@cashorcharge wrote:I had a similar issue @designated_knitter with my middle initial being wrong and my first and last name mixed up. I had never pulled my SS report but was finding issues on the big 3 and they were listing all these aliases that were the result of misspelling my name when I applied for credit somewhere. Over the years, the errors added up so I worked to get them corrected. As the banks that were reporting the initial error had corrected their side, the update didn't happen on the big 3 so that was a task. THEN, I pulled SS and found all the same errors and even more.
As an FYI @TheFIGuy the dispute process I found to be the easiest of everyone. Once I had my report, I saw all the name/address errors and other outdated (20+ years) info and such and found each entry had a line number associated with it. I called their dispute 800-line, mid-day, mid-week and my call got answered relatively quick, and once you confirm the report number, they went line by line with me and I was able to dispute each error...no letter writing, no proof documents....the errors were obvious if you were reading the report so perhaps that helped me...anyhow, the guy tooks notes of everything and a week later, I had a new clean report without any errors. If only everyone was so easy to dispute and clean up.
It is a nightmare all the junk that gets in there. At some point along the way my first name got entered in various records and reports as Mary but with same last name. Then this "Mary" suddenly became a person associated with my household. You know how you get the multiple choice verification questions presented to prove you are you like "You are associated with one of the following people: " and they list 4 names and "none of the above". I kept getting that question with Mary as one of the choices. If I selected "none of the above", I flunked the verification. I learned I had to lie and say "Mary" if I wanted to pass the verification. It always made me so mad!
I finally went through all the various data aggregator sites and killed off Mary one by one and then opted out of being included there. Then had to circle back around to the big 3 and kill off Mary there. (Poor Mary, we hardly knew ye!)
EQ still has some crap versions of my names that I have tried to dispute but they just won't believe me... how do you prove you have never been named Mary?!
I've applied for comenity cards before (not attempting the SCT because I couldn't get the pop-up) and was denied because they did attempted to pull both one of the "Big 3" (EX or EQ) AND Sagestream. I was declined because I have Sagestream frozen.
I *was* able to get Overstock earlier this year even with Sagestream frozen but no other pop-ups even though my scores have improved significantly and for cards that should be "relatively easy" to get a pop-up.
Has anyone who has been successful at getting, say, Williams-Sonoma or Sportsman Guide been able to do so with their Sagestream report frozen?
@FinStar wrote:
@designated_knitter wrote:I've applied for comenity cards before (not attempting the SCT because I couldn't get the pop-up) and was denied because they did attempted to pull both one of the "Big 3" (EX or EQ) AND Sagestream. I was declined because I have Sagestream frozen.
I *was* able to get Overstock earlier this year even with Sagestream frozen but no other pop-ups even though my scores have improved significantly and for cards that should be "relatively easy" to get a pop-up.
Has anyone who has been successful at getting, say, Williams-Sonoma or Sportsman Guide been able to do so with their Sagestream report frozen?
@designated_knitter - Post/message #2 yielded one of the answers. But, based on your subsequent response (post/message #4), it appears you were not going to give Comenity any more of your business because of their access to SageStream? I'm a bit confused 🧐
Well, since that time,
- Comenity raised my Sony Visa from 2000 to 4900 in 4 months time and after getting Overstock as a SP, that is up to 2600 in 2 months time. So the fact that they have seen fit to give me 7500 in credit in such a short period of time makes them more appealing!
- I have discovered that Sagestream is unfortunately becoming more, well, mainstream -- I believe Synchrony now pulls them as well as Comenity. So while folks in the 700 club may not want/need Synchrony or Comenity, from where I'm sitting, I'm realizing I have to deal with SageStream just like I have to deal with TU, EQ, and EX
FWIW, I think the whole credit reporting industry is a scam -- particularly in the age of AI. All credit reporting agencies scoop up all our data and yet we have to jump through hoops to even be able to look at the data -- never mind trying to correct incorrect information. Fico makes a bazillion dollars by calculating Fico scores and providing to businesses for data that we, as consumers, should own. And then they make a bazillion more dollars by turning around and selling us our own data.
Imagine if you had to pay to see your own health data, or school grades, or if employers made you pay to see your performance review. I realize some doctors will have you pay a nominal fee to cover a physician's cost of making a copy of your records but that isn't the same to having to pay a subscription just to continue to see how healthy you are or how well you are doing in school at any given point in time.
So yeah -- I have a bad habit of making swearing off certain businesses etc only to realize I am going to need them in the future. Guilty as charged 
Yet another reason I can't avoid Sagestream (and apparently Innovis):
I recently applied for a checking account with US Bank to get their SUB. I've had credit cards with them nearly 2 years. After nearly a week sitting in limbo, I received and email today indicating that they can not open a checking account for me unless both Sage Stream and Innovis were thawed.
I didn't even know that I had a freeze on Innovis. But they were very easy to deal with. I was able to call them and get through to a human being (unlike sagestream) and she confirmed I had placed a security freeze with them back in 2017. Needless to say, I had no clue what my pin was so she was able to thaw my report by sending me a verification text message, request a new pin, and my report all in one call.
So it appears these "alternative" reporting agencies are here to stay. And they will limit your access to credit AND banking accounts AND who knows what else.