Name reporting on credit report

[Anonymous]

Hi guys I have a predicament and I would like some advice on the issue.

As many Mexicans I have a really long name, and like such some problems are expected when reporting it. Everything started last year when I tried to apply for a Capital One secured credit card. The banker completely chopped my name even tho she copied it from my DL and SSC, I found that out after getting a rejection letter with my name misspelled, so that was a bust. In order to help me establish, my wife added me as an AU on one of her cards, (Capital One mind you) and basically spelled my name for the representative on the phone. A month later I tried to apply for the secured card again and was declined, this time I received the rejection letter with my full name. I then decided to just wait and concentrate on school. In January of 2015 I tried to request a free annual credit report and the site could not provide it. I ended up calling TU and requesting one over the phone. The report stated that 2 different names have been given under the same SSN.

Like many Mexicans my name consist of Name -> Middle name -> Father's last name and Mother's last name. TU had me under my full name from the second application and the chopped one where the banker basically just used the first letter of my father's last name as my middle initial. I then got student loans that report under my full legal name because of my SSN. I know this cause in May I requested EQ's report and that's how it's listed. Later that month I applied with Discover and the representative told me to basically just pick a name and go with it, as that's what's commonly done in the U.S. She basically said to go by Name -> Middle initial and father's last name or else other credit cards will have a hard time finding my history. My wife ended up having to co-sign for me.

What should I do? The student loans are reported under my full Mexican long name, yet Discover is only using the American version with just middle initial and father's last name which is the same my AU card has. Any thought or suggestions?

Thanks.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi guys I have a predicament and I would like some advice on the issue.

As many Mexicans I have a really long name, and like such some problems are expected when reporting it. Everything started last year when I tried to apply for a Capital One secured credit card. The banker completely chopped my name even tho she copied it from my DL and SSC, I found that out after getting a rejection letter with my name misspelled, so that was a bust. In order to help me establish, my wife added me as an AU on one of her cards, (Capital One mind you) and basically spelled my name for the representative on the phone. A month later I tried to apply for the secured card again and was declined, this time I received the rejection letter with my full name. I then decided to just wait and concentrate on school. In January of 2015 I tried to request a free annual credit report and the site could not provide it. I ended up calling TU and requesting one over the phone. The report stated that 2 different names have been given under the same SSN.

Like many Mexicans my name consist of Name -> Middle name -> Father's last name and Mother's last name. TU had me under my full name from the second application and the chopped one where the banker basically just used the first letter of my father's last name as my middle initial. I then got student loans that report under my full legal name because of my SSN. I know this cause in May I requested EQ's report and that's how it's listed. Later that month I applied with Discover and the representative told me to basically just pick a name and go with it, as that's what's commonly done in the U.S. She basically said to go by Name -> Middle initial and father's last name or else other credit cards will have a hard time finding my history. My wife ended up having to co-sign for me.

What should I do? The student loans are reported under my full Mexican long name, yet Discover is only using the American version with just middle initial and father's last name which is the same my AU card has. Any thought or suggestions?

Thanks.

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While I don't have a double last name, I do have a lengthy name, with a suffix (thank, Dad...) and I've dealt with my share of issues over the years as well.  I will say it's gotten better, but from time-to-time it still causes me grief.

If it were me, I would definitely stand my ground on my last name(s), they are who you are, and no company has the right to tell you they should be truncated.  This being said, I would be tempted to omit my middle name from anything needing to go through a credit bureau, if for no other reason to make it 'flow' through the system(s) more easily.  Most lenders have an 'optional' field for a middle initial, but don't even have a field for a full middle name.  If you try to 'shoehorn' a middle name into an automated system, like after your first name, it's likely causing as much (if not more) confusion as having a double last name.  Also, you stand a good chance of having a split credit file, which can also be problematic.

I read a while back that in some states, there are issues at the DMV with folks with double last names, specifically without a hyphen.  It seems the state in question (it might have been NY, I can't remember) would allow a double last name if there was a hyphen, but for folks not using a hyphen the computer wouldn't take it (apparently null characters, i.e. a space, aren't allowed in the field for 'last name').  I realize this isn't your issue specifically, but I'm throwing this out as a data-point. 

