I've recently been battling with Wayfair & a credit card where a fraudlent purchase was made & I was held accountable for it. Wayfair claims the item was shipped to my current address & therefore Chase says I benefitted & it wasn't fraud. That's a different post and a different problem which clearly involves something fishy on the part of Wayfair, Chase, or the shipping company because I did not receive a piece of furniture delivered into my home that I would have had to sign for.
However, today I got an alert from a credit tracking site that a new address was added to my TransUnion report, so you can see why that would be alarming. When I looked at the alert, it's an address that I moved from 11 years ago. I did share that home with my ex-husband, but to my knowledge, we are not co-listed on any credit card, debt, or property. I don't personally have any negative item that would be coming back to me. Because of the fraud situation, I just ordered my 3 free annual credit reports a couple days ago. I just briefly scanned them for any obvious problems to defend myself to Chase/Wayfair case, but I didn't read every line yet. However, nothing stood out as problematic & I lived at the supposedly "newly added" address for 11 years, so it's not unusual that it already would have been all over my credit report.
So what are all the possible reasons it could be "newly added"? Could it be that the loan from the sale of the house in 2010 dropped off & the original loan had never been on TransUnion, so it's new to them? Are any of these potentially related to the fraud that I'm dealing with ... ways that fraudsters are manipulating behind the scenes that I'm not aware of? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Kimberly
The sudden addition of an old address could be something as innocuous as an update from LexisNexis or creditor with whom you've shared your previous address, or something more sinister. Do you keep your credit reports frozen or locked? If not, you should implement a freeze (free for all 3) or at least locks on all 3 reports (free on EQ and TU, subscription required for EX) to protect yourself from fraudulent credit app attempts. You should also request your Consumer Full File DIsclosure from LexisNexis (https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer) and review it for any incorrect/innacurrate data - just to be sure.
@thornback wrote:The sudden addition of an old address could be something as innocuous as an update from LexisNexis, or something more sinister. Do you keep your credit reports frozen or locked? If not, you should implement a freeze (free for all 3) or at least locks on all 3 reports (free on EQ and TU, subscription required for EX) to protect yourself from fraudulent credit app attempts. You should also request your Consumer Full File DIsclosure from LexisNexis (https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer) and review it for any incorrect/innacurrate data - just to be sure.
Thank you for your quick reply. Both good pieces of advice. How do I freeze my credit reports & what actions does that keep from happening? On the latter, I'm just wondering when I'd need to unfreeze them for my own use. I get that it blocks release of my credit information for new credit card applications & new loans. But what else? Will it block credit tracking sites from updating? Will it block anything with my existing credit card companies who I see do soft pulls every once in awhile? I also see on the last page of my newly-acquired credit reports that I can put a 1-year fraud alert on my file instead of freezing it. When might I want to choose this option instead of freezing? Again for now, I don't plan on requesting any new credit, so a freeze might be fine. But if I were to want to ask for credit line increases in the next few months, would a freeze interfere with that?
Thanks for the LN link ... I'll pursue that now.
Thanks in advance,
Kimberly
@HomeBuyerSpring2021 wrote:Thank you for your quick reply. Both good pieces of advice. How do I freeze my credit reports & what actions does that keep from happening? On the latter, I'm just wondering when I'd need to unfreeze them for my own use.
Thanks for the LN link ... I'll pursue that now.
Thanks in advance,
Kimberly
You can freeze all three from each bureau's website --
EQ: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
TU: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
EX: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Freeze's will prevent any unauthorized pulls of your credit reports -- you will be notified of an attempted inquiry if done while your reports are fronzen. So, without pulling your reports, it's unlikely any new accounts will be opened without your explicit authorization (authorization would be you unfreezing your reports for an app). Freezes are backed by the Federal Government (which is why it's free) - so should it fail, you'd have recourse. I mentioned credit locks -- they do the same as freezes but do not have Fed backing - so should a lock fail, you have little to no recourse.
You would need to unfreeze for any new applications or prior using prequalification websites that soft pull your credit. You do not have to worry about existing creditors -- they will still be able to soft pull your credit report for their regular account reviews while it is frozen.
Lifting a freeze is easy and quick -- you just have to remember to do so before apping -- if not, you'll receive an instant denial or your app will go pending and the reason will be the inability to view your reports and so you'll need to unfreeze to proceed. Then remember to re-freeze after apping (like right after you receive the notification of an inquiry).
Locks are the same thing (but, again, without the regulation of government). For Locks:
TU: https://www.transunion.com/product/credit-lock
EQ: https://www.equifax.com/personal/products/credit/credit-lock-alert/
EX (with paid subscription): https://www.experian.com/consumer-products/creditlock.html
EDITED TO ADD:
You don't want to add a fraud alert unless you've experienced fraud or potential fraud. I don't think the addition of an old, but accurate, address - in and of itself - falls under fraud. Fraud alerts will require ID verification every time you apply for credit.
