topic Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED in General Credit Topics

EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:05:28 GMT

Good Morning Fellow Fico'ers -

I have a question about an issue I'm having with Equifax. Over the last year or so my Equifax credit profile is missing a lot of current information on my lines of credit and has not been allowing me to check my Vantage score on sites such as Credit karma and the Experian monthly service I pay for gives me an updated FICO score every month for TransUnion and Experian, but always tells me it can pull my score for Equifax. My Vantage score on CK never updates and hasn't for quite some time. The worst part is Equifax is well aware of this.

I have called them several times over and mailed them identifying information such as address verification, copy of my driver's license, and copy of my social security card - this particular step having been completed in December 2022.

I would think that if I had a mixed file that it would have been straightened out by now bc of everything I've sent them. I was planning on subscribing to the MyFico $39.99 service and can't even do that because it can't pull my Equifax score 🤬🤬. Don't get me wrong The Experian service isn't bad but it gives me all the details of my multiple Experian Fico scores and just throws my FICO 8 from TransUnion over at me monthly with no details on my other scores with TransUnion.

How do I fix this? I mean I've done everything I can on my part in proving what name and what address should be on my credit profile and under my social security number. I don't understand why they're having such a tough time figuring this out. I'm getting to the point where I'm considering filing for litigation to get this resolved.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

DONZI — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:48:13 GMT

I couldn't tell if you've been able to use myEquifax or not. They have a couple free online account services, Lock & Alert and myEquifax.

I had a terrible time for a while with EQ and made (or tried anyhow) those two login accounts just to get the ball rolling with them. Neither would do much of anything but show me errors as follow:

Lock & Alert

"We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care Team at 888-548-7878

Customer Care is available from 8 a.m. to midnight (ET), 7 days a week."

myEquifax

"We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care team.
1-888-EQUIFAX (1-888-378-4329)

Customer Care is available 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM ET, Mon-Fri; 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM ET, Sat-Sun"

..and

"Please give us a call
We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care team
888-836-6351
Customer Care is available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET), Monday to Friday."

I called both more than once hammering away at all/any numbers that showed up.

My starting point was why can't I login or create an online account, etc. As time went on I escalated to additional concerns like split file, errors, etc.

Best thing you can do is get ALL info you can think of ready before any volley of Q&A. EQ keeps more info than any of the CRA from my experience and keeps it for a LONG time. That stuff can be part of any sort of attempt to verify yourself. IIRC I never did send them anything by e-mail or postal mail, just kept calling and pushing.

Along the way I was able to create one or the other login accounts at EQ, but once logging in, it would throw one of those messages above.

Before calling I used all the 'having trouble..', 'reset password' etc options (probably more than once over time) before ramping up attempts via telephone.

Good luck, it might be a task but in the end you may get someone who hangs in there with you (or call again..) and gets it resolved.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

M_Smart007 — Tue, 09 May 2023 18:07:20 GMT

@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
Good Morning Fellow Fico'ers -

I have a question about an issue I'm having with Equifax. Over the last year or so my Equifax credit profile is missing a lot of current information on my lines of credit and has not been allowing me to check my Vantage score on sites such as Credit karma and the Experian monthly service I pay for gives me an updated FICO score every month for TransUnion and Experian, but always tells me it can pull my score for Equifax. My Vantage score on CK never updates and hasn't for quite some time. The worst part is Equifax is well aware of this.

I have called them several times over and mailed them identifying information such as address verification, copy of my driver's license, and copy of my social security card - this particular step having been completed in December 2022.

I would think that if I had a mixed file that it would have been straightened out by now bc of everything I've sent them. I was planning on subscribing to the MyFico $39.99 service and can't even do that because it can't pull my Equifax score 🤬🤬. Don't get me wrong The Experian service isn't bad but it gives me all the details of my multiple Experian Fico scores and just throws my FICO 8 from TransUnion over at me monthly with no details on my other scores with TransUnion.

How do I fix this? I mean I've done everything I can on my part in proving what name and what address should be on my credit profile and under my social security number. I don't understand why they're having such a tough time figuring this out. I'm getting to the point where I'm considering filing for litigation to get this resolved.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Sounds like you still have a "Split" file, I'd call Equifax and escalate to supervisor.

Tell them you have a "split file" and would like to get it resolved.

@coldfusion, might be able to offer better / more detailed advice

GL2U

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

coldfusion — Tue, 09 May 2023 19:38:17 GMT

The biggest issue with Equifax customer service I found is that in many cases the staff in their India-based call centers can see the problem but they don't have sufficient access privileges to be able to correct it, and escalating to a supervisor won't have any impact. They have to open up a ticket which gets redirected to US staff to be worked on.

