispute in line with FCRA regulations, and it reflects Experian 's failure to comply with consumer rights as guaranteed under the law. 

Additionally, Experians failure to process the dispute through the XXXX system and others accurately, prevents consumers disputes from being addressed accurately. As a result, the inaccurate information remains on consumers credit reports, and Experian has failed to correct this error, violating FCRA 1681i, which mandates prompt and accurate investigations of disputes.

Furthermore, it has been over 90 days since my initial dispute, and Experian has failed to provide the required documentation validating the account, as required under FCRA 1681i ( a ) ( 6 ). Instead of providing the necessary documentation to substantiate the accounts accuracy, Experian merely stated that the account was " validated, '' which is insufficient and a violation of the law. FCRA 1681i requires that all relevant documentation supporting an account 's accuracy must be provided when a dispute is resolved, and Experians failure to do so violates this provision.

In addition to Experian 's actions, Equifax has also failed to properly report this account. While Equifax lists this account inaccurately, they did not mark it as closed or charged off. More concerning, Equifax did not provide any documentation to validate the account, instead s

imply stating that the account was " validated. '' This is a **clear violation of FCRA 1681i ( a ) ( 6 ), which requires that validation documents be provided when an account is disputed, and Equifax has failed to comply with this legal requirement.

The refusal of both Experian and Equifax to provide the necessary documentation and the ongoing inaccurate reporting of this account constitutes unfair practices and violates the FCRA. These actions not only cause harm to my credit profile but also undermine the integrity of the credit reporting system, denying me my legal rights as a consumer This account has also been the same for transunion

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief