By the way, don’t pay for one if you don’t have to.
There’s TV ads right now for a free report but when you pause the playback and read the fine print you are signing up for a paid credit watch service. They also give the real free government authorized site annualcreditreport.com
So, anyway, I did mine and got two surprises.
A bank that refused to issue me a card had me listed as having an open account with no balance and a $100 dollar limit. I’m not going to contest that one, even though I checked their letter and they turned me down all right.
And then there was a judgement from a city agency, years ago, which was in error, someone with the same name and different social number. They eventually sent me a letter that the judgement had been recinded. But my credit report shows a second judment instead of the first one being rescinded.
So naturally I’m disputing those.
And I have to wonder if that’s why the first bank mentioned turned me down.
I contested nearly an entire report – TransUnion had my information mixed up with my father’s (same name) and someone else ( I surely didn’t declare bankruptcy at 14).
That happened to me too. My father has the same first name and middle initial (and last name) that I do. The first time I pulled my credit reports, I nearly freaked. They had me married to his wife and credit cards that were issued before I was born.
I called each of the three big credit companies. They had a special department for this. We just went to down the list and I told them what to delete.
Worked out quite well especially since some of the stuff really was mine. I also got two entries removed by calling the parties that posted the credit ding and told them that I would be extra special good if they took it off. Worked like a charm.
I had to write letters and send lots of stuff and do it a few times, but I finally got the items that were not my own taken off my credit report. (A family member had impersonated me and stolen my credit.)
I was trying to get financed for a truck many years ago. The only negative thing I had on my report was a bill for 90 something bucks to a bill collector.
The loan officer asked me if I planed on taking care of this. I told him “No, because that bill belongs to a dispute I have with America On Line.”
The loan officer then responds with “Oh! Them?! Phbbbts… Forget them then…” He then proceded with processing my loan with out even batting an eye.
I thought it was quite funny in my book. AOL has such a horrible reputation creditors don’t even take them seriously when they try to ding peoples credit history.
I found one item from a collection agency. I contested a credit card charge for a non-delivered item I ordered in the mails, and got a credit card chargeback. Apparently the seller still tried to collect the money from me even though the item was never shipped. Eventually they sent it to a collection agency. It was only for a lousy $75, but I stood my ground. I wrote down all the details and mailed it to TransUnion and after a few months, the offending item was deleted from my report.
I’ve had car loans listed that weren’t mine, issued in cities I didn’t even live near. I’ve had credit cards from banks I’ve never visited. I’ve had mortgages from towns I don’t even know where they are. It all comes from having a very common first and last name; both my first and last names are in the top 3 most common in the U.S. My experience makes me doubt the due diligence of the credit reporting companies. In all the cases a call to the creditor got it straightened out; but it’s annoying and a waste of my time when it could have been avoided if they’d been more careful.
I had an entry removed that was actually correct, a utility bill I’d paid six months late because I’d moved and the new tenant just threw it out. Once they located me I paid right up, inculding late fees, but it was accurately posted on my report. Calling Experien, I asked them to confirm it. Since it was never confirmed it stayed off. I don’t know whether the utility actually reviewed my record or just never responded to the credit bureau.
I got my free ones earlier this year and corrected a few relatively minor mistakes. One had my wrong middle initial, another had me listed as being 55 years old (I’m 27). In both cases they were resolved with a phone call and a few weeks’ processing time. I hope I never have to deal with anything major.
By the way, I think that the last of the federal laws (covering various regions) have gone into effect entitling everyone to one free copy from each of the three reporting agencies each year. I think you do have to pay to see your actual credit score, but you should be able to review the reports yourself (once per year) for free.
All I got was an endless phone runaround from the bank in question. At one point, they promised to send me the proper form to remediate the error. It never arrived.
I have no middle initial and nearly every card shows me with a different one. I guess middle names are considered mandatory in the red states, but they should know that most immigrants don’t use one (except from Mexico, where they use two middle names).
As to the free reports, that link at the top is the way to go. The “credit score” may be the one number they use for making “pre-approved” lists, but that’s about all. A good report will get a good “credit score”.
That said, I got a credit card from PayPal. It was underwritten by Providian, and they give me the score for free, every month. It’s kind of goofy to see it rise and fall a couple of points every month as I do absolutely nothing different. Go figger.
There is a woman in town with the same name as my wife. Every other year, something gets added to our credit reports, and every other year we have it removed. It gets old and tiresome, but they are good about talking it off.
One credit card company, however, has serious issues. We would get dunning notices for that same woman - and with a completely different account number. After the third “it will never happen again, we don’t know how this happened”, we canceled our card and shredded.
I have error problems with bill collectors and my own credit is fine.
They are dunning the person who had the phone number before me.
Although I aways answer “Jakes Sunoco Station” they can’t believe it’s not her home number. They try to phrase the questions different every time and never give up.
