Old credit card dispute took me 8 months to fix

I had a $37 charge from a gym I canceled in 2022 show up on my credit report last year. The weird part was the gym went out of business in 2023 so I couldn't call them to prove it. I sent three letters to Equifax and got nowhere for months until a friend told me to file a CFPB complaint. That got it removed in 3 weeks flat after fighting it since March. Has anyone else had luck with the CFPB on something like this?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

the_jesse2mo ago

Did you have any documentation from the gym at all? I'm wondering if the CFPB actually contacted them even though they were out of business.

3

clairec782mo ago

Fair enough @the_jesse, but I just don't see how the CFPB would waste time on a closed business.

4

rowan5932mo ago

Oh, I actually read something about this! Apparently the CFPB has a pretty wide reach when it comes to closed businesses. I saw an article that said they can still go after gyms that shut down if there's a pattern of shady billing practices. Like, if the owner just opened and closed multiple places to steal sign-up fees. So even without paperwork from the gym itself, they might have your complaint on file and can use it to build a case if the same people try to open another gym somewhere else. It's kind of wild how much they can do with just a few complaints, honestly. But yeah, you'd think they'd need something from the actual business to prove anything.

3