Quick Answer: A consumer lawsuit alleges Equifax and Navient failed to accurately report 13 student loans that were fully paid off in July 2016. Despite providing payoff statements, Equifax continued showing monthly payment requirements and Navient failed to correct the misleading information during dispute investigations.
A consumer has filed a lawsuit against Equifax and Navient Solutions alleging a disregard for accurate reporting his loan performance. The consumer says they have tried repeatedly to dispute and validate the incorrect credit reporting information but has had no luck.
According to the complaint the consumer had 13 separate loans with Navient and they were paid off in full in July 2016.
After the loans were paid off, both Experian and TransUnion both correctly reflected the loan status. The suit says, “Equifax failed to update Plaintiff’s accounts to reflect the payoff and closure of the accounts and instead continued to list each of the accounts as open and with a monthly payment amount and/or a balance.”
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Even after sending Equifax the payoff statements showing the loans were closed in July of 2016, Equifax only updated the credit report to say “paid and closed” but left the required monthly payment in place in their reporting.
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The lawsuit says, “Navient knew that Plaintiff had paid off the loans in July 2016 but nonetheless failed to provide accurate information in response to Plaintiff’s dispute.
These errors gave the misleading impression that Plaintiff continued to owe money on the loans for months after he had paid them off.
Equifax was required to communicate the specifics of Plaintiff’s dispute to Navient. Likewise, Navient had an independent duty to investigate the dispute and accurately report its findings to Equifax notwithstanding the information it received from Equifax.
Equifax also had an affirmative duty to independently investigate the dispute submitted by Plaintiff and to accurately report the tradeline information, notwithstanding the information it received from Defendant.
Each and both of the Defendants, independently and jointly, breached their duties as described above.
As a result of Defendants’ actions, Plaintiff’s credit score dropped from 716 in early 2016 to below 500, as of August 2016.”
The consumer states that as a result of the credit score lowered by the incorrect reporting, their cost of credit has been higher than it should be.
Credit reporting should be an accurate reporting of account information, both positive or negative. If incorrect information was willfully reported then it seems that would certainly create an issue that will need to be dealt with.
From reading the complaint, below, it does seem the consumer was engaging in deliberate actions to resolve the problem but was unable to obtain the necessary corrections with assistance from Equifax and/or Navient.
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