Credit Report Errors

I have a few questions (bolded) regarding errors on my recent credit report. Here is the story:

Now that I am in the market to buy a new or slightly used car I wanted to see my credit rating to make sure I will qualify for their special APR offers.

I used Equifax to obtain my FICO score and was surprised to find two blatant errors.

  1. My Date of Birth. They had the right year and month but the wrong day. I find this to be a little strange. AFAIK, I have always used my real DOB when fililng out applications. Where did they get this info?

  2. They have me at a previous address. I have always lived at the same address. However this seems to be a typo from my actual address. But still the previous address they had doesn’t even exist so somewhere along the way they should have pick up on that. BTW it does not say anything about how long I lived at each address.

I called Equifax and informed them of the errors. They said they will check into it and send me a revised report within 21-30 days.

**Do I need to check with the other credit agencies to see what they have or do they all have the same info? Will correcting Equfax’ report correct the others as well? Do I qualify for a free report from the other agencies because of the errors? ** It cost $13 each to check these and I say why spend the dough if I don’t need to. However for peace of mind it is relatively cheap.

Now my score was excellent so these errors didn’t affect my score (neither were negatives on my report) and there were no other errors but I am curious how this happened. Anyone know where these errors could have came from? Could my DOB correction cause a different report or is it only drawn from the SS#?

Also, In todays day and age I am worried about identity theft so I want to make sure I am not over looking any obvious signs.

Do I need to check with the other credit agencies to see what they have or do they all have the same info? Will correcting Equfax’ report correct the others as well? Do I qualify for a free report from the other agencies because of the errors?

Only account information changes are shared, so you need to contact all three major bureaus.

You qualify for a free report if you have reason to believe info is wrong. Actually, you don’t even need a report, just write to them and dispute the info. If it is ok, then no big deal.

Chances are, the DOB issue was from one of the recent account updates of your report on file with Equifax. It is likely that one company has it wrong or defaulted it to the first day of your actual month of birth.

Each company has their name as their web adress. Contact info should be there.

Anyone know where these errors could have came from? Could my DOB correction cause a different report or is it only drawn from the SS#?

No, the DOB wouldn’t cause a different report. All the errors come directly from the creditors your do business with. Someone mis reported the DOB and someone mis reported the adress. Variations in both are usually insignificant (I SAID ‘USUALLY’ BEFORE THE PARADE OF EXCEPTIONS POPS IN HERE).

An SSN variation could cause confusion. Continue using your full name consistently and double check info on apps and on file when you do biz with companies.

You seem like you’re in good shape - not to worry.

Thanks Philster, I am going to check with the other agencies to see what they may have on file. Hopefully I won’t have to pay.

Re The DOB: You are right they did revert to the first of the month. So I guess it was an honest reporting mistake. Is it possible for this to keep happening? Was my correction request noted and if they try to change it again will my note over ride the change?

Re The Address: I figured as much as well and since it wan’t a negative I wasn’t too concerned. I just don’t want to have a “moves too frequently” to pop up if I happen to move in the near future.

SInce my credit is in great shape I wasn’t too worried but you never know if these are early signs of ID theft. I guess I would been worse off if they have CCs I never applied for and an new address when I haven’t moved.

Thanks again.

No- do check your other reports. Errors are endemic, and you are one of the lucky few that did not have a significant error that affected your credit score in a negative fashion.

Everyone needs to do this from time to time. I was surprised to find several serious errors on mine- like an account of my Fathers- who had been deceased for 10 years! The most common mistake I found was accounts listed as “open” that I had closed some time ago. This can reflect badly as it shows you have more open credit than you really do.

Now, don’t start a panic.

I have a feeling the DOB will keep reverting to the first of the month, but this is insignificant. It’s likely they’ve gone from a month/year format to a month/day/year format, and until all creditors are fully on baord, it will lag behind. Insignificant though.

Most people get along fine, error free. Millions of credit reports will be used today to extend credit (yes, millions). A percentage will be declined, and a percentage of that percentage will be declined because of errors.

You aren’t one of the lucky few…you are one of the typical consumers.