Since you've already contacted Equifax multiple times both via phone call and mail and without adequate resolution don't waste any more time with them. Go online and file a CFPB complaint. Plan on Equifax not responding to the complaint until the 29th day.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Thu, 11 May 2023 06:17:18 GMT

The

@DONZI wrote:
I couldn't tell if you've been able to use myEquifax or not. They have a couple free online account services, Lock & Alert and myEquifax.

I had a terrible time for a while with EQ and made (or tried anyhow) those two login accounts just to get the ball rolling with them. Neither would do much of anything but show me errors as follow:

Lock & Alert
"We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care Team at 888-548-7878
Customer Care is available from 8 a.m. to midnight (ET), 7 days a week."

myEquifax
"We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care team.
1-888-EQUIFAX (1-888-378-4329)
Customer Care is available 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM ET, Mon-Fri; 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM ET, Sat-Sun"

..and

"Please give us a call
We can't complete your request at this time. Please call the Customer Care team
888-836-6351
Customer Care is available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET), Monday to Friday."

I called both more than once hammering away at all/any numbers that showed up.

My starting point was why can't I login or create 7an online account, etc. As time went on I escalated to additional concerns like split file, errors, etc.

Best thing you can do is get ALL info you can think of ready before any volley of Q&A. EQ keeps more info than any of the CRA from my experience and keeps it for a LONG time. That stuff can be part of any sort of attempt to verify yourself. IIRC I never did send them anything by e-mail or postal mail, just kept calling and pushing.

Along the way I was able to create one or the other login accounts at EQ, but once logging in, it would throw one of those messages above.

Before calling I used all the 'having trouble..', 'reset password' etc options (probably more than once over time) before ramping up attempts via telephone.

Good luck, it might be a task but in the end you may get someone who hangs in there with you (or call again..) and gets it resolved.

situation that you spelled out that you had to deal with, is currently the nightmare I'm dealing with right now lol. It is absolutely maddening. I called back in December and spoke to a rep on the phone who tried to do this email verification thing with me on the phone or I could click on their email and it's had a link inside. The link was for something with identity services for Equifax where I could upload documents in real time to the call agent and wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't let me upload anything lol. I'm starting to think I have a split file somehow.

I was able to go into the Equifax credit lock website today and was able to lock my credit report. Much like you though whenever I try to use my Equifax or anything like that it tells me I can't or I change my password and go to use it on the website and it tells me it's the wrong password and login information 😂.

If you don't mind me asking - how long did it take for you to get yours resolved?

I honestly am thinking about litigating this because I have sent them all the proof they need per the exact instructions in the letter they sent me - pay stub, copy of driver's license, copy of social security card, and even went one better and symptom of copy of my taxes. I think I'm going to take your advice first and try to call them a few times and maybe give it a couple weeks.

Thank you for the info and encouragement as well.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Thu, 11 May 2023 06:18:34 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
Good Morning Fellow Fico'ers -

I have a question about an issue I'm having with Equifax. Over the last year or so my Equifax credit profile is missing a lot of current information on my lines of credit and has not been allowing me to check my Vantage score on sites such as Credit karma and the Experian monthly service I pay for gives me an updated FICO score every month for TransUnion and Experian, but always tells me it can pull my score for Equifax. My Vantage score on CK never updates and hasn't for quite some time. The worst part is Equifax is well aware of this.

I have called them several times over and mailed them identifying information such as address verification, copy of my driver's license, and copy of my social security card - this particular step having been completed in December 2022.

I would think that if I had a mixed file that it would have been straightened out by now bc of everything I've sent them. I was planning on subscribing to the MyFico $39.99 service and can't even do that because it can't pull my Equifax score 🤬🤬. Don't get me wrong The Experian service isn't bad but it gives me all the details of my multiple Experian Fico scores and just throws my FICO 8 from TransUnion over at me monthly with no details on my other scores with TransUnion.

How do I fix this? I mean I've done everything I can on my part in proving what name and what address should be on my credit profile and under my social security number. I don't understand why they're having such a tough time figuring this out. I'm getting to the point where I'm considering filing for litigation to get this resolved.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Sounds like you still have a "Split" file, I'd call Equifax and escalate to supervisor.
Tell them you have a "split file" and would like to get it resolved.

@coldfusion, might be able to offer better / more detailed advice

GL2U

Thank you and I agree, I'm starting to think I have a split file. I will try to call them later today and see if I can get an escalated to a supervisor level. I will let you guys know the results 🤞🤞

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Thu, 11 May 2023 06:21:45 GMT

Thanks for the info - I had no idea Equifax worked that way in terms of customer service issues with limited access to data. I think Equifax might have their whole business model backwards, you know limiting data access to their own employees allowing hackers to access our information for us 😂😂😂. I'm kidding.

I will be jumping on the CFPB site to file a complaint and am wondering if filing a complaint with the FTC would be ideal as well? 🤔 Thoughts?

