Frustrated! Whenever I apply for something, my brother's credit report keeps showing up.

[CollegeStudent530]

Whenever I apply for something using my full name, social security number, and date of birth...My brother's credit report always pops up. He's 5 years my senior. It would be nice if he had good credit, but he doesn't. 

When I applied for my Chase Freedom card two months ago, the credit analyst asked me about some outstanding loan from the Navy Federal Credit Union. Instantly, I knew it was my brother's. I asked her for the name and behold... she said his name even though I applied on the application with my own name, social, and dob. She later found my information. I don't even know if she gave my brother a hard pull...

Today...I called up PG&E and asked them to do a soft pull for my apartment. After being denied, I called the number to Experian. I gave them my full name, social, and dob again and ... they came back telling me my brother's name.

They said they will call me back between 24-48 hours. I hate having similar names to my brother. Our social security and date of birth aren't even remotely similar.

[BrokaToe]

That's screwy how that happens sometimes. My Dad and I have the exact same name, aside from the JR. or III and our birthdays are only 9 days apart aside from the year of course. But I've never had that problem. I wonder how that stuff happens...weird

[NewtoCredit80]

You can complain to all 3 cra. You and your brother might have shared same address on one of your and your brother's account.
Matching algorithm is treating both you and your brother as one person.
People sometimes change ssn so additional matching algorithm are applied by cra.
Get it rectified immediately.

[CollegeStudent530]

Yes. We use the same address, which makes it worse. I will wait until Experian gets back to me before proceeding further. 

[09Lexie]

Sorry this happened or is happening to you. You might get more advice in General Credit Forum

Mod: please move to General Credit

Thanks!

[AndySoCal]

I would get your credit report from each bureau  and work with each bureau to seperate you and your borothers creidt history. I would use annualcreditreports.com for this purose its free as longs as you do not buy a score. The socre is useless for the purpose you need the credit report. Are you and brother still sharing a common address currently?

[blitz]

My mom had a similar issue with a woman who lived in the same part of the state as she did, whose first and middle name was the same as my mom's, and whose SSN was one number different. 

[CollegeStudent530]

That's a real bummer. Experian did call me back and corrected the issue. They also made a note on my file. For future references, they advised me to let the creditor pulling the report know in advance about my situation, as well as use my middle name as well. I pulled my free credit report already, so I'm waiting until the next one to see if there are any mix ups. We are going to pull a free report for my brother today though, just to make sure he didn't get any hard pulls because of the confusion.

Thanks for all the tips.

[Countingpennies]

Kevin, you can get a free report from Experian based on denied for credit.

Also, did you also correct your Transunion and Equifax reports?

[CollegeStudent530]

Hi,

I did not get denied.. it was a soft pull from Experian through PG&E. I wanted to waive the deposit, but apparently my score/history wasn't good enough. I think they use a different scoring system (TEC?), which was why I was denied.