Consumer complaint received 2025-01-15 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: NJ

Complaint narrative:
I made an accidental charge on a XXXX  XXXX XXXX credit card I no longer used in XXXX of XXXX for approximately {$120.00} via an online purchase with XXXX XXXX. The card was under my maiden surname, XXXX. I meant to use the credit card we normally use but XXXX XXXX defaulted to this payment method without realizing. 

Because I no longer used this card, I no longer had the application on my phone and the card was not setup for autopay. XXXX  XXXX XXXX stopped sending statements via email or postal service and we received no notification that we were incurring late fees and interest over the course of the next year which accumulated to approximately {$420.00}. 

When we finally discovered this was occurring because I logged into the app in XXXX of XXXX, we called XXXX  XXXX XXXX immediately to resolve the issue. XXXX  XXXX XXXX refused to waive the late fees and interest and would only accept the full payment of {$420.00} in order to resolve and would not admit to any fault for not sending statements or letters. There is no evidence that we were notified as nothing was sent via certified mail. We would never carry a balance and let payments go late like this as we have an otherwise perfect credit history both on-time and balances paid in full. 

We were willing to move forward with the payment of the original purchase but they still refused, demanding all of the accumulated late fees and interest totaling {$420.00}, in excess of 250 % of the original purchase in only a years ' time. 

Now I am trying to apply for a new credit card in order to gain travel benefits for my family and newborn baby to make traveling easier for us to have access to airport lounges, however I am being declined because of this delinquency. Not only do I have damages from the decline in my recent credit application, my credit score has been negatively impacted with XXXX late payments. This may have also led to paying higher interest rates in the past. 

We tried calling again today, XX/XX/XXXX, and they said the account is charged off and the only way to remove the balance from the credit bureaus is to make the payment in full however, even if we did do that, the delinquency and the XXXX late payments would still be there. XXXX  XXXX XXXX stated that there is nothing that they can do at this point other than collect the debt. We have no access to any of the statements online and we had to have the customer service agent send them all via paper mail. 

XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX 's negligence in not adequately notifying us of the charge as well as the accumulating late payments, we believe we should only be responsible for the original purchase amount and that the credit bureau reports should immediately be erased of the current delinquent amount and the XXXX late payments. XXXX  XXXX XXXX is grossly negligent for assuming that an email account is still monitored ( assuming they even attempted to email correspondence which we did not receive ) or that mail was successfully delivered without proof of tracking via certified mail. 

If this is not resolved by removing this from our credit reports we are ready to take immediate legal action to seek resolution and recoup damages incurred from a falsely negative credit report.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation