Help with Equifax Report Problem

Anonymous · ‎08-30-2016

I have a problem with my Equifax report, which I discovered a couple months ago and I've been trying to fix, but I cannot figure out what to do. Any advice for what I could try would be really appreciated. So here is my problem:

I'm an international PhD student here and I've had a Discover card for 10 months now reporting to all bureaus. Recently I figured out that I couldn't access only my Equifax report or credit score from any place so I called them to see what the problem is and they asked me to fax them my social security card and driver's license to verify my information. I did that and they opened a dispute for me. It turns out they have everything correct on my file, BUT for my SSN. They claim it is a worker's ID, which I have no idea what it is and I cannot figure anything out by googling it. The SSN field is empty on the report and the actual SSN appears as an additional identification (how secure is it that the whole SSN appears on the report?), so my report cannot be accessed from any third party places. In order to change it they want me to send over my W-2 form, but for 2015 I only had a 1042-S form for my taxes(I think because of the way I got paid from my university) and that is not good enough for them. Then they told me to ask Discover to report my SSN along with the rest of the information to update it, but Discover cannot send my SSN to them for security purposes. So, now I'm stuck and I don't know what to do next. Have you heard of anything similar or do you have any advice for what to do?

Revelate · ‎09-02-2016

I don't think you have a lot of choice but to continue working with Equifax.

If you have a social security card and it's not some wierdly formatted number, it should be fine. The fact you're an international student is irrelevant, heck I think you almost have to have an SSN these days to work for an American company here in the US from a tax reporting perspective?

Alternatively, you *might* be able to just apply for another credit card but I don't know which banks report a SSN and which do not when trying to tack on an account to a file. I'd probably go with the big boys like Chase personally and see if I could update my file that way.

My own experience with Equifax directly has been shoddy: there's absolutely no way that my address on their file is correct, post office would laugh as it's clearly busted (part of another address is conflated with it), but no matter what I do I can't get it fixed... ultra stupid but it doesn't appear to effect me any way. Yours is probably worthwhile to fix.

iv · ‎09-03-2016

@Revelate wrote:

My own experience with Equifax directly has been shoddy: there's absolutely no way that my address on their file is correct, post office would laugh as it's clearly busted (part of another address is conflated with it), but no matter what I do I can't get it fixed... ultra stupid but it doesn't appear to effect me any way. Yours is probably worthwhile to fix.

I had some address issues a while ago - and the "normal" Equifax dispute process managed to lose my request once, and on the second try, did exactly the opposite of the change I requested....

Fixed it by calling EQ corporate at 404-885-8300, asked to escalate a dispute, and was forwarded to a US-based senior rep who fixed the issue in a few minutes while on the phone (without playing the "fax docs and we'll get to it later" game). And she apologized for the mess!

Both of you may want to try that route...

EQ8:850 TU8:850 EX8:850
EQ9:847 TU9:847 EX9:839
EQ5:797 TU4:807 EX2:813 - 2021-06-06

Revelate · ‎09-04-2016

@iv wrote:
@Revelate wrote:

My own experience with Equifax directly has been shoddy: there's absolutely no way that my address on their file is correct, post office would laugh as it's clearly busted (part of another address is conflated with it), but no matter what I do I can't get it fixed... ultra stupid but it doesn't appear to effect me any way. Yours is probably worthwhile to fix.
I had some address issues a while ago - and the "normal" Equifax dispute process managed to lose my request once, and on the second try, did exactly the opposite of the change I requested....

Fixed it by calling EQ corporate at 404-885-8300, asked to escalate a dispute, and was forwarded to a US-based senior rep who fixed the issue in a few minutes while on the phone (without playing the "fax docs and we'll get to it later" game). And she apologized for the mess!

Both of you may want to try that route...

Oh thanks senor! I will absolutely try that.