Consumer complaint received 2024-03-26 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Problem with personal statement of dispute
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
The lender was not providing the secondary borrower both ( 1 ) information of the account including both statements or notices and ( 2 ) the ability to pay online. ( 3 ) Lender deceived the primary borrower into making a partial payment ( 4 ) and mismanaged payments received ( 5 ) gave financial advice not in the borrowers best interest which ultimately led to a late payment being reported to the credit bureaus.

The Lender failed to inform the secondary borrower of the status of the account during the entire life of the loan. The first time the secondary borrower was allowed to view a statement was granted on XX/XX/XXXX. This is well over a year after signing the mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX. 

The Lender failed to provide the information necessary to access the account online. The online website would not allow the secondary borrower to create an account as it required an internal number not provided. The secondary borrower was previously misled by phone support to believe that they could not have an account because one was already created an attached to an email.

The Lender gave conflicting information when trying to access the online account. When a password reset was issued, a prompt appeared indicating that due to the account status, I would be unable to pay. However, phone support answered differently and later indicated that an account for the secondary borrower did not exist. 

The lender allegedly mailed notices to the secondary borrower to the address of the mortgage despite the secondary borrower being listed as a non-occupant on mortgage application and legal forms, as well as identification provided at time of home purchase. They did not give each borrower separate notices despite being two individuals living in two different states. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, The Lender provided an escrow disclosure that they had been over collecting on escrow payments and a surplus exists in the account of {$460.00}. 

The lender misled primary borrower that a partial payment would be accepted to avoid being late. The primary borrower made a payment of {$800.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, that sat in unallocated funds, and the lender refused to apply it to the XXXX payment. It is impossible to determine if the primary borrower intended to pay {$1800.00} to fulfill the promise of the note of {$1700.00} given a pre-established history of lender communication issues up to this point. With a positive balance of {$460.00} from escrow and what should have been an {$1800.00} payment, this would have brought the account current to {$2200.00} paid with {$180.00} left over before the last business day in XXXX. 

After accepting a partial payment on XX/XX/XXXX, no further calls were made to the secondary borrower by the Lender to collect a remaining difference. This is in despite of two remaining business days in XXXX. There was still time to collect an alleged difference, but no effort was put forth by the lender. 

The lender provided financial advice not in the borrowers best interest. In multiple calls and emails stating that the most important thing was to not let the XXXX payment hit sixty days late, to avoid foreclosure, disregarding the consequences to the borrowers credit of ignoring the XXXX payment, so that the lender could continue to rack up late fees and profit from this. The lender failed to inform the borrower of their options and rights. 


Steps taken to resolve : Back and forth correspondence on the cellphone to indicate that I did not live at the property address as indicated as a non-occupant borrower in my initial mortgage application. To update my information, it took several attempts before my mailing address was finally corrected by a supervisor, and in following calls, the call attendants were still getting crucial information wrong. 

Emailed the CEO of the Lender with information, asking for help, explaining the circumstances of the mortgage, and asking for forgiveness on the late payment. Who then told me they would not be willing to forgive the loan, when that was not what was asked. 

Traveled from XXXX to XXXX XXXX field on XX/XX/XXXX, a week after receiving notification that the account was past due to meet with a representative in XXXX, TX at the corporate HQ, who then refused to see or speak with me. 

The secondary borrower finally got access to statements and the ability to submit a payment online on XX/XX/XXXX. The supervisor provided a unique code that was necessary to create the account. Once I had finally been allowed to see a statement for the first time, a payment of {$1300.00} was scheduled for that day initially, however the system locked me out of that day and scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX. The secondary borrower provided payment within thirty days of receiving notice. 

The secondary borrower contacted USPS and asked if they could help find any notices from the lender, but they were unable to complete the request as the secondary borrower has never occupied the property address of the mortgage, indicating this was an issue with the sender. 

The Phone number used to contact the secondary borrower was under ownership of the primary borrower during the entire life of the loan. Therefore, any contact made to this number shall only constitute an attempt to reach the primary borrower, not the secondary. The secondary borrower has taken ownership of this phone number effective XX/XX/XXXX and had provided a temporary additional number to the lender. 


Closing statement : The lender has failed its fiduciary duty to keep the secondary borrower informed during the life of the loan. The secondary borrower was not given notice as agreed upon in the promissory note The lender misled the primary borrower, and this has directly resulted in late fees accruing and a significant hit to the borrowers credit. Given that the secondary borrower has a spotless record, has never missed a payment from any lender, including rent paid that is not reported, there is historical evidence this late payment report is an inaccurate representation of the secondary borrower and the truth. The secondary borrower demonstrates the financial ability to make a payment at the time of due date and a history of timely payments. In addition, the secondary borrower was not given access to the account status, or access to pay. Had the lender notified and granted access to the secondary borrower properly, this situation would have never happened and could have been avoided altogether.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation