topic Re: regarding male or female on credit card in Credit Cards

regarding male or female on credit card

ThriftySaver — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:38:48 GMT

I have a friend who is transgender but has a female name everytime he calls the credit card company they always ask a lot of security questions, can't credit card companies tell if a person is male or female on crdit report?

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

Closingracer99 — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:58:02 GMT

@ThriftySaver wrote:
I have a friend who is transgender but has a female name everytime he calls the credit card company they always ask a lot of security questions, can't credit card companies tell if a person is male or female on crdit report?

IDK how transgenders work but I would assume they would still have the same social security number. I would think they can tell with the social security number his "Gender" based on prior history?

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

SunriseEarth — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 09:01:56 GMT

@ThriftySaver wrote:
I have a friend who is transgender but has a female name everytime he calls the credit card company they always ask a lot of security questions, can't credit card companies tell if a person is male or female on crdit report?

The FICO model was designed to make things as data- and number-based as possible, so specific information that would identify gender or other protected classes is not included. This is to ensure that applicants are judged strictly on credit worthiness and to help eliminate bias. On manual review, assumptions might be drawn from names that are traditionally gender-specific, but that certainly is not a definitive indicator of gender expression or identity.

Generally, any change to personal information from address changes to name changes can cause security issues on credit. Apps will often ask about former names for this very reason.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

ThriftySaver — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 09:31:34 GMT

so you are saying basically the financial institutions have no way of judging by gender but instead by the name of the person?

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:18:46 GMT

I wouldn't say it's impossible to find gender as on public records or if you voluntarily provided it (i.e. on a mortgage app) but for purposes of a frontline CSR and the credit report/FICO data, no its not there. Has your friend ever gone by another name? Maybe two first names are reporting on CR which could throw up red flags.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:20:26 GMT

Also, what does your friend sound like on the phone? If I were a CSR and got a call from "Samantha" and it sounded like a male voice, I'd ask questions just to ensure that the caller is indeed who they say they are, and not identity theft or fraud.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

takeshi74 — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:33:03 GMT

@ThriftySaver wrote:
I have a friend who is transgender but has a female name everytime he calls the credit card company they always ask a lot of security questions, can't credit card companies tell if a person is male or female on crdit report?

Are you pulling and reviewing your own reports on a regular basis? I don't recall ever seeing gender on my reports.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

dragontears — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:37:00 GMT

My understanding is information such as gender, race and religion is not on any credit report due to anti discrimination laws

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

noobody — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:01:14 GMT

I read somewhere, voice print has been implemented by major banks to make sure you are who you said you are.
those "your call has been record" warning are not just for training purpose only.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

UncleB — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:31:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Also, what does your friend sound like on the phone? If I were a CSR and got a call from "Samantha" and it sounded like a male voice, I'd ask questions just to ensure that the caller is indeed who they say they are, and not identity theft or fraud.

Over the years I've worked at places who did credit checks, and there was never a gender indicator anywhere on the report.

This being said, I'll agree with jb002; if we were on the phone with someone who sounded male and the name they reported/on the account was 'Jill' we would definitely dig deeper.

The last thing we wanted to happen was for an ex-spouse, who knew all the security questions, to make unauthorized changes to an account. (This is actually a real 'thing')

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:59:07 GMT

This is interesting; I have some transgender friends who also struggle when faced with their legal name and their current physical appearance, and I didn't think this would also apply to things like this. Of course, now that I think about it, it makes total sense.

I was wondering if it's something that can be eased by him just calling up and asking to put a note on his account, or to make a note on his credit report, so that future interactions are less stressful. This involves him outing himself as transgender to a lot of people, which not everyone feels comfortable doing. But, if it does give a benefit, it's worth weighing the pros and cons of doing so.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

SunriseEarth — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:52:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Also, what does your friend sound like on the phone? If I were a CSR and got a call from "Samantha" and it sounded like a male voice, I'd ask questions just to ensure that the caller is indeed who they say they are, and not identity theft or fraud.

This is a valid point, and is certainly not a problem encountered only by trans people. Some men have higher speaking voices and some women have lower speaking voices, which may cause some confusion to some CSRs. In those cases, some scrutiny may happen. I don't think account notes would be appropriate in these situations, however.

Re: regarding male or female on credit card

UncleB — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 20:09:17 GMT

@SunriseEarth wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Also, what does your friend sound like on the phone? If I were a CSR and got a call from "Samantha" and it sounded like a male voice, I'd ask questions just to ensure that the caller is indeed who they say they are, and not identity theft or fraud.
This is a valid point, and is certainly not a problem encountered only by trans people. Some men have higher speaking voices and some women have lower speaking voices, which may cause some confusion to some CSRs. In those cases, some scrutiny may happen. I don't think account notes would be appropriate in these situations, however.

Putting notes on accounts regarding the perception of the voice of the account holder would be opening a serious can of worms.