topic Re: Making it hard to check your credit in General Credit Topics

Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:26:51 GMT

Oh my goodness, I just tried to order my free credit report for the year. Insanity. I was able to get experience and equifax pretty easily, but transunion.......what a joke. It wouldn't let me do it online because, well, no one could explain to me why it wouldn't let me do it online. They just needed more information. Giving them three addresses wasn't enough. Giving them all my personal information wasn't enough. No, what they really needed was all the accounts on it. So I explain to the women with the unrecognizable, almost unintelligible accent that the reason I am pulling my report is that there should be nothing on it, so how do I know what accounts are actually on it. They didn't just want accounts, too. They wanted all the information account numbers when they were opend what company. So, after about a half hour of this she gives me a number and I get an automated thing.

It was one of these speak and we will understand you sort of things--it didnt understand me for some reason. I am amazed. Never did speak to a real person, I am about to call them back to find out if it is actually going to come to me or not...we'll see.....

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:45:24 GMT

Hey mbush,

Sorry to hear you had so much trouble

getting your TU report. Hopefully, everything

will work out for you.

For future reference, next time you want a free

copy of your reports you might be better off going

to annualcreditreport.com . You just type in some

basic info and your reports appear online immediately.

Just make sure you're close to a printer if you want

hard copies. If you prefer snail mail, you can download

a request form and send it into their office. Takes about

2 weeks to get your reports. There's also a toll-free number

you can call, but given your latest experience I wouldn't

recommend that...

CanDo

"The right attitude is everything"

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:55:40 GMT

HeHe, this is where I went. Annualcreditreport.com. I was amazed because the Equifax and Experian were just easy-peasy, but transunion was a nightmare.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:03:00 GMT

Wow, mbush. I'm sorry to hear that.

Every time I've gone to that site I never

had a problem. Then again, I was advised

to download the pdf request form and use

snail mail. All 3 reports showed up in my

mailbox within 2 weeks.

So like I said, hopefully everything will work

out. But as a backup, you might think about

the snailmail option and see what happens...

CanDo

"The right attitude is everything"

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:24:23 GMT

Haha yeh, TU is the only one thats asks for nitpicky information such as OLD and close out account numbers.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:57:55 GMT

i had issues with TU as well.

it's because my city's name has two words and it kept erroring because of a space and a period.

EX and EQ nothing to it

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:03:13 GMT

What's the difference in the report pulled on annualcreditreport.com vs. a report pulled on myfico.com? Is one mode more accurate than the other?

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:07:32 GMT

No difference at all. Annualcreditporet.com is a free credit report a year from each bureau. Myfico and other sources charge for a report. There is no difference in accuracy of each report when obtaining them..they are all the same. However, each bureau can have different information then another bureau.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:23:13 GMT

Thank you for the response.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

laz98 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:25:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No difference at all. Annualcreditporet.com is a free credit report a year from each bureau. Myfico and other sources charge for a report. There is no difference in accuracy of each report when obtaining them..they are all the same. However, each bureau can have different information then another bureau.

someone mentioned on another thread that the best place to get your reports is from the CRAs. but if the reports are the same, what difference does it make? sounds like pointless advice.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

llecs — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:36:11 GMT

laz98 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
No difference at all. Annualcreditporet.com is a free credit report a year from each bureau. Myfico and other sources charge for a report. There is no difference in accuracy of each report when obtaining them..they are all the same. However, each bureau can have different information then another bureau.
someone mentioned on another thread that the best place to get your reports is from the CRAs. but if the reports are the same, what difference does it make? sounds like pointless advice.

I always advise people to get both sets of reports from myFICO and ACR when starting repair. Why? You really would want your FICO score before repair, especially if you like to see the cause and effect relationships as it relates to your scores. Just like going on a road trip. You need to see where you are starting at and where you are going. Having a baseline score is key.

The reports from the CRAs are more accurate. They include more info than the myFICO reports like soft inquiries, more detailed creditor contact info, demographic info (good for ID theft risk), drop off dates (on TU and EX), longer payment history, and more available dates (like DOFD, etc.) . And if you are going to dispute inaccurate information (wrong name, address, DOB, etc) then you need a hard copy of your CR to aid in that.

