topic Re: Delete Maiden Name? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Delete Maiden Name?

mompreneur1 — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:36:48 GMT

I read somewhere that you could have your maiden name completely deleted from your CRs and it will improve your CS. Is there any truth to this? Ladies, have anyone of you ever had this done? If so, what has been your experience with this?

Re: Delete Maiden Name?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 01:13:27 GMT

Wow. How on earth would this help one's FICO scores? (Not aiming this at you; just at people who publish stuff like this.)

If anything, this might result in older tradelines vanishing from your credit reports, lowering your length of history. (I doubt it, but I sure wouldn't want to risk it.)

Anyway, no, I see no way in which this could help your scores. This is your credit history. If you had history under your maiden name, and now you have history under your married name, it's all yours. I guess if someone had made a terrible hash of their history back when they were single, they might try to make them go away by somehow getting rid of their married name, but that's all I can think of.

And it wouldn't work. It's not like you can dispute your maiden name as "not mine", because it was. They might change the first listed name to your married name, but I doubt very seriously that they would agree to remove your previous name.

Not to mention, it certainly wouldn't be fair to men, who rarely change their names upon marriage, or women who don't marry, or women who marry and don't change their names.

I changed names in reverse. I was recently divorced and resumed my maiden name. I have accounts showing under both names. I sure wouldn't want to have my married name vanish, and along with it possibly much of my credit history. (Including my negatives.)

Interesting, if strange, idea!

Re: Delete Maiden Name?

RobertEG — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 01:17:13 GMT

No. It wou8ld not directly affect your score. It might help to assure against mismatching of credit reporting which could indirectly impact your score.

Names are used by the CRAs primarily as an aid to assure proper matching of reporting done a creditor with the proper consumer credit file.

Yes, it is always best to make sure that your creditors only report under your current name, and that it matches the name in your CR.

But I dont see any way this would afftect your CS directly, other than to ensure that matching of names ensures proper matching of credtior reporting to your credit file.

Names are not the primary method of matching. Unique identifiers, such as your SSN, TIN, etc, are the primary matching criteria.

Re: Delete Maiden Name?

mompreneur1 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:53:44 GMT

I thought the idea of deleting one's maiden name to improve your CS sounded a bit silly (not to mention too good to be true). Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Delete Maiden Name?

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:46:32 GMT

I'm glad you posted this. There is so much weird stuff floating around out there, and people are doing their darndest to do the right thing, but it's hard to find believable information.

Maybe we need a Snopes-dot-com for credit-related legends and urban myths.

Re: Delete Maiden Name?

RobertEG — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:14:31 GMT

LOL!

My Letterman Top 10:

Such as the myth that paying an OC will result in prior "recall" of collection reportings?

Such as the myth that statute of limitations is in any way related to credit report dop-off dates.

Such as the myth that you can only have one CA on your CR at a given time?

Such as the myth that information drops from one's credit file in 7 or 7 1/2 years?

Such as the myth that DOLA resets date of credit reportring deletions for charge-offs or collection reportings?

Such as the myth that date of collection posting has any afffect on credit score?

Such as the myth that payment of debt removes OC or CA delinquencies from credit scoriing?

Such as the myth that a DV letter has a 30-day period for response by the debt collector?

Such as the myth that PFD letters are a routine way of first dealing with debt?

Such as the myth that a charge-off or collection erases the impact of other monthly derogs on an OC account?

...... and on and on......

Sounds like an excellent NEW forum category for mythical discussions!