How many have had inaccuracies in their Credit Reports?

[tigerstar]

I was just curious…the FICO thread got me thinking about the mess that my credit report was in. I requested my free credit reports last September. Turns out, things were a mess because of my name. It happens to be my mother’s name as well. I guess it doesn’t help that I live at home, too. Of course, I have a different social security number (duh!), and a different birthday, but I also have a middle name, which I use for anything official. Still, our credit reports seem to be intertwined.

First of all, it says on my report that I took out a mortgage…a month before I was born. My Experian report also noted my mom’s social security number as a “variation” od my SSN. I think the DOB was wrong, too (which might account for the SSN “variation”) TransUnion also had a CC listed a year before I was born, but with this company, the DOB was correct!

I went through the process of requesting an investigation for each reporting agency, and I saw that the changes were made. I already have a note on my calendar to remind myself when I can request my credit reports again, and hopefully there won’t be too much to clean up. Mom's been doing some balance transfers lately, though, so I'll have to watch out for those!

Oh, and I tried to get my mom to get her report online…but we keep getting a message telling her that she’s already requested her report. I gave mom the number to call, but I guess it’s just not high enough on her list… I gotta start bugging her about it again…

Anyway, I was just wondering who else had inaccurate reports!

[lrjohnson]

This will get me riled up.

More than seven years ago, I had some fines due to being a Bad Girl. I paid and paid and paid, over $5000 on the fines part: a Sheriff's Work Alternative Program Fee (paying for the privelege or working for the Sheriff instead of doing time-available for small offenses), booking, Fine 1, Fine 2, a ticket. I paid for years, chipping away. Then, I paid it off. Paid what the balance was on my last bill. Three or four years later, tossed some of the detailed payment records, like an idiot.

Got a credit report recently. It shows $4 unpaid on a fine. I call and say "huh"? I find out that I supposedly have $4 unpaid-I ask how come I never got any more bills or notices? The County states that the last credit recovery place had address X on file. I respond, "Address X? I hadn't lived there in years-the last 3 years I made payments and received bills, I was at address Y!" The County says, "Yup, that sounds like what we hear about that credit recovery place. That's why we fired them and hired a new place."

The new place won't take it off until the County says it's okay. The County said I had to prove I paid it. I have my excel spreadsheet, but trying to match it against there records is so goofy-when I paid on fine 1, they posted against fine 2, etc. etc.

I said, look, I will pay the blankety blank $4. But please remove it from my credit report. Obviously, if I worked to pay thousands over years, I would not have left $4. And you just admitted they had bad records, so they may not have mailed me an "oops, you thought you paid us off but there's $4 left" letter.

I've gotten "That's too bad, bum deal but I can't help" from both the County and the New Place. I know I have to fight fight fight, but I was so incredibly demoralized I can't yet.

I paid other thousands off to be honorable, and my credit it not so hot. My friend left a larger bill (to me-around $2k I think) unpaid many years ago, and it's over 7 years, he just got his report, he is squeaky clean. My report is worse. If I had left some of my bills unpaid they would have been over 7 years and droppped off too (not the fines). I struggled to pay my honest debt and am not rewarded.

I know it's not true, and I'm glad i paid my fines and other debt, but this $4 on my report actually brings tears to my eyes.


My (modified) minimum wage challenge

[dmontngrey]

I have a similar problem as you Tigerstar. If you switch the first letter of my mom's name with her middle initial, you get MY first name and middle initial! Not enough of a difference for credit reporting agencies - especially experian. My mother has credit problems and several of her defaulted items were showing up on my report. There was one item in good standing, but it looked like I took out a loan in junior high. Her name, social security number, and birth date showed up as variations of my information. Why would anyone think I was born in 1948 AND 1977? Needless to say I sure cleaned that up fast! And then promptly reminded my husband that he was very lucky to be born the second son...

I haven't seen my mother's credit report. I should talk to her about that. Although anything of mine that may show up could only help her report. I still would like to see a copy to see if there are any negative items I could get removed for her.

[tigerstar]

That's what I don't understand... for something that is so important to us, not only for loans & CCs, but also when trying to get a job or an apartment, or whatever else our credit histories are used for, how can such glaring mistakes be allowed? Doesn't a huge flag go up when a report has two SSNs, or in dmontngrey's case, two birthdays??? I'm not even sure who is really to blame... I'd assume most of the fault lies with the credit reporting agencies. I mean, they're the ones collecting all of this info on us. But then I was thinking that maybe their hands are tied, say if a bank was given conflicting information by the consumer, but when the reporting agency brings it to their attention, the bank decides to lend the person the $$ anyway. Does this even make sense? I really don't know how all of our information is gathered up by these agencies, but it seems like whatever system they use is designed to catch as much information about a person as possible, whether the information pertains to the person or not!

I'm just glad these reports are finally available to us fee-free, even if only once every year!