Here at Tier One, we’ve talked quite a bit about the importance of monitoring your credit. Hopefully, you’ve signed up for Credit Karma, as well as freecreditscore.com. Between these two websites, you’ll have access to all three of your credit reports, as well as your Vantage Score for TransUnion & Equifax, and your Experian credit scores from FICO.
You will also want to obtain your credit reports from Annual Credit Report, which is the official website, as required by federal law, to obtain your free credit reports. Ideally, you should check your reports through Credit Karma and freecreditscore.com at least once per month, and through Annual Credit Report at least once per year.
Your credit report contains hundreds of pieces of data, on everything ranging from the age and balances of your credit accounts, to your payment history, credit applications and pulls (known as inquiries), as well as your name(s), addresses, and supposed date of birth. While some of these pieces of information might be accurate, much of it isn’t.
For several reasons, we suggest removing all previous and outdated addresses, as well as any names or date of birth which doesn’t match, from your credit reports. There are several reasons to do this, which we’ve reviewed below.
1. Risk Of Identity Theft
Normally, credit bureaus, as well as creditors, will only contact you at the address they have on file for you. However, when multiple addresses appear on your credit reports, there is a risk that your personal documents or information might be sent to your old address, perhaps by accident. Now, if you no longer reside at that address, what might happen if someone whom you don’t know gains access to your mail? Since identity theft is more common than ever, this is a risk you’ll want to avoid in the future.
2. More Complex Loan Applications
When you apply for a mortgage, lenders will carefully scrutinize every piece of personal information they have access to. They’ll review your tax returns, bank statements, credit reports and debts carefully, to make sure that you are qualified, in terms of your earnings, debt levels, as well as credit scores.
One piece of information which lenders will see, is the list of your previous addresses. For each address, you’ll be asked to provide an explanation for why it appears on your credit report (i.e. you lived there), as well as the dates when you resided at this address. If you are a first time homebuyer, and thus somewhat younger, and have moved around quite a bit, this could prove to be quite a task.
By removing old addresses from your credit report, your mortgage process will become simpler. This requirement of explaining older addresses isn’t just true for mortgages, but can also apply to auto loans, personal loans, and other types of credit.
3. Identity Mixup
One of the more common causes of errors on credit reports results from mixed identity, where your identity, and thus your credit data, is confused with that of another person. This is known as a “mixed file.” Perhaps you have a popular name, and your name is mixed up with someone else. Maybe that other person is even a relative – mismatched credit data between a parent and child, or siblings, especially with the same or similar name, is quite common.
In other cases, the fact that you shared an address with another person, could result in credit information which belongs to them, appearing on your report, and vice versa. While credit reporting data is usually supposed to match to a Social Security Number, mistakes can happen.
Unfortunately, the consequences of such errors can be severe. If your file is mixed up with that of someone who has collections, late payments, or other negative credit items, you might see your score plummet quickly. While removing old addresses, or an incorrect name, does not guarantee that you won’t end up with a mixed file, it does reduce the chances.
4. Debt Validation Requests & Credit Disputes
As we’ve discussed before, you’ll want to dispute errors on credit reports by mail, rather than online. In some cases, people who have disputed credit report errors by mail, or sought validation of a debt, have found that responses to credit disputes were sent to their old address, rather than to where they currently live. Having this happen can disrupt one’s efforts to clean up errors on credit reports, since you aren’t aware of how your credit report disputes have been addressed so far.
How To Remove Outdated Or Incorrect Names & Addresses From Credit Reports
Fortunately for you, it is fairly easy to remove these items. Unlike disputes of credit reporting errors, which we only suggest doing by mail, it is fine to dispute names and addresses online. You can challenge information with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at the included links.
You can also write a letter to the credit bureaus at the addresses listed here, and state that “My current address is _____. My full name is _____.” Please remove the following addresses and names (and list out each outdated name or address). Include a copy of your photo ID. Feel free to email [email protected] for a sample letter.
The Final Word
Making sure that all of the information on your credit reports is in fact accurate and current is very important. Given how many aspects of our lives are impacted by credit, it’s crucial that we get it right. Follow the steps above, and you’ll be able to ensure that your credit is in great shape.
