- Report: #1386972
Complaint Review: Equifax Credit Information Services - Nationwide
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Equifax Credit Information Services
Nationwide, USA
Phone:
800-685-1111
Web:
www.equifax.com
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Equifax Credit Information Services Ruining Our Credit, Credit Reporting, Lying About and Hiding Credit Scores They are Reporting various Nationwide
On July 3rd, 2017 we went on creditkarma.com to receive my husband’s credit score, which was at 676 with Equifax and higher with Transunion and Experian, so that we could go and apply for a home equity loan at a Credit Union to consolidate some bills and do some repairs and updates on our house.
We went to the Credit Union and applied for the home equity loan on July 3rd, 2017. We got a call from the credit union on July 6th, saying that our credit score had come from Equifax at 623, which was too low and they could not do the loan. We then got on annualcreditreports.com and got my husband’s three credit reports. After receiving the reports we decided to go to equifax.com and pay $7.95 for his credit score directly from them, which was also at 676, which was the same value as creditkarma.com showed.
The Credit Union says that Equifax gave them our FICO score, which was at 623 and is different. So we went on Equfax again and paid $14.95 for the FICO score, once I found the link which took a while, and it says 623 but doesn’t really give a reason why since you’re looking at the same credit report as you’re looking at for the other number. My issue is this: If Equifax is giving out a fifty-point lower number to places that we are trying to do business with than they are giving to us, (presumably so that we can fix it), what was the point of all the legislature forcing them to be transparent?? This is not transparent. They are still trying to hide what they are doing.
We spent months trying to ‘raise’ our credit scores, like they tell us we need to do, successfully, and then they send a different score that is much lower? How can this be right??
Please show the same scores to everyone involved and how best to work on fixing any issues, like saying that our accounts are 'not paid as agreed' when looking at the exact accounts, they all say 'paid as agreed'.
Also, every time we get our accounts paid down a certain amount, known only to them, they decrease our 'credit limit' on the account so it looks like we haven't even tried to pay them off. Our Care Card started at $5782 and we've gotten it down to $833 but when it says that our credit limit was only $2400 it looks like we didn't care. It also states on that one part that we don't have any open card accounts and this is inaccurate. Our home depot account, which was opened with a $1408 balance when we bought a riding mower and now shows only a $500 limit, is still open and working fine.Our Barclay's bank card previously had a limit of $3000 now shows a limit of $2200 and a balance of $1255. Also, the Capital One card started with a limit of $7500 and we've paid it down to $1745 but now it says that our limit was only $3305. It makes it look like we are doing nothing to pay down our bills, but we are. We just had a really bad period of time when my husband's work was very slow for a few months. At the time we felt lucky that he still had a job as a lot of his coworkers were let go, but we did the best we could.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Responding to 'Robert'
#2Author of original report
Thu, July 27, 2017
Thank you for your opinions. There are a couple of things that I don't think were understood.
First, we didn't choose to go with Equifax, Columbia Credit Union did. We just tried to find out why the score that we could see and that they were sending us was fifty points (!) lower than the score that they sent to Columbia Credit Union. Same company, Equifax, different score depending on who they were sending it to. This is bs.
Second, all of the accounts, except for the home depot card are closed so there is no reason whatsoever to continue to lower our previous limit until it looks like we never paid a bill.
I also have the credit report that clearly says that 'the four accounts here are negative on your credit rating because they are not paid as agreed', but below this is our four accounts that all clearly show 'paid as agreed'. So what the heck is going on here?
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Credit Scores
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, July 21, 2017
One thing Credit Companies have done is make a big thing out of Credit "Scores". What they fail to make well known is that there are no less than several hundred different Scoring Models. The biggest player out there is FICO, but even here there are well over 60 different FICO Scoring Models.
Now, when you went with Equifax you got the Equifax Score that a lot of people consider a Fake FICO (FAKO) score. As it is a guide, but not the real FICO Score that banks use. However, as a guide if your score increases with them, it is generally going to increase in every other scoring model as well.
So they aren't giving you a score that is intentionally misleading, they are giving you a score based on their scoring model that is different than others. Oh and if you ask what the formula is...sorry there is not a single company that is going to give you how they calculate credit scores as that is proprietary information.
If you have a FICO score of 623 currently, it was probably down the Mid-High 500's until you started to work on your credit.
The best thing you can do is stick with 1 Credit Score, so don't bounce around because that will NOT give you a true indication of your trend. FICO is good but can also be the most costly to monitor. I rarely suggest sites, but I would look at MyFico.com. If this gets redacted it is "my" and then "FICO" dot com. Not only does this site offer your FICO score it gives a lot of good tips to help your credit.
As for your credit.
First your Credit Cards constantly monitor your accounts, so if you ran into "issues" they will reevaluate your account and just like they can increase your limit they can decrease your limit as well. They can also close out your account all together. This has nothing to do with the Credit Reporting Agencies as they only report what is given to them.
As for what you can do to continue to increase your credit score
1. Take care of any "Collection Accounts"
If you have any collection accounts until you take care of these, nothing else you do will help you in any significant way.
2. Continue to pay down your balances
Yes, even if they continue to reduce your credit limits. In the long run you are better off.
3. Continue to pay ON-TIME
4. Don't close accounts you think are unneeded as that may actually cause more damage than good.
5. Limit Hard Credit Inquiries (that is DON'T apply for NEW credit).
Good Luck