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

coldfusion — Thu, 11 May 2023 14:03:32 GMT

@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
Thanks for the info - I had no idea Equifax worked that way in terms of customer service issues with limited access to data. I think Equifax might have their whole business model backwards, you know limiting data access to their own employees allowing hackers to access our information for us 😂😂😂. I'm kidding.

I will be jumping on the CFPB site to file a complaint and am wondering if filing a complaint with the FTC would be ideal as well? 🤔 Thoughts?

If you're going to file a complaint with the FTC as a way to in effect further socialize their issues, no reason why not. If you're expecting the complaint to lead to some kind of action on Equifax' part in the short term I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope.

You don't have a frivolous complaint and Equifax will have 30 days to respond to the CFPB inquiry. The CFPB will alert you and make Equifax' response available to you when they receive it.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

DONZI — Fri, 12 May 2023 04:16:59 GMT

@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:

If you don't mind me asking - how long did it take for you to get yours resolved?

Gosh, it was July 2021 when I began chipping away at their website. That was in response to requesting all 3 reports from annualcreditreport.com but getting EX and TU only.

A couple months later I tried to login to Lock & Alert and/or myEquifax but got one of those errors I mentioned previously.

(intermission)

April 2022 I called and spoke with someone and IIRC there was a malformed address -- correct for the most part but as if a typo. The rep tweaks some and tells me I should be able to login in about an hour once the change(s) take hold. A day later when I tried to login it still was throwing an error.

(intermission)

May 2022 I called about the problem again and was able to satisfy all their Q&A and this rep tweaked something and I was in.

Thank you for the info and encouragement as well.

Sure, imagine all that data.. at one time it was paper, then hand or ocr transcribed into digital data, etc. Apparently EQ is a bit old school with some operations I read, which may be partly responsible for my success on the phone. IIRC, the main issue was the computer generated Q&A to try an verify me. I answered them correct, the computer disagreed. The CRA/CSR was told that and when they gave me a Q&A they did it differently with different questions.

The time it took me was mainly because I wasn't concerned that much about it. I get the 3B from myFICO (since Dec 2020) and oddly enough it included my EQ data despite me not being able to get it anywhere else. As such, I could see a limited amount of data via myFICO and my score. My score was fine and since it wasn't going down for unknown reasons, etc. the matter was mostly personal - I should be able to review/dispute my own credit report and curiosity about what was on it.

I did want to see the full report though and was somewhat wondering about EQ having a split file or identity theft since my reports were all mostly dormant for about 20 years.

I would rather deal with it like I did than jump into regulatory procedure. If I didn't get the issue settled a year ago on the phone I'd probably blown it off and go about my business until I got curious about it again or something odd happened to my EQ score that I couldn't explain, then call EQ again if my logins continued to show me phone numbers to call.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

rosco75 — Fri, 12 May 2023 13:32:19 GMT

What a nightmare! I do hope you guys get this stuff resolved. I cant imagine the headache! Thank you all for the datapoints and for sharing!

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Fri, 12 May 2023 23:08:46 GMT

@DONZI wrote:
@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:

If you don't mind me asking - how long did it take for you to get yours resolved?
Gosh, it was July 2021 when I began chipping away at their website. That was in response to requesting all 3 reports from annualcreditreport.com but getting EX and TU only.

A couple months later I tried to login to Lock & Alert and/or myEquifax but got one of those errors I mentioned previously.

(intermission)

April 2022 I called and spoke with someone and IIRC there was a malformed address -- correct for the most part but as if a typo. The rep tweaks some and tells me I should be able to login in about an hour once the change(s) take hold. A day later when I tried to login it still was throwing an error.

(intermission)

May 2022 I called about the problem again and was able to satisfy all their Q&A and this rep tweaked something and I was in.

Thank you for the info and encouragement as well.
Sure, imagine all that data.. at one time it was paper, then hand or ocr transcribed into digital data, etc. Apparently EQ is a bit old school with some operations I read, which may be partly responsible for my success on the phone. IIRC, the main issue was the computer generated Q&A to try an verify me. I answered them correct, the computer disagreed. The CRA/CSR was told that and when they gave me a Q&A they did it differently with different questions.

The time it took me was mainly because I wasn't concerned that much about it. I get the 3B from myFICO (since Dec 2020) and oddly enough it included my EQ data despite me not being able to get it anywhere else. As such, I could see a limited amount of data via myFICO and my score. My score was fine and since it wasn't going down for unknown reasons, etc. the matter was mostly personal - I should be able to review/dispute my own credit report and curiosity about what was on it.

I did want to see the full report though and was somewhat wondering about EQ having a split file or identity theft since my reports were all mostly dormant for about 20 years.

I would rather deal with it like I did than jump into regulatory procedure. If I didn't get the issue settled a year ago on the phone I'd probably blown it off and go about my business until I got curious about it again or something odd happened to my EQ score that I couldn't explain, then call EQ again if my logins continued to show me phone numbers to call.