You might want to consider only using a middle initial instead of a full middle name; it might 'cure' some of the data entry issues while allowing you to keep using both your surnames.  With my own lengthy last name, it makes things simpler (and more concise) for me to even omit the middle initial altogether.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Great info, thanks man. My two last names aren't hyphened and yes, I've encountered places that don't have two separate spaces for such last names. I'm intrigued when you mention split credit files. I recently ordered my EQ report and in it I have about 5 different names. The original full lenght as it appears on my SSC and DL, reported by my student loan servicer, my shortened one(the one I go by) with middle initial and paternal last name as reported by Discover and Capital One (AU) and 3 others being a mix of both. Maternal>Middle>Paternal and First>First initial>Paternal. I do get from time to time Capital One offers under such wrong, chopped or mispelled names. I've gotten offers from AmEx and Chase and they are addressed to the names reported by Discover and Capital One.

My wife has suggested I send letters to the credit bureaus asking them to erase all other names and just keep the full one and the "American" version. But both my DL and SSC have the whole name, will they still honor that request?

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great info, thanks man. My two last names aren't hyphened and yes, I've encountered places that don't have two separate spaces for such last names. I'm intrigued when you mention split credit files. I recently ordered my EQ report and in it I have about 5 different names. The original full lenght as it appears on my SSC and DL, reported by my student loan servicer, my shortened one(the one I go by) with middle initial and paternal last name as reported by Discover and Capital One (AU) and 3 others being a mix of both. Maternal>Middle>Paternal and First>First initial>Paternal. I do get from time to time Capital One offers under such wrong, chopped or mispelled names. I've gotten offers from AmEx and Chase and they are addressed to the names reported by Discover and Capital One.

My wife has suggested I send letters to the credit bureaus asking them to erase all other names and just keep the full one and the "American" version. But both my DL and SSC have the whole name, will they still honor that request?

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Thankfully, split credit files aren't as much of a 'thing' as they were around 10 years ago (when I had all my issues).  Back then, even having a lot of accounts or an 'excessive' number of soft inquiries could cause a split file back then.  I also used to have issues with my accounts reporting to my father's credit file, and vice-versa, due to our having the same last name, and my father's failure to use 'Sr.'.  Thankfully, they seem to rely now more on the social security number, so it's been a while since I've had to deal with this. 

My own credit reports also have multiple names, including my full name, which I believe was reported many years ago when I had also had student loans.  Here's what I currently have:

First Last

First Last Jr

First M. Last

First M. Last Jr

First Middle Last Jr

(also a couple of variations where my middle name is misspelled)

So far, this has never caused me any issues.  As far as if the credit bureaus will remove the extra ones, I'm honestly not sure, but it never hurts to ask, especially on the ones that aren't even correct (mangled spellings).  A lot of people have 'aliases' on their bureau reports as well where the name is a variation, while not really being a truncated version (for example, William, goes by Bill; Margaret, goes by Peggy).  Even last names change; women regularly change their last names when they marry (and some marry more than once over the years) so this is not a big deal, either. 

I have Hispanic relatives, so I'm familiar with the naming convention you're speaking of.  The 'general consensus' is that usually you can use whatever you want when it comes to credit, but you really, really need to be consistent.  I had a friend that on her driver's license had 'First Middle Maiden Married' - all of her names, so that no matter what it would be a variation of any paperwork she had.  Her paycheck from work had 'First Married', while she still had old stock certificates that had 'First Maiden', and it even got more complicated since the name she was know to the world by was not her first name, but her middle.  Just like you, having all of her names on her ID and official paperwork make things easier.  If a clerk or bank teller ever asked for ID she was fine, because her ID had all the names covered.

What you don't want is to have some credit accounts listed as 'First Last1', and other accounts listed as 'First Middle Last2', for example, since it's possible for these to be seen as different people, thus the split credit file issue.  Ideally, as long as the SS# is always use this shouldn't be a problem anyway, but better safe than sorry.  As an added 'perk', having the name match up should also help with 'insta-approvals'.