Finally, I suggest that people subscribe to a CMS like TC. Ignore the FAKOs from there, but if you see a change in your report, then order the corresponding FICO report to see the change and to compare it to the first pull you made.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

laz98 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:39:34 GMT

The reports from the CRAs are more accurate. They include more info than the myFICO reports like soft inquiries, more detailed creditor contact info, demographic info (good for ID theft risk), drop off dates (on TU and EX), longer payment history, and more available dates (like DOFD, etc.) . And if you are going to dispute inaccurate information (wrong name, address, DOB, etc) then you need a hard copy of your CR to aid in that.

Finally, I suggest that people subscribe to a CMS like TC. Ignore the FAKOs from there, but if you see a change in your report, then order the corresponding FICO report to see the change and to compare it to the first pull you made.

my reports from the CRAs (via annualcreditreport.com) did not have most of this information. is this because they're free, & the CRAs feel they deserve to make a buck off of me? They don't show softs, drop off dates...

now that i requested new reports (based on credit denials), they are saying they can't verify my identity. but i have no problems pulling my reports from TC, myFICO, or annualcreditreport.com....WTF?

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

llecs — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:51:10 GMT

laz98 wrote:
my reports from the CRAs (via annualcreditreport.com) did not have most of this information. is this because they're free, & the CRAs feel they deserve to make a buck off of me? They don't show softs, drop off dates...

now that i requested new reports (based on credit denials), they are saying they can't verify my identity. but i have no problems pulling my reports from TC, myFICO, or annualcreditreport.com....WTF?

You are not the only person to say this. I read a suggestion that you should print the report, and that the printable version has that info. I pulled via ACR last January and aside from a cookie issue on the computer (I pulled my TU and DW couldn't because they say she already pulled), I had no problems. I always click print and print it, rather than to stare at a computer screen. I'm gonna do it again next month sometime and will certainly report what I see.

I would call the CRA to ask what is up. Early in our repair process, I inappropriately disputed stuff that was questionable. A FA was slapped on DWs reports and had to have her call to reset, but oddly we were still able to use myFICO & TC.

ETA: if you have TC, have you tried to get a free TU report via their dispute process?

Message Edited by llecs on 12-03-2008 05:51 PM

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

laz98 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:57:58 GMT

@llecs wrote:

You are not the only person to say this. I read a suggestion that you should print the report, and that the printable version has that info. I pulled via ACR last January and aside from a cookie issue on the computer (I pulled my TU and DW couldn't because they say she already pulled), I had no problems. I always click print and print it, rather than to stare at a computer screen. I'm gonna do it again next month sometime and will certainly report what I see.

I would call the CRA to ask what is up. Early in our repair process, I inappropriately disputed stuff that was questionable. A FA was slapped on DWs reports and had to have her call to reset, but oddly we were still able to use myFICO & TC.

ETA: if you have TC, have you tried to get a free TU report via their dispute process?

yes, someone advised me (possibly you) to print it out, & read the information that way. i do print out all of my reports, because it's easier for me to read them that way, but the information is just not there. i even had someone else read them, in case i just wasn't reading them correctly. as for calling, i never seem to be able to get a real person on the phone. i don't know what to do anymore. it's very frustrating.

i don't think i have a fraud alert on my reports, because i got them earlier this year just fine (paid for them). ironically, TU is my highest score, since no one is inquiring on it. good, but annoying, because i WANT them to pull my highest score!!!

i wanted to "back door" TU, as stef37 recommended on another thread, but i didn't have a reason for pulling the report (i.e., credit denial), since they were asking for one. all of my effin' pulls have been EQ or EX. so i'm SOL i guess. considering just paying for the reports, since it will be next september before i can get free ones from annualcreditreport.com again.

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

llecs — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:04:49 GMT

Have you tried to get the free TU report via TC's dipute link?

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

laz98 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:06:10 GMT

i just accidentally did! ha ha! thanks so much for putting up with my questions, llecs

Re: Making it hard to check your credit

laz98 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:26:37 GMT

well, i managed to get my TU & EX reports via dispute method..........but i live in stupid EQ's CSC country. anyone have any ideas on how to get this report? i tried to do it online. registered TWICE. then when i try to log in, it tells me i don't have authorization to use their server! am i going to have to snail mail this one?