That's interesting that myFICO was showing your Equifax score. I tried it and it told me I couldn't buy the $39.99 package because was having trouble getting my information from Equifax lol.

Honestly since I sent in on my ID information to them back in December/January - I kind of blew it off as well and just recently remembered that I need to contact them.

Thank you for the info - much appreciated. 💯💯

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Fri, 12 May 2023 23:33:55 GMT

@coldfusion @rosco75 @DONZI @M_Smart007 So I called Equifax today and spoke to a customer service rep to listened to my whole story and then told me he would have to transfer me to a specialist. I was transferred to this woman in "Consumer Care?" (I think that was the name of it) department.

I told her what was going on and said that I didn't know what would cause this besides a split profile and she said, "yeah I already know what it is and you're exactly right it's a split profile". Fixed it in 10 minutes and said that everything updated immediately and that I should see it on my end in about 24 hours and that if anybody had to pull my credit from Equifax they would get the updated file immediately. WOO-HOO!! 🎉🎉🎉.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND INPUT. VERY MUCH SO APPRECIATED!

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

M_Smart007 — Sat, 13 May 2023 00:53:54 GMT

@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
@coldfusion @rosco75 @DONZI @M_Smart007 So I called Equifax today and spoke to a customer service rep to listened to my whole story and then told me he would have to transfer me to a specialist. I was transferred to this woman in "Consumer Care?" (I think that was the name of it) department.
I told her what was going on and said that I didn't know what would cause this besides a split profile and she said, "yeah I already know what it is and you're exactly right it's a split profile". Fixed it in 10 minutes and said that everything updated immediately and that I should see it on my end in about 24 hours and that if anybody had to pull my credit from Equifax they would get the updated file immediately. WOO-HOO!! 🎉🎉🎉.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND INPUT. VERY MUCH SO APPRECIATED!

@Legally_Speaking2512, Wow! ..Fantastic!!! ..Glad it worked out for you

Maybe I could get a couple more Kudos? Message 3

Here I thought after reading @coldfusion 's post, I had it all wrong.

Hence saying to myself, even a broken clock is right once and a while

PS: I did not know Equifax could do anything in 10 minutes

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

DONZI — Sat, 13 May 2023 07:29:15 GMT

@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
That's interesting that myFICO was showing your Equifax score. I tried it and it told me I couldn't buy the $39.99 package because was having trouble getting my information from Equifax lol.

I suppose myFICO could fetch EQ for me because my report was intact, whereas your's was corrupted with someone else's data.

It's good that you've been able to handle it directly with EQ.

Re: EQUIFAX QUESTION / ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Legally_Speaking2512 — Mon, 15 May 2023 19:13:25 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
@Legally_Speaking2512 wrote:
@coldfusion @rosco75 @DONZI @M_Smart007 So I called Equifax today and spoke to a customer service rep to listened to my whole story and then told me he would have to transfer me to a specialist. I was transferred to this woman in "Consumer Care?" (I think that was the name of it) department.
I told her what was going on and said that I didn't know what would cause this besides a split profile and she said, "yeah I already know what it is and you're exactly right it's a split profile". Fixed it in 10 minutes and said that everything updated immediately and that I should see it on my end in about 24 hours and that if anybody had to pull my credit from Equifax they would get the updated file immediately. WOO-HOO!! 🎉🎉🎉.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND INPUT. VERY MUCH SO APPRECIATED!
@Legally_Speaking2512, Wow! ..Fantastic!!! ..Glad it worked out for you
Maybe I could get a couple more Kudos? Message 3
Here I thought after reading @coldfusion 's post, I had it all wrong.

Hence saying to myself, even a broken clock is right once and a while

PS: I did not know Equifax could do anything in 10 minutes

🤣🤣🤣 I didn't realize they could be that fast either lol. I was literally dreading that phone call from the second I dialed it. I completely left out the part that I had to call them back because the first customer service rep went through all my info with me and had me on the phone for about 10 minutes while he was looking over my file and he came back and said that he was going to transfer me to a specialist who could fix this for me - I said "great" and he told me to sit tight while he transferred me to the specialist. I was like "All right do your thing" and when to put my phone on speaker and hit the home button cuz I was going to check some of my emails. I don't know what in God's green earth ever possessed into thinking that the home button on the screen was the big red hangup button and what's more, to push the dang thing - immediately hanging up on Equifax 🤣🤣.

I honest to God just sat there, defeated, and contemplated if I should just call them the next day because at that point I was way too mad at myself - but I trudged on and was rewarded with a positive outcome. I like to think of it as that was life's way of telling me that the first specialist wasn't going to be able to help me and forced My subconscious thoughts into hanging up LOL