Duplicate Accounts Please HELP!!!

[SGTRECON39]

Hi All,

I owe some back child support to San Diego County which I pay every month, but on my Equifax credit report I've been dealing with issues of duplicated accounts for over a 1yr now. I have 2 accounts with San Diego and for about a 1yr just one of them was duplicated. I have submitted dispute after dispute, called Equifax, faxe proof to Equifax, called San Diego, and nothing has changed. About a month ago I had Equifax and San Diego on a conference call trying to get this fixed. San Diego has had me fax a copy of my report to them multiple times showing the duplicates and they say they are submitting for them to be removed, but Equifax says the response from the disputes just say the accounts are being reported correctly and nothing changes until about a month ago when after disputing the duplicate, the other account magically shows up as a duplicate as well so at this point I have 2 accounts, but it reflects 4 on my account. I disputed again only for the dispute to end yesterday. So I ran my report and get this, one account is now on there 5, yes 5 times and the other twice for a total of 7 accounts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has been going on for over a year now. Does anyone have any advice for me???? PLEASE HELP!!!!

[RobertEG]

The dispute process has its obvious flaws, one of which is that resolution does not require the furnisher of the disputed information to provide proof.

Verification of accuracy of disputed information is, in essence, just their statement, backed by their requirement to have conducted a reasonable investigation, of the accuracy.

When the dispute process has runs its course, and the furnisher simply continues to verify, the next step is to get the issue before one who has the authority to demand and review the facts.  Small claims court.

[SGTRECON39]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your reply. So would I be suing San Diego or Equifax?

Thank you,

[RobertEG]

In a dispute through the CRA, the CRA is required to forward a copy of your dispute to the furnisher of the disputed information.  The furnisher is then required to conduct their own reasonable investigation of the accuracy of the disputed information, and report their results back to the CRA.  The CRA then, through its "reinvestigation" authority, makes the final legal decision on the accuracy of the reported information, and conveys that decision to the consumer.  While they have the right to reach a conclusion different than that reported back to them by the furnisher, they rarely do.  If the furnisher verifies the accuracy, they almost always base their finding on that verification.

So, on a practical basis, the furnisher is most likely the party to pursue, as they have the information they used to support their verification of accuracy.  Bringing action against the CRA would be very tenuous, as they have basis for accepting that the verification provided to them by the furnisher was based on a reasonable investigation on their part, and was an accurate statement of their finding based on that investigation.