vivekkopthsd/cfpb-consumer-complaints huggingface dataset:
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Mortgage debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA

Complaint narrative:
Applied for Home Equity Line of Credit XX/XX/XXXX at Santander Bank. I wanted to consolidate credit cards to pay off at lower rate and have a better credit rating to cosign my daughter 's college loans. SHe is a XXXX so I have more loans to go. I am XXXX XXXX, had XXXX XXXX 2 yrs ago. Was told 6wks. It took until X/XX/17 to close. XXXX XXXX was the executive at XXXX XXXX I spoke with. He pushed me off to assistant XXXX XXXX who repeatedly had me fax papers saying they never got them. Dates passed by as I kept asking what was going on. Very poor understanding of their product by the employees. Closing was held at a XXXX by XXXX XXXX, noist, papers fying, on stools. It was there I was 1st told I had to open a checking account to pay my interest and principal payments into in order for HELOC to be taken out. This was a surprise and questioned why I would n't just pay directly. I have a XXXX  cchecking acct. I do n't need this one. She said it was how they did it. I was told ther would be an overdraft fee. But, since I never planned to take any $ out ever agin, but only pay off, I did n't think I would need it. As in my XXXX acct overdraft charges are only made if you overdraft. I found out 2 wks ago this is a monthly regular charge. News to me as was the invoice showing $ XXXX/monthly statement. There are surprise fees evry single month. I am being nickle and dimed. It was bait and swith just to open a cking acct to get those fees. My wallet was stolen XX/XX/XXXX and Santander allowed the thieves to get {$50000.00} from an dummy checking acct and allowed them to take from my HELOC!! I have reported the fraud XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX and every day until today when I was called to the branch to file a claim. XXXX handled it by XX/XX/XXXX, all funds returned to my accts. I filed a police report. they said they never heard of a bank not replacing funds asap! I am very stressed and feel abused and pushed to my limits until I am crying and screaming, swearing at them to remove those hidden fees and refund those funds after 6 whole days.
During last 5 months many errors, tellers not knowing how to process my payment tho I followed directions to the " T '' and many, many calls from them again and again. It is harassment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services — Problem with product or service terms changing
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/2017, upon hearing of the data breach at Equifax, I went to their website. It asked for the last 6 digits of my social security number. Then it told me none of my credit information had been compromised.
Then I learned that by using the site to check if my data was breached, I had opted into an arbitration clause. To preserve my rights to sue them in a federal court, I have to notify them in writing. Snail mail, stamp, envelope, time. Equifax tricked me. Of course I can join a class-action lawsuit, but right now I just want you to enjoin them from tricking other consumers as Equifax tricked me.
Equifax does not provide a clearly accessible phone number to contact customer service, specifically for those whom may have been affected but have not bought any products from Equifax.
If their website contained a telephone number for consumers who had not created an account from purchasing a product, I could not find it. I am XXXX. It could be that the website was poorly constructed and that my screen reading software merely did not read the number.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services — Problem with product or service terms changing
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
Equifax had a security breach. My information was stolen.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
Mishandled my information, which puts me and millions of other people at risk. I also am listed as a potential victim according to their equifaxsecurity2017.com website, and would like a resolution.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem — Was not notified of investigation status or results
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Equifax breach of my information was not reported in appropriate time and executives sold stock prior to announcement of the breach making me at risk

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Application denied
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
Hello, My complaint is against XXXX when I tried to apply for an XXXX XXXX  XXXX Credit Card. 

I had previously applied for this card a couple of months ago and was not approved due to high balances and to many credit cards etc. 

I called them on XX/XX/XXXX to see about having them rerun my application since I had recently paid off my credit cards. When I was on the phone I was asked a lot of questions that I was more than happy to answer for the agent. I had informed the agent that I should be approved now since my cards were paid off and that I had a FICO score off XXXX. The agent informed me that indeed it look like my credit was getting better and I had a high FICO. However, at this time she was not able to issue me a new credit card. 
At this time, I was really upset since I told her that her company sent me the offer to apply for the credit card in the first place. I really feel the only reason I didnt get this card was because of my last name of XXXX. 

I normally wont waste my time on this issue however, this is just not right at this time. 
I am attaching the decline letter that also shows my FICO score of XXXX. 

Thank You, XXXX XXXX

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
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
Equifax Inc. mishandled my private information ( address, name, SSN ). This private information was made available ( either by grossly negligent incompetence or possibly malice ) by Equifax to parties who wish to use my private information and therefor my identity, fraudulently. Equifax failed to conceal this information from these fraudulent parties, making me a potential victim of identity theft. 
This fact of this mishandling was made public around X/X/2017 and I had to read about it in the news before I was informed personally by Equifax by any type of notification such as letter or e-mail. 

I used Equifax 's services in years past to retrieve free credit reports to ensure my credit was free of fraud. This free service is guaranteed by the US government. Apparently this service is also tied to an arbitration clause. Having an arbitration clause tied to a free service guaranteed by the US Government, and which is only available by 3 different companies is suspect.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: LD Holdings Group, LLC
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that LoanDepot had inaccurately reported me to both XXXX, and XXXX, as being 30 days late for XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, They admitted to me, both verbally, and in email, that they had made a billing error with my XX/XX/XXXX payment, and this had caused the problem. Floor Supervisor, XXXX XXXX, assured me that if I disputed the negative reporting with the bureaus, they would correct the reporting. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I filed disputes with XXXX, and XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I learnt from XXXX, and XXXX, that LoanDepot had affirmed the inaccurate information as accurate. 

Since then, I have exchanged multiple email, and made multiple phone calls to, their customer service department. I have received assurances via email, and verbally, that the issue would be resolved, but each time frame of 30-45 days I have been given, has passed with absolutely no change to the inaccurate negative reporting. 

The inaccurate negative reporting by LoanDepot has damaged my credit, and impacts my ability to earn a living.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Credit scores are very important for people that do not have a lot of money and need to get loans or move into places. So, I make sure to monitor my score and try to improve it the best I can. I trust these companies with my information and my credit reporting because I have no other choice. I live and die by these arbitrary credit scores and now my information opens me and millions of others to fraud that can prevent me from buying a house, getting an auto loan, or even loans for any children I have down the line that may want to go to college one day ( so I can help build their arbitrary credit score, much like my parents did for me ). Equifax mishandled my information which has led to a breach that puts myself and millions of others at potential risk. I am extremely disappointed with how equifax has handled reporting this breach. Very little was done to notify the public for nearly a month after the breach was detected. I received no email, letter, or phone call and instead had to discover it via social media. 
Going forward equifax should be required to monitor every account and notify victims if any fraud occurs. Credit fraud protection should be mandatory for every account, not an option for us to have deal with. 
This should be rectified firstly by making credit freezing free and refunding everyone who paid for it following this data breach. Requiring a police report is absurd when they clearly know if you were affected.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I 'm impacted by the recent Equifax breach. My information is available to whomever obtained this data. They knew about this issue for 3 months and barely made people aware of this. This is not acceptable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
Equifax misused my information and did not take proper steps to protect my information, along with millions of other people.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
Equifax has mishandled my information ( social security number, addresses, etc ) and put me at risk. Furthermore, I can not obtain a copy ofmy credit report from them in order to check if there is any fraudulent activity.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NC

Complaint narrative:
Equifax has had a major security breach that may effect the confidentiality and security of my personal information. I have filed a 90-day fraud alert inquiry but I still feel violated that my information can be accessed this easily due to a company 's mistake.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account information incorrect
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
In directly violation of the FCRA, Santander XXXX XXXX continues to update the reporting of the delinquent account being reporting to the consumer reporting agencies. 

The 7-year reporting period shall begin, with respect to any delinquent account that is placed for collection ( internally or by referral to a third party, whichever is earlier ), charged to profit and loss, or subjected to any similar action, upon the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded the collection activity, charge to profit and loss, or similar action. 