All major credit reporting agencies have the same information.
It’s good that you are correcting mistakes now.
Equifax is the largest credit agency and from experience takes the longest to make corrections. Also ask for the corrections in writing.

BTW you are entitled to a free credit report anytime you are turned down for credit. On the report it generally lists 2 credit agencies where you can get your free report

Expert here to debunk:

  1. They don’t have the same information. They have information in common, but there are differences. Especially public records, collection accounts and personal information.

  2. Equifax might be the largest, but privately owned TransUnion does not have it’s sales/profits/market share as public info. So, no way to guarantee who is biggest. Experian’s size is confusing because their revenue/profit is mixed in with other Great American store data.

  3. Equifax is required to respond to disputes in the same time frame as the others.

  4. You are entitled to a free credit report when turned down for credit, FROM THE AGENCY that SUPPLIED the report. It is almost always from ONE agency, and the company denying you credit must provide the contact info. SOMETIMES, more than one agency provides credit info, and this is usually for home loans and other big loans…again, usually. The emphasis is that you get a free report from the company that supplied the credit report that was used in the decision process.

Dudes- you do have to understand that Philster works for the Credit reporting industry and is thus a mite biased- although he is also knowledgable, note.

There have been 3 major studies I know of, about how often SIGNIFICANT errors creep in: The first was by PIRG (a public watchdog group) showing a 29% error rate (note they were talking about an error significant enough to get credit declined, not just a typo in your birthdate). Consumer Reports did a similar study, with similar results. However, the Credit reporting industry themselves did a study, and THEY came up with an error rate of 1%. Philster chooses to accept his own industries figures. I choose to accept those by unbiased public interest groups. You must also make your own choice here.

So- based up the unbiased data, it would seem about a third of credit requests get declined due to errors. This- IMO- is significant enough.

Over the last couple of decades I personally have seen many such errors creep into my personal credit report. Common were: old creditors re-appearing after 7 years, closed accounts showing as open, and good paid accounts never showing (this last is not usually the Reporting bureaus fault, note). Also have been- someone else with a similar name or SSN, or the same address, accounts never late that were reported as late, and my Dad’s accounts.

Now- you must understand that these errors were caused by the Credit GRANTOR in most cases, not Experian, etc. But in one case, I’d say Experian was at fault. I had a very old “Broadway” account, some 30 years old. It was late when I closed it (I moved, the bill never caught up to me…) no doubt. However, it stayed there for 7 years- then showed back up some decade later. I “disputed” this, and yes, indeed- Experian (they were TRW back then) checked with the grantor, then removed it. A few months later- there it was again. Dispute= remove. Back on, dispute, remove. Over & over for years & years. And here is where Experian went wrong- even though they could see that BW account had been repeatedly disputed & removed- they would keep putting it back on, and when I called to dispute they would EVERY TIME insist that they “had to check with the grantor before removing it”- which of course, took a few weeks. I actually had to have my Lawyer wrote them both a nasty letter with a threat to sue and a demand for damages before it stopped.

The following is my opinion only (Manny, forgive me?). I think that Credit reporting bureaus should be required to notify the individual whenever they recieve and post a "derog’ account. The reason for this is that one could have these erroneous Derogs creep into your account, and you wouldn’t know it until you applied for a loan- and you could lose that loan, and the “window” because of such an error. However, if you were so notified, then you could “dispute” at once, rather than a “surprise” later. However, although this has been suggested in Legislation, the Credit agencies don’t want it- as then they wouldn’t have th every nice deal of you paying $15 for 10 cents worth of copies of YOUR OWN PERSONAL INFO. There is no reason why we can’t get that info on-line for free.

DrDeth is certainly entitled to his spin, and tends to give good factual answers on these topics.

I like to think I stick to the issues raised by the OP, and address them. I sense DrDeth is ready to pounce on credit bureaus whenever someone has a question about them and expand the issue. But that’s cool! We both come to the table with some bias.

I wanted to reply only so you don’t think I just ducking out from Deth.

Mea Culpa :smiley: