topic Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected! in Personal Finance

Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

SoCalGardener — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:20:45 GMT

Until coming back to this forum last year, I hadn't even thought about checks and/or check-related bureaus like Chex Systems or TeleCheck in eons. I recently decided to request a report from CS, as I had from LexisNexis and several other places. Well, its report came today...and it's not exactly what I expected.

I kept turning its pages waiting to get to the report part of the report...and got to the last page without noticing anything. I went back and started over. That's when I noticed what comprised the report--a few text boxes, such as "Reported Information" and "Inquiries Viewed by Others," ALL of which had this under them: "No information found."

Is this normal? I've had the same checking account at BofA for 30+ years.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. I don't write actual checks much any more, maybe one a year under normal circumstances, but I guess I thought there would be information regarding my checking account and how it's been handled.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

dmFICO8 — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 01:02:18 GMT

As long your personal info is correct, it is all good!

"No information found" is a good thing on our ChexSystems report.

When you have a baddie in your closed checking or savings, financial institutions will report the info and appear on "Reported information". When a financial institution pulls a report in order to open an account for you, those pulls similar to credit inquiries will appear on "Inquiries Viewed by Others", and those inquires will stay on your report for 3 years.

No infomation just means you have no baddies and haven't opened a checking/savings in last 3 years, or when you opened your accounts, the financial instition didn't pull your Chex report.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

cashorcharge — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 01:33:22 GMT

If you don't have any negative banking related information on Chex...then the only thing that would show up is when the report was pulled for new accounts. As you mentioned you've banked with BofA for 30 years, that inquiry has long gone and without any new accounts opened, it will show no activity. When it does report inquiries, they last 5 years (I "think") and then their gone for good.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

SoCalGardener — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 01:55:27 GMT

Okay, now it all makes sense! I was expecting a REPORT report, you know? Not just "no information" under every heading. I thought maybe it was a mistake somehow....

Since separating my banking from my [now ex-]husband's, I haven't had any sort of 'baddies' where bank accounts are concerned. No NSF checks, no overdraft fees, no declined checks, etc. So, in my case, I now know it's a *good* thing there was nothing on my report!

Thanks for the info.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

SoCalGardener — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 21:01:37 GMT

Yesterday, another component of what I'd requested arrived in the mail--it's my Chex Systems consumer score. The paperwork says that scores range from 100-899, the higher the better. My score?

9999!

(It goes on to say that a score of 9999 means there's insufficient information to create a score. Oh well, I thought I was extremely awesome there for a moment! )

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

xenon3030 — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 20:50:48 GMT

I reviewed my CS report for the first time. It had only inquirty information and all the provided data covered only the past 6 months. Is there any way to get more detailed data, covering possibly the last 5-6 years?

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

Have1 — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:32:48 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
I reviewed my CS report for the first time. It had only inquirty information and all the provided data covered only the past 6 months. Is there any way to get more detailed data, covering possibly the last 5-6 years?

According to my Chex System report:

Reported Information
ChexSystems' clients, which consist mainly of financial institutions, furnish information on closed checking and
savings accounts, referred to as reported information. ChexSystems’ current practice is to retain reported
information for a period of five years. The source is under no obligation to remove accurate information, even if
paid, but is obligated to update the report with a paid in full or settled in full status and date when applicable.

Inquiries Viewed By Others
This section refers to transactions involving you and are the result of someone accessing your ChexSystems
information, typically in connection with a business transaction you initiated with them. The company listed on
this type of inquiry requested information from your consumer file on the date(s) specified. These inquires may
impact your consumer report and may be included in reports to others. These inquiries remain on your file for
up to 3 years.

Retail Information
Retail Information refers to returned checks reported by retailers and other businesses to Certegy Check
Services. ChexSystems receives this information from Certegy Check Services, is not involved in the collection
of these items, and retains record of retail information for a period of four years.

So, it looks like 5 years of reporting on closed accounts, 3 years of reporting inquiries and 4 years for bad checks. Of course, this all requires that the bank participates in (or always reports to) ChexSystem. It's basically a negative event reporter so not having data in it is positive.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

SoCalGardener — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:39:43 GMT

@Have1 wrote:
It's basically a negative event reporter so not having data in it is positive.

^ This is what I didn't realize! I expected a report, good or bad, like credit reports--they report everything, not just negative data.

I'm still glad I ordered it, though, for two reasons: 1) it was free!, and, 2) it confirmed that nothing suspicious has happened using my info.

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:53:18 GMT

Glad MyFico exists as readers such as myself did not even know about Chex Systems and LexisNexis. Nice to be on top of our information!

Re: Chex Systems report--not what I expected!

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 23:15:05 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
Yesterday, another component of what I'd requested arrived in the mail--it's my Chex Systems consumer score. The paperwork says that scores range from 100-899, the higher the better. My score?

9999!

(It goes on to say that a score of 9999 means there's insufficient information to create a score. Oh well, I thought I was extremely awesome there for a moment! )

Great user experience , obviously they couldn't possibly use something like N/A there! Hopefully somewhere there is a lender who uses the average of three FICOs and CS scores, then you will be all set!