Personal information disputes

[Bloke named Joe]

Re disputing personal information with CRA's. There are tons of incorrect spellings of my name on my report. I have an "ethnic" name that has a lot more letters in it than most American names. It seems that creditors just spelled it whatever way they liked and reported under it. Sometimes they reversed my last name and my first name. Other times they used my middle initial then incorrect spellings for first and last name. There are at least 10 variations of my name on my report, 12 different addresses, 5 different phone numbers and two old employers :confused:. Can I call the CRA's to get them removed? Also, there is a bit of a twist. Last year I legally changed my first name for professional reasons (under the rec' of my graduate advisor that short first name long last name would be easier). I'd really only like my "new" legal name and my correct former name on there. If they removed my former name altogether that would be fine too but I don't imagine that would be possible. All of the other variations need to go. How would I go about that? Would I just call and say -I've never gone by that name, please remove or I've never lived at that address please remove? Would I also call all three to handle it? TransUnion and Equifax wouldn't let me view my report online I had to call to get it mailed. Would that mean that they wont handle business on the phone as well?


Bloke named Joe

[Trish]

I am guessing most of those name variations are on EX... The biggest PITA CRA. :rolleyes:
The best way to get personal info removed quickly is by either calling the CRAs up or doing online. It usually updates in a couple of days.
Now with EX I know that if you call them, they will even tell you which names can and cannot be removed.....and if you get a cool enough CSR, they will tell you which creditor is reporting your name that way.
If a creditor reports your name wrong, the CRAs don't care even if you send them in a current ID to prove it's wrong...... they will report it how the creditor gave it to them.
So if they say they can't delete it for that reason, you will have to go directly to that creditor (call or write them) and ask them to please correct it and then report it correctly. It sux and it may take a while but it's the only way to fix it as far as I know. You may have to provide the creditors paperwork proving your new legal name... but hopefully that will fix the problem.
If it happens to be a CA (or someone you don't care to contact right away) then you may want to just wait and skip that one for now. Once the acct is deleted from your CRs, then you can turn around and dispute the name that they were reporting.

When it comes to personal info......get AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE removed. Phone numbers, employment history, spouse, ss# variations and previous addresses. Just say you never lived there, never worked there, wrong number, not my spouse..... they don't know.
The addys may be a little more difficult with EX (for the same reason as the name variations) so just get as much as you can removed for now.

You can also pretty much dispute all of the personal info at once (in one phone call or one online dispute). TU and EQ probably want you to prove your identity first. You can still try calling them but they may request you to send in a picture ID and proof of current address and ss#.

Hope that all made sense. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[beju_moon]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I legally change my whole name (first, middle, last) and recently my former name has started to appear on Ex file under my new name. I called EX and they removed all variations of my former name. I'm wondering if personal information, once removed from your credit file, can never again be posted on your credit file, per law....like accounts? (hope that makes sense)


edit to add: I love this site, it's soo newbie friendly

[chane]

The names can show back up if new accounts with the previous name start reporting to the CRA. What I mean is... if an old collection starts reporting for whatever reason with your old name, the CRA will take the old name from that CA and at it to the list of names.

[beju_moon]

Originally Posted by chane

The names can show back up if new accounts with the previous name start reporting to the CRA. What I mean is... if an old collection starts reporting for whatever reason with your old name, the CRA will take the old name from that CA and at it to the list of names.

I was thinking that might be the case. thanks

[Wskynet]

will the CRAs want my updated/current address and what not after I ask them remove all the other addresses??