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Topic: Credit Bureaus

Timebandit
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1448

posted 11 August 2003 04:50 PM

Well, I am sitting here, having been on hold at a credit bureau for over 2 hours. I'm trying to get my info up-to-date in case I decide to apply for credit in the next month or so, and have found an inconsistency on my report that I'd like to ask about before mailing off the requisite reams of paper. All I need is 5 minutes, probably less, of somebody's time to make sure I get it right and avoid doing the whole bloody thing over again.

I can imagine that working at a credit bureau is not a pleasant job. You probably deal with a lot of cranky people. I'm guessing, though, that people on hold for (literally, in my case) hours are a lot crankier.

Then again, why offer good service when they've got you over a barrel?

From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged

Sine Ziegler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 225

posted 12 August 2003 09:46 PM

From my experience, I'll bet that the person you are on hold with ( I am assuming you got to talk to at least one person ) is asking a more senior agent, and they are doing research on your enquiry. But why they can't do a call by boggles me.

From: Calgary | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

Sine Ziegler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 225

posted 12 August 2003 09:48 PM

By the way, does anybody know anything about the following?

I applied for a credit card through RBC back in November and when I sat down with my investment lady, she put my current address in the system to check my credit. I was living in a rented house at the time with 6 other roomates. The results came back VERY negative and I guess that house was high risk. I informed her that it wasn't me! I didn't have any credit at all at that time. I gave her my parents address instead and everything was fine.

I asked my friend who works at another bank and he said that my address should have nothing to do with credit checks. Does anybody know how this all works? Just interested.

Of course I got my credit card

From: Calgary | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 12 August 2003 09:52 PM

No, your address shouldn't have anything to do with it. They go by the individual, not their creditors or their houses. They generally look you up by name, birthdate, and SIN. If the roomies weren't paying the rent at that place, then the landlord would have to report that on the files of the individuals, not on an address. That really shouldn't have anything to do with it.

From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

Timebandit
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1448

posted 12 August 2003 09:54 PM

No, I didn't ever speak to anyone. After 2 hrs and 45 minutes, I gave up. All my redials in the last day and a half have been put into the call queue and not answered. This would, of course, be the line you call if you need to correct information... Gosh knows, if you have incorrect information on your bureau, you are an automatic deadbeat worm... Anyway, I faxed them a whack of paper, most of which they probably don't need, but figured, just in case, that I had better leave nothing out. We'll see if I ever hear from them.

Sine, address should have nothing to do with your credit check, other than to identify you as the correct person (I have a friend with a common name who gets lots of confusion due to a guy with bad credit who goes by the same name).

From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged

Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 12 August 2003 09:59 PM

Oh wait, if that address was the ONLY parameter she used to look up your credit rating, then that very well could be that she pulled up someone else's credit file other than yours. But I don't know why she would use your address rather than your name and SIN or date of birth.

Of course, if you have no credit rating at all, then even with your name and date of birth and SIN, she won't be able to pull anything up on you, so maybe she was trying just your address. After all, sometimes people's names are spelled wrong, or there's a digit wrong in the DOB or SIN, in which case they wouldn't be able to pull up a record.

Can you tell I used to be the lucky dog who had to do credit checks at a past job?

From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

Sine Ziegler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 225

posted 12 August 2003 10:03 PM

Hmm that makes more sense now. I love how the credit bureaus these days ahve such elusive names.

I get a lot of calls at work from credit agencies. They have names like NCO Financial... haha. I had a roomie who got a call from NCO and to call him back. He though it was an investment company. I told him to avoid them at all costs. hee.

From: Calgary | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

Timebandit
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1448

posted 12 August 2003 10:14 PM

Is that a credit bureau or a collection agency? I hadn't heard of them. The two main bureaus are Transunion and Equifax.

From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged

Sine Ziegler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 225

posted 13 August 2003 01:01 AM

Oops you are right. It's a collection agency.

From: Calgary | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

audra trower williams
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2

posted 13 August 2003 10:57 AM

I just got my credit reports from TransUnion and Equifax. They were way less alarming than I thought they would be. Yay!

From: And I'm a look you in the eye for every bar of the chorus | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

LocoMoto
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4120

posted 13 August 2003 11:13 AM

quote:
No, your address shouldn't have anything to do with it.

