Getting all agencies TU/EQ/EX in lockstep

[Anonymous]

So, I have been slowly rebuilding my credit, take a hit here, gain some there, yadda yadda. Done well, but we got into a little bit too much when we had 2 weeks to move across the country so a lot of moving expenses went on credit cards. I am married, wife has good enough credit, mine sucked for a while but got good; however, the high debt utilization hurt a little so I got a LendingClub loan which had a better overall APR than my credit cards, opened a 0% for 15 months Wells Fargo card and consolidated, only in my name, so I took the hit instead of my wife.

Now, the thing I've noticed is TransUnion wil have something Equifax won't, vice-a-versa, and a whole mix of either missing information, not-as-updated information, or really outdated information. For instance, I was alerted on that my Wife's Wells Fargo card, which I am an authorized user for, recently updated after 9 months of inactivity, which showed an insanely high balance! 

My scenario: I am looking to get pre-approved to buy a home in the next 30-45 days and the mortgage broker said there should be NOTHING currently "in dispute". So, how do I get the agencies to get into lockstep with all my accounts so there is a better overall reflection of my credit score?

[Revelate]

Information getting updated isn't that hard assuming the account is open; do something that materially changes the balance and gets the lender to report and if they don't you can badger them to fix it.

Missing tradelines like I have an installment loan from my original credit build that shows up EX/EQ but is missing on TU: no way to get it unless the creditor reports it and that's unlikely in the extreme on a closed tradeline.  

Beyond that it's not unusual to have differences in the files as they don't share information at all, ever as they're competitors and whoever has the most accurate information, wins.  

[RobertEG]

Getting information in lockstep with each CRA is generally not possible.

That is because credit reporting is not mandatory, and thus a given creditor or debt collector generally has the option of whether to report to a given CRA.

They are not required to report to all CRAs, or to report all factual information.

The statutory requirement is not that their reporting must be full and complete with each CRA, but that any voluntary reporting cannot knowingly be inaccurate, and that once they do report information, they then have the responsibility to promptly update that information as necessary to maintain its current accuracy.  FCRA 623(a)(1) and 623(a)(2).

Creditors dont want pending disputes while they are evaluating a consumer because FICO removes certain OC account information, such as derogs, from their scoring while a dispute is pending, and thus they cannot obtain a score that is of use in their deliberations.

You can either begin your cleanup of information contained in your file several months before initiating any new credit, or you can contact a given furnisher and request an informal review and correction without having to file a formal dispute.  Many inaccuracies in credit reports are due to furnisher negligence in promptly updatng,  such as reporting $0 balance when a debt has been recently paid.  An informal call can oftern resolve the matter without need for a formal dispute.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So, how do I get the agencies to get into lockstep with all my accounts so there is a better overall reflection of my credit score?

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You don't.  Don't assume that they should all be indentical.  Not all creditors report to all 3 of the major CRA's.  It's not unusual for data o differ among them.  A mortgage lender is probably going take the mid score anyway so it doesn't matter if all 3 are the same or if they differ.

If there are actual reporting issues (e.g. creditor should have reported but did not, incorrect data reported, etc) you can work on getting them addressed but that's going to require some research on your part to verify.