If it were me, I would refrain from using my full middle name, and simply use the middle initial (or in my case, none at all) since there's usually no place to put a whole middle name on a credit application.  As for your last name, consistency is the key.  While I have read of folks having issues when a hyphen isn't used, there are plenty of times where it's no problem at all.  If it were me, I would continue to use both last names as you currently are - after all, that's you! - and on the rare occasion where it's problematic simply drop down to one or the other, just always to the same one. 

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great info, thanks man. My two last names aren't hyphened and yes, I've encountered places that don't have two separate spaces for such last names. I'm intrigued when you mention split credit files. I recently ordered my EQ report and in it I have about 5 different names. The original full lenght as it appears on my SSC and DL, reported by my student loan servicer, my shortened one(the one I go by) with middle initial and paternal last name as reported by Discover and Capital One (AU) and 3 others being a mix of both. Maternal>Middle>Paternal and First>First initial>Paternal. I do get from time to time Capital One offers under such wrong, chopped or mispelled names. I've gotten offers from AmEx and Chase and they are addressed to the names reported by Discover and Capital One.

My wife has suggested I send letters to the credit bureaus asking them to erase all other names and just keep the full one and the "American" version. But both my DL and SSC have the whole name, will they still honor that request?

---

Thankfully, split credit files aren't as much of a 'thing' as they were around 10 years ago (when I had all my issues).  Back then, even having a lot of accounts or an 'excessive' number of soft inquiries could cause a split file back then.  I also used to have issues with my accounts reporting to my father's credit file, and vice-versa, due to our having the same last name, and my father's failure to use 'Sr.'.  Thankfully, they seem to rely now more on the social security number, so it's been a while since I've had to deal with this. 

My own credit reports also have multiple names, including my full name, which I believe was reported many years ago when I had also had student loans.  Here's what I currently have:

First Last

First Last Jr

First M. Last

First M. Last Jr

First Middle Last Jr

(also a couple of variations where my middle name is misspelled)

So far, this has never caused me any issues.  As far as if the credit bureaus will remove the extra ones, I'm honestly not sure, but it never hurts to ask, especially on the ones that aren't even correct (mangled spellings).  A lot of people have 'aliases' on their bureau reports as well where the name is a variation, while not really being a truncated version (for example, William, goes by Bill; Margaret, goes by Peggy).  Even last names change; women regularly change their last names when they marry (and some marry more than once over the years) so this is not a big deal, either. 

I have Hispanic relatives, so I'm familiar with the naming convention you're speaking of.  The 'general consensus' is that usually you can use whatever you want when it comes to credit, but you really, really need to be consistent.  I had a friend that on her driver's license had 'First Middle Maiden Married' - all of her names, so that no matter what it would be a variation of any paperwork she had.  Her paycheck from work had 'First Married', while she still had old stock certificates that had 'First Maiden', and it even got more complicated since the name she was know to the world by was not her first name, but her middle.  Just like you, having all of her names on her ID and official paperwork make things easier.  If a clerk or bank teller ever asked for ID she was fine, because her ID had all the names covered.

What you don't want is to have some credit accounts listed as 'First Last1', and other accounts listed as 'First Middle Last2', for example, since it's possible for these to be seen as different people, thus the split credit file issue.  Ideally, as long as the SS# is always use this shouldn't be a problem anyway, but better safe than sorry.  As an added 'perk', having the name match up should also help with 'insta-approvals'.

If it were me, I would refrain from using my full middle name, and simply use the middle initial (or in my case, none at all) since there's usually no place to put a whole middle name on a credit application.  As for your last name, consistency is the key.  While I have read of folks having issues when a hyphen isn't used, there are plenty of times where it's no problem at all.  If it were me, I would continue to use both last names as you currently are - after all, that's you! - and on the rare occasion where it's problematic simply drop down to one or the other, just always to the same one. 

Hope this helps!

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 Thanks a lot for your advise.