This is true for the most part, but most credit scoring systems will knock some points off if you've changed addresses frequently in the recent past. The reasoning is that this is sometimes a symptom of financial distress.

From: North Carolina | Registered: May 2003 | IP: Logged

Privateer
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3446

posted 20 August 2003 12:23 AM

I work at a bank callcentre and I do credit card applications. Sometimes at the beginning of applications a message such as "address used in fraud" or "phone number used in fraud" pops up. If the date on message is recent than I refer the customer to the branch. That's what I suspect happened with the rental house. It's not about bad credit but actual lawbreaking.

From: Haligonia | Registered: Dec 2002 | IP: Logged

Kindred
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3285

posted 20 August 2003 11:27 PM

Wow you jus tmade me realize something - i have had an A1 credit rating for years, however when we moved into the townhouse we were renting for awhile suddenly Equifax is giving me a really really BAD credit rating. I dont have any overdue bills, no collections, no bad actions, and my one and only credit card is right up to date, they just increased my limit on it in fact - Iown 2 houses, never ever missed a payment to the mortgage company -- I have been wondering what the hell is going on - I bet it IS the address.

Its a real dive with hookers and drug dealers, but all we could get at the time - there were 2 shootings while we were living there and the cops were there every day -- sometimes for as long as 8 hours at a stretch rounding up people --

From: British Columbia | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Kindred
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3285

posted 20 August 2003 11:52 PM

If you are buying and selling houses, and they give you a bad rating for moving often thats pretty darn stupid - I have bought four houses in three years and moved a number of times - into rental housing while waiting for a real estate deal to complete - lived in all four houses for awhile before selling and buying another --

Now I am angry, there is no way on earth to talk to anyone at Equifax anymore, they have a web site that charges for your credit report - isnt that illegal? A phone service that doesnt work, you can enter all your data on line and it takes about 20 minutes and then it has a brain fart - it told me I didnt exist -- you cant talk to a real person, all my faxes have been ignored and the last time I requested a credit report by mail I got one in French - when I requested one of English, three times, I never did get it --

Transunion is still giving me an A1 credit rating, I have had problems with Equifax my entire life - they once put all of my sons info on my report, I got that cleared up and they then put all my exe husbands on my report - got that cleared up - they then had three collection actions that werent mine on there - someone with the same last name and same intitials as me - got that cleared up and had an A1 rating for two years and now they have some new bee in their bonnet and I am ready to drive to Montreal and kill someone..

From: British Columbia | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Kindred
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3285

posted 20 August 2003 11:56 PM

Jesus F--- Christ my email to equifax was just returned as undeliverable - how the bloody hell does anyone EVER get hold of them? I think this warrants a call to my MP or the Attorney General or someone

quote:
This is the Postfix program at host smtp0.atl.equifax.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.
For further assistance, please send mail to
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the message returned below.
The Postfix program
: host postoffice-3.equifax.com[192.168.4.20] said: 550 Error:
group-b-4-30 (in reply to end of DATA command)

From: British Columbia | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Privateer
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3446

posted 23 August 2003 08:06 PM

Talk to your local bank or credit union manager. I have heard that they sometimes have a phone number that leads to a real person at Equifax. They may deny it at first, even if they have the number. Or you may have to answer a riddle ;>)

From: Haligonia | Registered: Dec 2002 | IP: Logged

Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 23 August 2003 11:47 PM

Yes, they do have a number that reaches a live person. I know because I used to be the person who did the credit checks, and there was a number you could call if you couldn't find anything on someone, or if there was some kind of discrepancy that was confusing. It got so that I knew a couple of them quite well.

I don't remember the number though - it was five and a half years ago. Too bad.

From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

Timebandit
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1448

posted 25 August 2003 01:07 PM

The Equifax dispute line is 1-800-865-3908. Now, I rather doubt this is the line used for creditors doing checks, as they have no trouble getting through... Anyway, I have been on hold on my secondary phone line for an average of 5 to 6 hours a day for the last week. I have not yet made contact with a human. Just hours and hours of very monotonous elevator musak. They did, however, look at my fax and mail a response, which did not answer the specific question I asked...

Kindred, you pay for the online credit report, but you can still mail a request for a free one. You're paying for the online access, not the report, per se. I found their online service a little easier to manage than Transunion's, which requires a newer version of explorer to work.

From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged

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