Your preselected offers, updates/reviews from existing creditors, and credit monitoring services will not be affected by a lock or freeze. Most of us (myFICO members) have either a freeze or lock on our credit files.
I'd love to give you 10 kudos for your detailed & fast reply. Thanks so much. Going to jump on this immediately.
Thank you!
@thornback wrote:
@HomeBuyerSpring2021 wrote:Thank you for your quick reply. Both good pieces of advice. How do I freeze my credit reports & what actions does that keep from happening? On the latter, I'm just wondering when I'd need to unfreeze them for my own use.
Thanks for the LN link ... I'll pursue that now.
Thanks in advance,
Kimberly
You can freeze all three from each bureau's website --
EQ: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
TU: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
EX: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Freeze's will prevent any unauthorized pulls of your credit reports -- you will be notified of an attempted inquiry if done while your reports are fronzen. So, without pulling your reports, it's unlikely any new accounts will be opened without your explicit authorization (authorization would be you unfreezing your reports for an app). Freezes are backed by the Federal Government (which is why it's free) - so should it fail, you'd have recourse. I mentioned credit locks -- they do the same as freezes but do not have Fed backing - so should a lock fail, you have little to no recourse.
You would need to unfreeze for any new applications or prior using prequalification websites that soft pull your credit. You do not have to worry about existing creditors -- they will still be able to soft pull your credit report for their regular account reviews while it is frozen.
Lifting a freeze is easy and quick -- you just have to remember to do so before apping -- if not, you'll receive an instant denial or your app will go pending and the reason will be the inability to view your reports and so you'll need to unfreeze to proceed. Then remember to re-freeze after apping (like right after you receive the notification of an inquiry).
Locks are the same thing (but, again, without the regulation of government). For Locks:
TU: https://www.transunion.com/product/credit-lock
EQ: https://www.equifax.com/personal/products/credit/credit-lock-alert/
EX (with paid subscription): https://www.experian.com/consumer-products/creditlock.html
EDITED TO ADD:
You don't want to add a fraud alert unless you've experienced fraud or potential fraud. I don't think the addition of an old, but accurate, address - in and of itself - falls under fraud. Fraud alerts will require ID verification every time you apply for credit.
Your preselected offers, updates/reviews from existing creditors, and credit monitoring services will not be affected by a lock or freeze. Most of us (myFICO members) have either a freeze or lock on our credit files.
I'd love to give you 10 kudos for your detailed & fast reply. Thanks so much. Going to jump on this immediately.
Thank you!
Kimberly
Weird that I don't see a reply I posted earlier to say thank you so much for such a quick & detailed reply with links for easy action on my part. You deserve 10 kudos from me for that! I went ahead & froze all 3 bureaus & requested the Consumer report from Lexus Nexus.
Since my earlier reply that disappeared, I've also gotten more details. My ex-husband was late on a payment on a credit card that was in his name that I had previously been an Authorized User on. He got that card when we lived at the address that was "newly-added" to my credit report today. After our divorce, I found out that I was still on it as AU & while it was helping my Credit Age greatly & he never misses payments, I removed myself as an AU in October 2018 because I wanted 100% control of my own credit future which had been decimated during the 2008 recession & I wanted to rebuild it. Glad I did that because now he has missed a payment (in August 2020) at least according to a credit tracking site that reports TransUnion. But the full free annual credit report I got from TransUnion just 3 days ago still shows this account with my status as "Responsibility: Account Relationship Terminated". And the last monthly payment reporting stopped at 10/2018 & it's in the "Satisfactory Accounts" section.
Since I'd already removed myself as Authorized User & it's current status shouldn't be appearing on my credit report at all, who do I need to contact to correct this? The 3 credit bureaus? The issuing credit card company (BoA)? All of the above? If I contact the credit bureaus, does this fall under "inaccurate information" or some other category, so I'll know where to start my pursuit.
Thanks in advance,
Kimberly
P.S. Do you think it's possible that I could have 1 full week without a stressful event happening?! That's a rhetorical question of course. Just need a break over here!
YW -- and the missing reply may have been accidently caught up in the forum's spam filter if you made several edits to the post (this happens a lot to newer members, as you post more, you'll be less likely to have posts removed for spam due to excessive editing).
As for the AU account -- it's not hurting you since it's no longer updating (and that missed payment won't report for you), it's just serving as history now so you could just let it be. But if you want it gone so you can just move forward without it (understandable), that's an easy fix. You can simply dispute it with TU and they'll remove it, AU accounts are notoriously simple to have deleted. Just prepare yourself for a potentially significant drop in score if the reduction in your age of acounts will be signifcant.
As to your rhetorical Q: I don't know but I hope so!! I'm wishing the same for myself...