Can anyone direct me to guidance about what I should look for in my EWS (Early Warning Services) report?
I'm especially interested in the following. It's a lot of questions. Don't feel pressured to answer any or all, I'm mostly looking for things I can read myself that address some of them.
- How do I find things that are considered "bad"? I'm especially interested in minor things.
- What might banks be looking for on there that would be considered good or bad?
- Same question for non-banks (brokers, lenders, card issuers, sketchy fintechs, whatever).
- Is it bad to have "dormant" or "inactive" accounts? How bad?
- If I have a lot of accounts, is it better for some of them to be dormant or inactive? (seems like no)
- If something is minorly "bad" and can't be fixed with EWS, are there good ways to explain these to the bank I'm applying to?
- Example: Let's say dormant accounts are bad. I have a dormant account because it's an old HSA that my employer no longer contributes to. Is there general guidance on how to explain that to a bank when I apply?
- Maybe there is no general advice, maybe it's different for every bank. If so, does anyone have ideas for how to do this?
The comments on this Doctor of Credit page (describing things like how inquiries are used by some banks, new account opening score, etc) are an example of what I'm looking for. But of course I'd invite all kinds of input, there are bound to be things I haven't thought of.
EWS was created by major banks including Wells Fargo, Capital One, BB&T, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America to prevent fraud and reduce risk. Whereas companies such as ChexSystems and TeleCheck focus on keeping records of people who mismanage bank accounts with overdrafts or write checks on closed accounts, EWS focuses on fraudulent activity. Its database tracks consumers’ negative interactions with banks, as well as activities such as bank fraud, forgery, check kiting, check alteration, and counterfeiting. If your clear of these actions. Those dormat accounts are just sittin there. No problems. You can get your report here:
https://www.earlywarning.com/consumer-information
If theres something that isnt correct. You can dispute it.
I requested my Early Warning Services report recently.
It notably did not show inquiries from the following banks that I applied to in 2022:
- Affinity FCU (accepted 21 days before I requested my EWS report);
- Alliant CU (accepted way before that).
I think that's enough time since my Affinity application to be sure? Maybe not.
I did have some ACH transactions with Alliant showing.
It did show US Bank.
I know, too many bank applications. I'm gonna slow it down to max 2/year going forward.