I've been trying to work with Experian on an issue from a long time ago that's been haunting my credit but it's finally been resolved now. They kept showing a late payment on my report but when you'd click the link it didn't show you which account that it was linked too but also where it shows accounts ever been late it listed that at zero. It's been affecting me for several years and I've tried calling them but was able to clear up some of the things on there but they even agreed there was no late payments on any of my accounts but this one account always stayed and it had gotten to the point to where I had even consulted with a local attorney who deals with credit reporting and says they have better luck mailing a certified letter to them and that I needed the 3 reports to review them and I had them from earlier but couldn't get new ones as they only let you get them free once per year. It finally got to the point where I just wanted the account to drop off on it's own but now it's been 8 yrs since that loan was paid off in full and this was still affecting my credit but the late payment actually goes back to 2009 so obviously something was wrong. I ended up disputing it online which they have 30 days to review per the fair credit reporting act rules and they finally just removed that account from my report and I got a nice bump in my credit score too.
The credit reporting / scoring system is a scam designed to make banks money, not help consumers is my opinion.
I remember back when I was in my early 20's (in the early 2000's for context) and wanted to get a small loan for a car (we're talking $10k car, with 50% down). Had 2+ year job history, some positive credit, should be smooth sailing for a small auto loan. Wrong. The three credit bureaus had umpteen collection accounts on my record for medical bills when I was 17 years old. I had my burst appendix removed (emergency surgery) when I was 17, and they slapped every one of those medical bills on my credit report to the tune of $50k+ (6 weeks in hospital). I called the creditors, many said "sucks to be you" or "your mom/dad should have paid." Collection agencies wouldn't help, told me to contact creditors. Had no money/knowledge/experience to get a lawyer back then. Some came off with a few phone calls, many took till the 7 years elapsed to drop off.
Fast forward until recently (few years ago?), I had medical bills put into collections and posted to my credit report. These ones were for when my kids were on medicaid (2017-ish, when we first moved to KY, I took a low wage job for a couple months till we got established). Complete utter nightmare. Bills were paid (by Medicaid) but the collection agency says they weren't. I even got the collection agency and the subcontracted billing provider on a three way phone call-- billing provider says they're paid, collection agency says their paperwork doesn't match up and does nothing. When I dispute it, I get copies of the bill from collection agency saying nothing is paid. Constant runaround and I don't have the time to mess with it...
Luckily those couple collection accounts are somewhat old now and don't ding my credit much, but still leaves a very sour taste in my mouth for credit reporting / scoring models. Makes me feel for the people that struggle with it. Fortunately, other than my mortgage, I've learned to live without credit out of principle. Credit cards sure, but unlike when I was in my 20's, I'll make money off of cash back/rewards these days instead of paying banks outrageous sums to loan me money.