An EX error okay to ignore?

[wasCB14]

I found an error in my Experian report, and I'm not sure if it's worth trying to correct, or if I should just leave it alone...

I got card A, PCed it to card B, and got a CLI a few months after the PC.

TU and EQ show card B with card A's opening date, the current CL, and last statement balance (correct).

EX shows both A and B as open accounts, and both opened when A was. A has the original SL and B has the current CL. A reports a balance of $0, and B reports the most recent statement balance.

A was opened nearly two years ago, so it's a few months away from being irrelevant for 5/24 purposes. My AAoA isn't very different, nor is my credit:income ratio. My utilization is only about 4% right now.

I'm a bit concerned that if I contact EX or the issuer to fix it, they might change the wrong thing. It seems like a pretty harmless error.

I'm inclined to just do nothing. Is that unwise?

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

I found an error in my Experian report, and I'm not sure if it's worth trying to correct, or if I should just leave it alone...

I got card A, PCed it to card B, and got a CLI a few months after the PC.

TU and EQ show card B with card A's opening date, the current CL, and last statement balance (correct).

EX shows both A and B as open accounts, and both opened when A was. A has the original SL and B has the current CL. A reports a balance of $0, and B reports the most recent statement balance.

A was opened nearly two years ago, so it's a few months away from being irrelevant for 5/24 purposes. My AAoA isn't very different, nor is my credit:income ratio. My utilization is only about 4% right now.

I'm a bit concerned that if I contact EX or the issuer to fix it, they might change the wrong thing. It seems like a pretty harmless error.

I'm inclined to just do nothing. Is that unwise?

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I had this same problem with EX + Discover early this year. My first card was lost in the mail so they issued a new number. Both were on my CR's for several months until I contacted Discover and asked them to force an update. That fixed it without issue. I'd much more trust the issuer to be accurate on which one to keep open/remove than the CRA.

I wouldn't be worried about your score, but I would be concerned with it just looking fishy/unusual on your CR. I'm assuming they both show the same opening date and CL. Think of how you would explain this to recon... Either you lie to the CA (bad) or you tell them you didn't try to fix it and you knew about errors on your CR (bad).

[Anonymous]

Like you, I am inclined to leave harmless errors alone, especially if I can imagine a realistic scenario where the issuer's misguided attempt to "fix" the issue could do more harm (delete both accounts,etc.).

One thing that would would be helpful to know is the timeline of events.  There are basically four events of interest:

      (1) Open the card

      (2) Do a product change

      (3) Do a CLI

      (4) Recent pull of credit report showing a duplicate open account

It sounds like #1 was 22/23 months ago and #4 was this month or last.  I am curious when #2 and #3 were.  If they happened pretty recently, then it is not unusual for there to be a stray account; it may well get fixed next month.  If #3 happened 4+ months ago, then it is a genuine error that the issuer will probably not fix without being told about it.

One last question.  One of the fields on your report is Date Reported, which gives the last time that the issuer sent an update to the CRA about the account.  What is this date for both accounts A and B?

One of the curious things is that the issuer seems to update both accounts with some information in the true account, but not all information.  For example, the issuer is updating account A with the new credit limit but is not updating account A with the new (positive) balance.

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Like you, I am inclined to leave harmless errors alone, especially if I can imagine a realistic scenario where the issuer's misguided attempt to "fix" the issue could do more harm (delete both accounts,etc.).

One thing that would would be helpful to know is the timeline of events.  There are basically four events of interest:

      (1) Open the card

      (2) Do a product change

      (3) Do a CLI

      (4) Recent pull of credit report showing a duplicate open account

It sounds like #1 was 22/23 months ago and #4 was this month or last.  I am curious when #2 and #3 were.  If they happened pretty recently, then it is not unusual for there to be a stray account; it may well get fixed next month.  If #3 happened 4+ months ago, then it is a genuine error that the issuer will probably not fix without being told about it.

One last question.  One of the fields on your report is Date Reported, which gives the last time that the issuer sent an update to the CRA about the account.  What is this date for both accounts A and B?

One of the curious things is that the issuer seems to update both accounts with some information in the true account, but not all information.  For example, the issuer is updating account A with the new credit limit but is not updating account A with the new (positive) balance.

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EX shows A with the old SL. All 3 CRAs show B with the newer, increased CL.

The PC, CLI, and last update to A on EX were all about 6 months ago. Nothing recent.

I'll just leave it alone.