Credit Monitoring = Good but TC Sure Doesn't Have Their Act Together (Warning: RANT)

[Anonymous]

Last night I pop into TrueCredit and update my credit reports. I don't do daily checks, I pretty much just watch the alerts and every couple of weeks I get a notion to pull my FAKOs.

Equifax: holding steady

TransUnion: up a little

Experian: drops to 495

You know what dropped lower than my score? My jaw. I've NEVER to my knowledge had a score below 500, and I haven't made any dramatic changes to my utilization. I did add a new credit line, but they didn't pull Experian, and they haven't reported yet.

So I go look at my report.

THREE NEW COLLECTIONS....AND I DIDN'T GET AN ALERT FOR ANY OF THEM!

I mean What The Heck Is TrueCredit Doing???

AND here's the best part. They are not mine. They're all a small local firm that I did have a real account with for an old medical bill that is now paid off. I know you're never supposed to call a CA, but in this case I made an exception, because I know these people. They're good people. Really.

So I call and I talk to a very nice lady and I say, um, what are these things on my report. She says, yes, looks like it's the services for Eric at KU Med Center.

Me: Eric? (I have no children, and DBF's name is Nick.)

Her: Yes, Eric R_____.

I tell her I don't know this person, she looks into it a little deeper, and she says "how weird, it's his name and address under your social security number. I don't see you anywhere on here. Here's what you need to do...write us a letter right away. I'm going to note the file to pull it back, but make sure you send something in writing, and call KU Med Center too."

Seriously, she said this. There's a reason I wasn't afraid to call these people on the phone.

I called KU Med...visions of identity theft dancing in my head (medical identity theft is apparently becoming a bigger and bigger problem), turns out they had two digits inverted on Mr. R____'s social security number. They call the CA, I write my DV letter to them, and they promise to update my bureau within 14 days.

BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT AM I PAYING TRUE CREDIT FOR? THE FIRST OF THESE HIT MY REPORT ON 1/31 AND THEN TWO MORE HIT YESTERDAY. WHERE WAS MY ALERT???

Just one more reason that even once I'm in the 750s I'm going to pull my reports regularly (not annually either, every 90 days at LEAST) FOREVER.

495. That's 120 points below my other scores. And I would have had no freaking clue.

AAARGH.

Would anyone like to recommend their favorite monitoring service other than TC?

Also, thank you to everyone on this forum...without which I wouldn't have had TrueCredit and wouldn't have whimsically decided to pull a bureau last night.

Message Edited by StartingFresh on 02-13-2008 08:38 AM

[granny031350]

I have noticed with the TC monitoring (and i log in everyday) that I get the changes and then about 2 days later I get the alert in an email.  However, isn't it great that you discovered this by using TC instead of pulling a MYFICO report and finding out that way.  I have found TC to be right on top of all changes occurring with my cra's. 

[Anonymous]

---

granny031350 wrote:

I have noticed with the TC monitoring (and i log in everyday) that I get the changes and then about 2 days later I get the alert in an email.  However, isn't it great that you discovered this by using TC instead of pulling a MYFICO report and finding out that way.  I have found TC to be right on top of all changes occurring with my cra's. 

---

Stop being all reasonable.

I feel better about the whole thing now. It's more of a glitch than anything else, and I am cautiously optimistic that it seems to be a fairly easy fix...although I've learned NOT to rely on the things that seem like they are easy.

I understand a lag of a day or two, but almost 2 weeks seems a bit much to me. Since I don't pull every day, it makes me wonder if I have missed anything else. After work I'm going to print everything out again and use a fine-toothed comb.

I'm mostly frustrated because nothing that I've done has been easy recently where medical bills are concerned, including getting the insurance company to pay their share of expenses that really ARE mine. Just yesterday I faxed, for the third time, to an adjustor a piddly bill for $201 from a car accident that happened over a year ago.

[tryingtogetitrightnow]

I just signed up for TrueCredit a few days ago and have been pulling my report every day. I plan on checking it at least 2x each week until I get my (real FICOs) up over 650. I am a software developer, so I know not to rely on software that people develop. :-)

[Anonymous]

I have a dumb question I'd like to ask. I honestly don't know the answer.

1. TC is TransUnion, isn't it?
2. Does TC monitor all 3 CRA's and in theory, supposed to report to you, when ever ANYTHING changes on any of the 3 CR's?
3. Or does it just monitor what's on your TU CR, and is supposed to notify you of only changes to your TU CR?

I use EXP's Triple Advantage, and they are SUPPOSED to monitor all 3 CRA's. So far, they do a good job on inq's and posting of new accts. on all 3. I've even received e-mails from them saying "nothing has changed on your CR in the past 30 days".

I guess I have a mental block when it comes to cms's.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they monitor all three bureaus and send alerts. This was Experian.

[Anonymous]

Amanda's credit report update from Experian  

arrived 5 minutes ago.

Okay, I get it. I appreciate TrueCredit. I do.

[haulingthescoreup]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a dumb question I'd like to ask. I honestly don't know the answer.

1. TC is TransUnion, isn't it?
2. Does TC monitor all 3 CRA's and in theory, supposed to report to you, when ever ANYTHING changes on any of the 3 CR's?
3. Or does it just monitor what's on your TU CR, and is supposed to notify you of only changes to your TU CR?

---

Funny you mentioned this, just got this today:

Subject: Weekly update for hauling: Your credit alert & ID protection program

Dear hauling,

You're in the clear. During the past week, no credit alerts have been triggered by changes to your credit report.

This means there have been:

* No new inquiries posted to your report

* No new accounts opened in your name

* No address changes

* No public records or any potentially negative items

Your credit health is as important to us as it is to you. Using credit alerts to stay informed and up-to-date about your credit standing....

yada yada yada.

Yes, TrueCredit is a division of TransUnion, This is from their site:

Unlimited access to ALL THREE of your credit reports and credit scores.
Notification within 24 hours of critical changes to all 3 reports.
Lock & unlock your TransUnion credit report with just one click.
Plus, $25K ID Theft Insurance at no additional cost!*
No obligation, cancel anytime.

So they monitor all three, and they're * supposed * to alert you within a day.

StartingFresh, if it took them 2 weeks, I think they dropped the ball. You might try calling customer service and asking for a credit for this month, but when I've called, I'm pretty sure that I was connected to a South Asian call center. In my experience, non-US "customer service" people aren't allowed to help you much at all. They're pretty much restricted to reading their scripts.

Congrats on fixing the erroneous collection! Always good to know that there are still some helpful people in this world.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Hauling! Pretty comprehensive. Put's my cms to shame. Thanks so much for the great info!