Consumer complaint received 2025-01-31 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I have been a customer of XXXX  XXXX XXXX since I was a child and have held my current credit card with them since XXXX. I've been monitoring my credit since high school and have meticulously cultivated a solid credit rating from the credit bureaus. 

As such, it was surprising when I received an email on XX/XX/XXXX, from XXXX XXXX, saying that my XXXX credit score had dropped because I was delinquent on my XXXX  XXXX XXXX credit card. 

This was my first indication that XXXX  XXXX XXXX was not sending me important information about my account. As I investigated, I found that I used an older account to purchase a book on XX/XX/XXXX for {$66.00}, which was linked to my XXXX  XXXX XXXX credit card ( that I rarely use ). XXXX  XXXX XXXX did not send me any monthly account information, so I had no reason to believe that I owed any money. XXXX  XXXX XXXX also failed to send me information about accruing a late fees and missed payments. No emails, not text messages, no physical mail. As a customer with XXXX  XXXX XXXX for more than XXXX decades, they have my contact information. The last email I had received from them was in XXXX, when they notified me that I had a balance on the credit card. This tells me that something happened between XXXX and XXXX, where they stopped sending out monthly statement information. 

When I called to sort out the issue a few days later, the representative apologized for the failure of communication and submitted a dispute that same day, giving me the code XXXX to refer to said dispute. The representative fixed the communication issue and I thought the issue would eventually be resolved. 

I did not hear the results of that dispute for over a month, so after several attempts, I was able to wait on hold for XXXX minutes to follow up on the dispute. To my horror, this was not a dispute with the XXXX or other bureaus, it was an internal review as to whether they should submit a dispute. The results of this review were never sent to me. 

When the letter was read aloud over the phone, I learned that it was rejected, with no mention of XXXX 's failure to notify me ( my chief complaint ). I protested with a manager named XXXX ( external employee id XXXX ), stating that the rejection letter ignored my primary complaint. However, XXXX was not interested in submitting a new dispute and eventually asked me to hang up the phone. 

The failure to notify a customer is a violation of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which clearly states that companies need to send out monthly statements, along with due dates and minimum payments. Had I not monitored my credit religiously, I never would have known that I was accruing interest on a seldom used card. 

Credit scores are used for hiring employees, renting apartments and approving mortgages. The credit bureaus monitor credit of individuals as a measurement of their ability to spend within their means and pay their debts on time. They are not designed to pick up on XXXX  XXXX XXXX 's inability to notify their customers that they have missed a payment, in violation of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation