Consumer complaint received 2025-08-22 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: MI

Complaint narrative:
I am filing this complaint regarding unfair credit reporting by XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

Over several months in XXXX, I attempted to make on-time payments on my auto loan ( Account # XXXX ) using my valid debit/credit card. XXXX XXXX system repeatedly failed to process my card, rejecting the card number and failing the payment. The card used ( and same card on file, starting in XXXX ) was correct, funds were available. Their CS rep eventually told me that their system reviews the first XXXX numbers of a card and uses those digits to determine if the card is valid. Their system improperly flagged my card as invalid, despite it being correct. My bank will testify the number was correct and funds were available. Eventually XXXX XXXX did update their system and the issue went away. But, until that, my attempts were timely, but XXXX XXXX themselves prevented timely payment due to their own system error. Once they updated their system, no more late payments occurred. Because of this system error, my payments posted late, and XXXX XXXX reported them as late to the credit bureaus. 

I disputed these with the credit bureaus, but they came back verified because XXXX XXXX only confirmed the datesnot the cause. This is misleading : while the dates are technically correct, the late payments were not due to negligence on my part but due to XXXX XXXX system failure. 

Barriers to XXXX XXXX XXXX intentionally makes it impossible for customers to resolve credit reporting issues : * There is no phone number to reach anyone who handles credit reporting. 

* There is no email address or secure message channel to submit a goodwill or error claim. 

* Their own customer support chat confirmed there is no one customers can speak to about credit reporting disputes. 

* The only option is to send a letter by mail, with no confirmation that it is reviewed by a human being or assigned to a responsible department. There is no way to have a complex conversation about a problem, because they force you to send a letter and its the only way to contact them. That's not even a conversation. One person talking via mail is not a conversation. There is no way to verify a human reads or physically checks anything or even looks into anything. Just a letter that software scans through and continues to respond with a boilerplate response. 

This design intentionally leaves consumers trapped in an endless cycle of mailing letters and waiting for generic denials, while XXXX XXXX avoids accountability. It's designed so consumers are forced to give up, and XXXX XXXX avoids doing any real research or confirmation of anything. I believe this practice may violate the spirit of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ), which require creditors and furnishers of information to maintain reasonable procedures and provide consumers a clear method of resolving disputes. A bank of this size with no other way to resolve issues than sending a paper letter, and just hoping something might happen does not make it a reasonable or clear way to resolve disputes. I have once again sent another paper letter along with this complaint. I have no idea when they will get it, no idea when it will be reviewed, or if a human will review it, no way to verify how they decided to review it, no way to explain to them why this is a problem, no way to follow up, and no way of knowing if I'll ever hear a response. Most likely its going to get scanned by an automatic scanner and their computer will generate a canned response that the payments were reported when they posted and its all correct. With no way to have it fixed because they posted when they did because of XXXX XXXX, Not me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation