Sorry if this has been asked before, but when ordering credit reports online is there any way to get around the verification questions if none of them apply to you? I can get my Experian report online without a problem, but have to get the others mailed because I supposedly fail the verification process. They always ask about home mortgages and car loans and such, and I have never had one so I have to answer - correctly - "None of the above" for every question every time. So just because I don't have any loans, I fail their tests. Is there any way to fix this problem and get it arranged so I can view my reports online, or do I simply have to wait until I have a mortgage or the like under my belt before I can enjoy this luxury?
I'd try calling them and see what hoops they wanted me to go through to fix it, and double-check the reports you have gotten via mail and see if there's something squirrley on them. Also their identity questions might pull from other public records, it's hard to say what they're fully checking though every time I've gone through them it's been information directly on my credit report: misspelt old employers and addresses and all.
I'm going to have to go through that process with EX shortly, mail it in after proving my identity and then see if I can get my online access back: I used to have it, don't know why or how I lost it. Fustruating to be certain.
The upside to getting it mailed it's a more complete report. EQ does this every year to me next year I'm getting them all by mail.
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@coldnmn wrote:The upside to getting it mailed it's a more complete report. EQ does this every year to me next year I'm getting them all by mail.
What information is different in it?
I'm sitting here looking at a 47 page report pulled online from Equifax for me from last month: the mailed one is MORE detailed?!? 
@elegia wrote:Sorry if this has been asked before, but when ordering credit reports online is there any way to get around the verification questions if none of them apply to you? I can get my Experian report online without a problem, but have to get the others mailed because I supposedly fail the verification process. They always ask about home mortgages and car loans and such, and I have never had one so I have to answer - correctly - "None of the above" for every question every time. So just because I don't have any loans, I fail their tests. Is there any way to fix this problem and get it arranged so I can view my reports online, or do I simply have to wait until I have a mortgage or the like under my belt before I can enjoy this luxury?
You're not failing the verification because you don't have any loans. You're answering one of the questions wrong. I've had to answer "none of the above" to all the questions before, but they always give me the credit report. Sometimes only one of the questions apply to me. If "none of the above" is correct, you will pass the test. So there's something you forgot probably; for instance, there was a "past or present employer" listed on mine that I can't remember. It's because I did tutoring in college decades ago, and the agency who paid me wasn't the name of the college. So the name made no sense to me. So it might be something like that for you.
I definitely know that none of the questions pertained to me at all - no obscure past employers or anything - and there are no surprises in my credit reports. I tried contacting Equifax about this but they won't tell me what went wrong - I guess they have to assume that if I failed their verification test, I'm not me? Makes sense, I suppose, but I can't see a way around it.
@elegia wrote:I definitely know that none of the questions pertained to me at all - no obscure past employers or anything - and there are no surprises in my credit reports. I tried contacting Equifax about this but they won't tell me what went wrong - I guess they have to assume that if I failed their verification test, I'm not me? Makes sense, I suppose, but I can't see a way around it.
There's a clear procedure all the CRA's have to establish you being you via snail mail (EX wants my state-issued ID and a current utility bill), see if you can get the online access restored via that?
@TheConductor wrote:To sum up, the security questions always fit into one of two categories:
1. A question designed to trip up anyone who is not you. A question about an account you don't have to which the proper answer is "None of the above"
2. A question that - whether it is actually true of you or not - the CRA believes includes a true answer about you
It sounds like your problem is that one or more of those questions you are answering "None of the above" to is actually of type #2. While they may be wrong about it, the CRA believes you truly have one of those accounts.
This has happened to me in the past, and after getting a mailed report I realized why: some data from my mother's account had been cross applied to mine (probably exacerbated by the facts that we have the same first initial, and I was an authorized user on one of her CCs). So I was being asked about mortgages and employers and accounts that were not my own.
Once discovered, the situation was easily remedied by writing to the CRA and requesting correction of my report.
But what if there isn't any crossover or mixup in my report? I have triple-checked and all the information is 100% my own and correct (I have a pretty limited credit history). I have never held a joint account or been an AU or anything like that, either.
Blegh, I guess I'll try writing to them via post to see if there'a anything I can do. If not, I guess I'll just get used to waiting for hard copies to arrive in the mail.