December 15th, 2011 Does Your Credit Report Look Off? You May Have a “Mixed File”
By the AllClearID Team
George here from the AllClear ID investigation team. If you’ve reviewed your free annual credit report and something looks off it may not necessarily be identity theft. A very common error at credit bureau agencies is the addition of inaccurate information on a consumer’s credit card, meaning more and more accounts are being reported to the wrong credit report. That type of error is called file contamination, or a “mixed file.”
How does this happen? Very easily, unfortunately, and both creditors and the credit bureaus can be at fault. When creditors do a credit inquiry or collection agencies report an account to the credit bureaus, they don’t need a SSN, only a name and home address. Very common names have a higher tendency to be incorrectly associated with another person with the same name or a similar address. Examples are a Joe Smith who lives in Los Angeles, or a Bill Johnson Sr. and a Bill Johnson Jr. who live in the same town.
This means that if you find an incorrect variation of your name or a wrong address on your credit file, your file may be contaminated. In the case where negative accounts are reported, your credit score will take a dent through no fault of your own. You may think fraudsters are plying identity theft when in fact it’s simply a credit reporting agency or one of your creditors making a clerical error.
If you have a common name, or you’re a Junior or Senior in your family, you must take precautions to just use one deviation of spelling your name. And be sure to obtain a copy of your credit report at least once a year, or one to two months prior to applying for credit so you can catch and fix mistakes in time.
Check the personal information section of your credit report from all three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). It should include your name and any other past versions of your name, including a marriage-related name change. If you have applied for credit in the past under a different name, and that name is not listed, it may be a warning that your file is split. If your report shows your name with a different middle initial, that should alert you that your file may be mixed with someone else’s. Also be sure to check that all previous addresses are accurate. A listed address that you did not live at is a red flag that your file may be mixed. An old address that is not listed at all may also be a warning sign.
It’s important to check all three credit reports because creditors may not report to all of them; debts from smaller creditors may only be reported to one reporting bureau, while larger debts, such as home mortgages, are typically reported to all three. And don’t forget, you have the right to a copy of 1 report from each credit bureau once a year, so you should be able to check for error for free.
A small difference in your credit scores from each credit bureau is normal; a big difference, more than 30 points or so, may be an indication your credit file is mixed.
If an AllClear ID customer discovers inaccurate information on their credit file, we prepare “blocking letters,” requesting the credit bureaus correct the information and provide the customer with an updated credit report. These letters are mailed to the credit bureaus via certified mail, paid by us, along with other pertinent personal documentation. After receiving a blocking letter, credit bureaus have 30 days to make the correction and respond to the customer.
Views expressed are the personal views of the author and do not represent the views of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, its employees, its members, or its clients.