Dispute personal details on reports?

[Anonymous]

Should I dispute the following incorrect info on my credit reports? I don't want to overuse the dispute option because I've heard that can be bad. That's why I'm coming to the experts regarding these issues. Member's here have been a huge help with come credit card issues. 

1) Experian  - Report shows that I have a "Spouse or co-applicant". I am pretty sure I never co-signed for anyone. I recognize the name, but I don't recall ever being a co-signer to this person I haven't talked to in about 10 years. 

2) Experian  - Shows an old phone number for me. I think I disconnected this line about 8 or 9 years ago. 

3) Experian  - Incorrect spelling of company name that I work for (it's listed 3 times, and one is incorrect) 

4) Experian  - Home address listed multiple times with and without unit numbers. 

5) Equifax  - Missing current employer, only has my old employer, I haven't worked there in 11 years. Should I update with my current employer?

6) Equifax  - Shows an old phone number for me. In this case it appears to only be listed with the address which I had that line. Same number as in the Experian  report. 

7) TransUnion  - Missing older employers.

*Note: I just did a dispute with Equifax and successfully had an incorrect name spelling taken off my report. Should I file and additional dispute for the issue listed above? 

*Note: I haven't pulled a full TransUnion  yet. Information comes from CK. 

Thanks for the help!

[RonM21]

You can if you really want it cleaned up. I know I wanted to dispute some personal info, but it said I have to call to do it.

[minski]

I've disputed personal info twice and that was only because the info was flat out wrong: employment where I've never had a job and a phone number I did not recognize. 

I don't think that they would have much issue with personal info disputes. Probably the warning was mostly for credit disputes. That'd make sense, wouldn't it? 

[takeshi74]

It's not that overuse of disputes is bad. It's that disputing can have untintended consequences if you're not careful (e.g. disputing inquires). Personal info should be no big deal for the most part as that info is mostly used to verify identity. However, your creditors report this information so if one of your creditors has incorrect information then disputing will only address the symptom and not the cause. The incorrect information could show up again.

Don't worry about missing employment info.  It's not a resume.

[youdontkillmoney]

The most important one to dispute in my eyes is #1; the others you can leave alone. But might as well correct all of it while you're at it if you're a perfectionist like me.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Should I dispute the following incorrect info on my credit reports? I don't want to overuse the dispute option because I've heard that can be bad. That's why I'm coming to the experts regarding these issues. Member's here have been a huge help with come credit card issues. 

1) Experian  - Report shows that I have a "Spouse or co-applicant". I am pretty sure I never co-signed for anyone. I recognize the name, but I don't recall ever being a co-signer to this person I haven't talked to in about 10 years. 

2) Experian  - Shows an old phone number for me. I think I disconnected this line about 8 or 9 years ago. 

3) Experian  - Incorrect spelling of company name that I work for (it's listed 3 times, and one is incorrect) 

4) Experian  - Home address listed multiple times with and without unit numbers. 

5) Equifax  - Missing current employer, only has my old employer, I haven't worked there in 11 years. Should I update with my current employer?

6) Equifax  - Shows an old phone number for me. In this case it appears to only be listed with the address which I had that line. Same number as in the Experian  report. 

7) TransUnion  - Missing older employers.

*Note: I just did a dispute with Equifax and successfully had an incorrect name spelling taken off my report. Should I file and additional dispute for the issue listed above? 

*Note: I haven't pulled a full TransUnion  yet. Information comes from CK. 

Thanks for the help!

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I was able to get #1 and #3 fixed, both deleted from my report. I was amazed at how quickly this was taken care of. I'm not going to worry about 2, 4, 5, 6, or 7. Thanks for the advice everyone! 

[Revelate]

FWIW I would try to correct anything that was mistaken; you can get wierdness on verification checks with strangely formatted addresses.

Disputing personal information isn't a big deal; however, Experian at any rate will make you call in to clean up past 3 within a given time period in my experience; I had something like 6 busted addresses after I moved, 5 of which weren't going to pass any USPS sniff test even.

Also I try to keep my employment information off my credit reports as much as possible; that's in enough databases already, I don't need another random set of verification entries and it's just more data for someone to make some assumption on which isn't needed.