Credit Reporting Agencies

[Guest2]

To start, I'm not advocating theft or deception. I wanted to put that out
there right from the begining. With that said, each person should get a
free Credit Report from the (3) Reporting Agencies. Lets see, we have
Experian, TransUnion and (ooops, alzhiemers). In this day and age of I.D.
theft, it is vital that you ensure the accuracy of each reports as they can
be different from one another.

Should you find a inaccurate entry, ie..... was 30 days late...... account
satisfied but not paid in full....etc... There is a method used to investigate
a claim of inaccuracy.

By going to the website, you can normally find a Request for Investigation
form, print it up and snail mail it back to the agency responsible for the
erroneous entry. The form is detailed and must include all information that
is requested of you. SS Number, Account Numbers and alike. I would give
the post office 3-4 days for delivery.

Once the reporting agency is in receipt of your request, they in turn will
attempt to contact the company in dispute via snail mail and wait for a
response. If within 21 working days, the Credit Reporting Agency does
not get a response from that company, the Consumer has the Legal Right
to change that information to the desired entry. The solution you intend
to achieve may have been documented on the Investigation Form that
you submitted previously (Sometimes its required).

One final note, should the company respond "after" the 21 working day
period, the company has the right to change the information back to its
original entry. Of coarse, you can enter a statement of dispute within
the report itself, but that doesn't outweigh the companies entry. Bad
information can stay on your credit Report for 7 years. Bankrupcies and
Judgement are NOT handle in the manner that was stated above. They
stay on your report for up to 11 years.

 

[Show-me]

Try Clark Hoard for info. http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/42/

 

[Guest2]

Try Clark Hoard for info. http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/42/

Excellant Show! With all the talk about Credit Card Debt and some
related threads popping up, I thought the information might become
useful. Your link is really good, thanks for sharing it !

 

[Buster]

Last spring I got a letter from one of my CC companies and they said Experian showed me has having less than good credit score..so I got on the ball and looked into it and sure enough..these credit agencies (the 3 stooges) are the most incompetent worthless credit ruining butt heads on the planet and should be outlawed from handling your life's credit report/history.

They had entries from people that were dead beats with my same name, but different middle initials and addresses and SSNs...WTF ever happened to cross checking?...these a-holes just entered in crap from these dead beat boozos under my name and was not concerned in the least if the info/data was valid for me...It took almost an act of congress on my part to get it all cleared up..but the burden was on my shoulders to do this..

make a long story short..My credit score soared back into the 800's.

 

[Silverbird]

Buster, keep an eye on those scallywags. Somehow someone else's Soc Sec record got mixed up with my husband's, resulting in him "going" to a hairstylist's school and defaulting, and a nursing school and defaulting, all while he was attending college in another state. He also has suffered identity theft. These records sometimes rear their ugly head again even though we have attempted to exorcise them. As a result, we make large purchases in my name and are very vigilant about keeping my credit reports free of false information. However, not everyone can do what we did.

 

[Callme_CO]

what do you do if you find out your identity has been stolen?

 

[Silverbird]

what do you do if you find out your identity has been stolen?

Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for that. We have replaced all of my husband's accounts with new ones, told local law enforcement (who didn't care, YMMV), told the credit agencies. We have not found one place, or even two to go to to clean everything up. Luckily, he's not the major breadwinner, or else we would be in a bigger mess than we are. We went for the shovel everything to the Bird's account (me), because we got tired of getting dumb looks or even demands to pay up for stuff we didn't buy. Our only revenge on the identity thief was our credit union wondered why my husband was buying 8 tickets to the Carribean with very little in his account. The airline got stiffed for the tickets one way, but was able to flag the return tickets as not paid for.

 

[Callme_CO]

that's crazy a guy here where i work has a common name and he keeps getting calls from dentist in NJ and other stuff up in washington state. He was told that the credit bureau's just find a name and dump the info on that person and it's up to him to dispute it. He almost lost his job over it...He say's it's a month thing he's dealing with.

 

[XL-entLady]

what do you do if you find out your identity has been stolen?

Silverbird is once again on my same wavelength, when she says there are no good alternatives.

My first reaction when I read your question was, "Well, you put your head between your legs and you kiss your butt goodbye...." Too much information?

Identity theft is becoming the new most common threat. And it's excruciatingly difficult to recover from. It usually involves closing every credit account you have and a fight to the death with the big 3 credit reporting agencies (Transunion, Experian and Equifax) to get your credit cleaned.

Do every thing you can to protect yourself: cross-cut shredding of all your garbaged paperwork, religious checking of your credit status, the latest internet protections if you internet purchase, etc.

