Apparently, I no longer exist. Should I be worried?

Factual Questions
1

So last week I decided to stop procrastinating and get my free annual credit report online. I don’t have any credit cards, mortgages, car payments or any other debt, but I know I should check it anyway to watch for fraud and identity theft.

The last time I checked it via annualcreditreport.com was 3 years ago. I was able to pull down my credit report from all three agencies, all of which showed that they had my current and previous addresses, plus it showed me successfully disputing the one single (very minor) credit ding I’d had 5 years earlier, and that was it. Anyway, it was accurate.

So I go online but somewhat alarmingly, all three credit reporting agencies returned an “error “, saying that they could not process my request. Trans Union said that fraud or identity theft could be the reason. Equifax said that I was already a “member” and had to log in with my “the username and password”. All attempts to find out what those were failed. I can’t recall what the other company’s reason was.

In every case, I was instructed to send a paper copy of the request, along with proof of my identity (photocopy of drivers license and social security card). I did that, and today I got the first response back – Trans Union says that they cannot send me my credit report because they have no record of anyone with my name existing*. What? I existed 3 years ago, they even knew my landlord’s name and address. Now I don’t exist?

Should I be worried?

  • Yes, I double checked the spelling they had for me, it is correct.
2

Most stuff is deleted from your credit report after seven years. If you’ve had no credit activity since your five-year-old ding three years ago, your credit report will have gone poof like a fart in the wind.

3

Yep, your Beacon score got repo’ed for inactivity. In a sense anyway. This is one of the pitfalls of running on cash only. Cash only is great, but if you do ever need credit and you’ve not had any active accounts for a period of time, you will turn up like a first time buyer. We call them “Ghosts”. Believe me potential creditors don’t see this as a good thing. Essentially you’ve given up your credit history, and you have to start over if you want to have a credit report. If you know you will never ever ever buy anything on credit again, it’s not a big deal.