Auto finance company not reporting monthly payments to CRAs

[langaclarry]

I took an auto loan in 2014 and have been making monthly payments to the auto loan financing company for over 2 years. In February 2016 I discovered that the financing company has NEVER reported the payments to the 3 CRAs - Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. 

I made several calls and they initially denied my findings, but after sending them proof of reports from 2 CSRs  they acknowledged that they had never reported any of my payments to the 3 CSRs. In April I wrote them a letter requesting that they " correct what appears to be a mistake" or else I would  file a claim against the company for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, including entitled to recover statutory damages, as well as any actual damages sustained as a result of diminished credit score. They have done nothing to correct this issue

I'd like to file a claim against this company but I have not been able to find anything on where to file. The FCRA website doesn't have it there as well. Of course the most obvious route is to get an attorney but at this point I do not have the finances to pay for one. Does anyone know how else I can report this to the proper authorites? 

**PS - I blame myself for not keeping track of my credit. I have a lot of medical bills incurred since 2012 resulting in a damaged credit score

Regards,

langaclarry

[willingtocope]

I could be wrong, but, I don't know of any law that REQUIRES a lender to report to the CRAs.  The FCRA only says if they do report, it must be accurate. 

[Clydesmom]

5 minutes ago, willingtocope said:

I could be wrong, but, I don't know of any law that REQUIRES a lender to report to the CRAs.  The FCRA only says if they do report, it must be accurate. 

You are not wrong.  There is no requirement that they report at all.  As you said, the FCRA only requires they report ACCURATELY if they do report.  Even if the lender in this case reported the trade line but never updated it with the payments as long as they were not reporting late(s) or the account delinquent it is accurate.  

7 hours ago, langaclarry said:

I'd like to file a claim against this company but I have not been able to find anything on where to file.

A claim for what?  Based on what you posted they haven't violated the FCRA if they simply haven't reported the loan.  

[fisthardcheese]

3 hours ago, Clydesmom said:

Even if the lender in this case reported the trade line but never updated it with the payments as long as they were not reporting late(s) or the account delinquent it is accurate.  

There is a very fine thread to weave in such a case, however.  If they report a TL but do not report payments, then what exactly are they reporting?  Are they updating the balance every month?  If the balance still shows the initial loan amount, then they are definitely reporting inaccurately. 

If I had that kind of situation, I would check my loan documents to see if there is an arbitration clause.  If so, I would file my FCRA claims in arbitration and eventually work out a settlement.  If there isn't one, I would file in federal court.

[langaclarry]

On 6/26/2016 at 10:28 AM, willingtocope said:

I could be wrong, but, I don't know of any law that REQUIRES a lender to report to the CRAs.  The FCRA only says if they do report, it must be accurate. 

Hmmm...

So are you saying if I sign a contract (auto loan) that states the lender will report to the CRAs, they only report late payments, deliquent payments, etc?

***scratching head***

[langaclarry]

On 6/26/2016 at 1:44 PM, fisthardcheese said:

There is a very fine thread to weave in such a case, however.  If they report a TL but do not report payments, then what exactly are they reporting?  Are they updating the balance every month?  If the balance still shows the initial loan amount, then they are definitely reporting inaccurately. 

If I had that kind of situation, I would check my loan documents to see if there is an arbitration clause.  If so, I would file my FCRA claims in arbitration and eventually work out a settlement.  If there isn't one, I would file in federal court.

To your first question, they did not report anything including balances every month.

And yes I checked my loan documents and it does state the loan payments will be reported to the credit bureaus. nowhere does it state deliquencies or late payments only.

Since I have not found anyone who can help me where to file my FCRA claim, do you know how I would go about filing in federal court?

[fisthardcheese]

There must be inaccurate information reported before it is a violation of FCRA.

Since this is essentially a blank TL, I might just send a letter to the CRAs and dispute the TL saying it does not accurately reflect the account status.  Perhaps that could get them to either accurately update the TL or perhaps remove it.  It doesn't hurt to try that.

[BV80]

19 hours ago, langaclarry said:

To your first question, they did not report anything including balances every month.

And yes I checked my loan documents and it does state the loan payments will be reported to the credit bureaus. nowhere does it state deliquencies or late payments only.

Since I have not found anyone who can help me where to file my FCRA claim, do you know how I would go about filing in federal court?

What do you mean by "they did not report anything"?