I also have a debit card account in the same credit union as my main account, that I only use for my internet and other debit card purchases, and I keep it loaded with just enough money to cover what I've purchased (easy to do electronic transfers into the account), so that if the debit card number gets boosted then the overdraft notices will alert me to the problem and the thiefs will only get a little not a lot. For what it's worth,

Lady

 

[Callme_CO]

thanks for the info XL i figured they would be difficult to deal with.

 

[JTH]

For what it's worth, My credit cards have been hacked on two seperate occasions. Both were directly from Internet Purchases I made in the past. Two websites I had used had been hacked.

I don't have statistics, but I'd bet most identity theft stems from the internet.

Oh and my dad's phone got hacked last month by someone in Mexico. Thousands of dollars in International calls were made and he didn't notice untill he recieved a 3.000 dollar bill!!! :nuts:

YOUR PHONE CAN BE CLONED!

 

[Silverbird]

For what it's worth, My credit cards have been hacked on two seperate occasions. Both were directly from Internet Purchases I made in the past. Two websites I had used had been hacked.

I don't have statistics, but I'd bet most identity theft stems from the internet.

Oh and my dad's phone got hacked last month by someone in Mexico. Thousands of dollars in International calls were made and he didn't notice untill he recieved a 3.000 dollar bill!!! :nuts:

YOUR PHONE CAN BE CLONED!

For what it's worth, we think that our hack was from an internet purchase as well.

 

[Silverbird]

Ex-bankers on pushing customers to rack up debt

BELFAST, Maine (CNN) -- As an account manager for credit card giant MBNA, Cate Colombo spent four years speaking to customers, answering questions about interest rates and waiving late fees.

Kathy Ellingwood did the same. She lasted only a year and a half before quitting this summer.

The women worked in different departments at the sprawling customer call center in Belfast, Maine, yet they share similar stories about aggressive selling tactics they claim they were told to use to push cash advances, sometimes getting customers to max out their credit cards.

"Every customer who calls in is a mark. It's a great big con," said Colombo, who estimates that she alone sold almost a quarter of a billion dollars in the four years she worked for MBNA before it was bought in 2005 by Bank of America......

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/09/25/money.pushers/index.html

 

[Buster]

During my CC reduction efforts..I called CITI Bank and told them I no longer used their card and wasn't planning to anymore and wanted to close the account...The first person I was talking to, said he needed to hand me off to an account specialist..Translated, "a HIGH pressure time share sales rep" after about a half hour of asking them PLEASE cancel and close my account and with constant rebuttals from them, as to why I should keep the account open and they would send me an open ended check to pay off other debts at a low 2.9% interest..Blah, blah, blah..so in essences they wanted me to open another account in addition to the one I had and become indebted to them again..I hung up!

Called back again, but this time I told the first costumer service rep to close my account and not to hand me off to anyone or I would hang up..I got it closed and receive the confirmation letter as well in a few days..with a big notice on it that They will be notifying the Credit agencies of the action ...like it was a threat and they were punshing me.

 

[Silverbird]

I knew BofA (formerly MBNA) would pitch a tantrum if I closed my credit card with them, and I've had it for over 20 years, so it's part of my credit history. I just don't use the card.

 

[Guest2]

Last spring I got a letter from one of my CC companies and they said Experian showed me has having less than good credit score..so I got on the ball and looked into it and sure enough..these credit agencies (the 3 stooges) are the most incompetent worthless credit ruining butt heads on the planet and should be outlawed from handling your life's credit report/history.

They had entries from people that were dead beats with my same name, but different middle initials and addresses and SSNs...WTF ever happened to cross checking?...these a-holes just entered in crap from these dead beat boozos under my name and was not concerned in the least if the info/data was valid for me...It took almost an act of congress on my part to get it all cleared up..but the burden was on my shoulders to do this..

make a long story short..My credit score soared back into the 800's.

An excellant example for all to read ! Thanks Buster !

 

[Guest2]

For what it's worth, we think that our hack was from an internet purchase as well.

For what its worth, I trust the Internet for purchases. However, if the
web address is not secured (ie.... Https) then you might as well post
your Social on a Message Board for all to see. Always make sure your
purchases AND passwords are entered on "Secured" websites. Your
bank website would be a prime example of what it should look like when
your logging in. Just another tidbit, for those who never noticed.

 

[Buster]

For what its worth, I trust the Internet for purchases. However, if the
web address is not secured (ie.... Https) then you might as well post
your Social on a Message Board for all to see. Always make sure your
purchases AND passwords are entered on "Secured" websites. Your
bank website would be a prime example of what it should look like when
your logging in. Just another tidbit, for those who never noticed.

Excellent tip..(compliment back at you)..But seriously..I just learned that the other day too from one of the IT geeks here at work...

look for the Https://..the s is for secure.

Thanks SB..