I am requesting that Santander review my file and furnish accurate and true information to the consumer reporting agencies that complies with the requirement of the FCRA.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I was part of the Equifax cyber security breach that affected over 140m consumers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
Equifax irresponsibly stored and lost my personal information such as my SSN, name, address, etc. Equifax lacked any substantial or modern security within their systems and stored data in an insecure location. My personal information will now circulate throughout sources on the internet for the rest of my life. Equifax has not provided me suitable protection for such a data leak, with only a single year of free fraud alert services. Data like a SSN can never be changed, making a single year of protection almost completely useless. Comprehensive fraud alert services cost at least {$20.00} a month. Going forward, I would have to invest tens of thousands of dollars for simple basic alert protection over the course of my life due to this breach.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: AR

Complaint narrative:
Equifax was breached, and now sensitive information such as SSN, credit card numbers, driver 's license numbers, etc., of over 143 million Americans are out for criminals to use exploit. Equifax did not notified affected customers in a timely manner, and instead took over a month before it officially dropped the ball that over half of the US 's population and some in XXXX and the XXXX was breached. The website that Equifax set up to let customers check if they were affect does not clearly state if one is affected or not.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Other personal consumer report
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
Equifax data breach

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services — Didn't receive services that were advertised
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
Equifax mishandled my personal information including Name, Social Security #, Address, Birthdate, etc. resulting in a data breach in XXXX XXXX that they confirmed I was affected by per their " Potential Impact '' site www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. 
They have put myself and millions of others at risk of identity theft/fraud due to negligent security protocols in handling consumer information. They are further attempting to capitalize on the situation by signing injured parties. THEY are responsible for up for " trial periods '' of their ID protection services. 
They are simultaneously defrauding these injured parties with hidden terms of service that waive their right to sue the company in what is clearly a situation of criminal negligence/fraudulent behavior as indicated by the three Equifax executives that dumped stock immediately prior to the data breach announcement.
I demand that they rectify this by making credit freezing free and refunding everyone who paid for it following this data breach. The negligent loss of personal information of nearly 200 million consumers is an unconscionable breech of ethical behavior by this company and it is further unreasonable that they are not directly notifying every single person affected by this regardless of their questionable " judgment '' of who to contact.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX/XXXX/2017, Equifax announced that a hacker obtained information about 143 million consumers. This data included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver license numbers.
Users can check if their information has been compromised by going to equifaxsecurity2017.com. It was determined my information may have been compromised as part of the attack.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes — 
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
I am one of the unfortunate people who was affected by the recent Equifax hack. Equifax confirmed my credit/personal information was compromised. ( XXXX/XXXX/17 ) I am deeply disturbed by this lack of security and will take any and all steps possible to hold this company responsible as well as to protect myself in the future.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — I do not know
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged
Company: I.Q. DATA INTERNATIONAL, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
XXXX XXXX XXXX {$7800.00} I called to try to see if I could make payments and I was treated wrongly and threatened to have my personal bank account debit if I do n't make a payment. Than I asked if I could speak with a supervisor and was hung up on multiple times!! They treated me as if I was a criminal.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/2017, Equifax discovered a security breach involving extremely sensitive, personal identification information of millions of Americans, including social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver 's license numbers, and credit card numbers. I was one of the persons affected. 

While Equifax is indeed a victim of this attack as well, I find it unacceptable that Equifax waited more than a month to inform the public of this breach. This gave the criminals far too long to exploit the information that they stole. They should have acted as soon as possible to inform the millions of other victims of this attack. 

Further, Equifax has set up a system to offer a free credit monitoring service for those affected. Unfortunately they are tying such an offer with a requirement to settle any disputes with them in arbitration, rather than the courts. Having a day in court to settle grievances is a fundamental right of every American. I believe that this is a tactic that Equifax is using to limit their liability and/or to limit the amount of monetary penalties that they must pay for any wrongdoing that future lawsuits may find that they are responsible for. 

Finally, I wonder how such a breach occurred, what could have been done to prevent it, and whether or not Equifax did take every reasonable precaution to prevent these sorts of attacks. I believe that an investigation should be conducted by law enforcement or lawmaking bodies such as Congress to determine the answers to these questions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation
Consumer complaint received 2017-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Equifax Inc. was hacked and my personal information, including my SSN, was compromised. I am open to social security and identity fraud. I now will have to actively monitor my credit report for decades now.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation