PRBC Credit Bureau File Errors

[HeavenOhio]

PBRC - Wikipedia

This is an alternative credit bureau that's FCRA-compliant. "Consumers are able to self-enroll and report their own non-debt payment history." It's meant as an alternative for those whose traditional files are thin.

[trusty]

The fact that anyone can "self report" their own data removes all credibility from a data collector.

The whole idea is to get neutral or adverse parties reporting consumer data.

If you let consumers report their own data... obviously it amounts to nothing more than a made up financial resume.

[Medic981]

IIRC I enrolled in PRBC back in 2010 after my last credit crash and burn. I forgot all about it until I came upon an online article about performing a background check on yourself. I am glad I did. 

I just got done with writing a dispute with 117 (yes, that is one hundred and seventeen) errors, several are names, one is that address that plagues me, and the others are, not the five bank accounts I thought, but 11 bank accounts that do not belong to me and are reporting on this credit file. There are inquires, positive and negative entries all related to these bank accounts that I do not own. Not a single bank account that I do own. I am very curious where PRBC is getting this information. 

An eight-page credit report generated a 13-page dispute letter. I am off the post office to send my dispute package by certified mail. 

[Medic981]

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@trusty wrote:
The fact that anyone can "self report" their own data removes all credibility from a data collector.

The whole idea is to get neutral or adverse parties reporting consumer data.

If you let consumers report their own data... obviously it amounts to nothing more than a made up financial resume.

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I am glad that you are such an expert on PRBC since you have probably never been to their website and even know what they offer. Just for your information, there are traditional banks that will extend credit based on PRBCs report, Fifth Third Bank being one of them.

[trusty]

I'd be trying to get any banking information stricken... no matter how relevant.

I don't agree with the practice of collecting banking information. Far too many data breaches happening for any of that to be safe.

That said, good luck on getting that stuff corrected.

[trusty]

I didn't mean to come off so harshly. Many of us have been in a life situation where we needed letters of credit.

It's just a pet peeve of mine when companies try to seemingly take advantage of these situations.

Nobody needs any company to help fix their credit. What consumers need most is financial education.

It's easy enough for any consumer to call up the utilities themselves, to obtain any letters of credit... assuming they have a solid payment history with each utility company.

[RobertEG]

As I understand PRBC (pay rent, buy credit), they are a national credit reporting agency that permits self-reporting by consumers of non-traditional forms of credit that are not normally reported to the big-4 CRAs, such as rent and certain utilities.

Their database is significantly smaller than the big-4, and while they offer a credit score, they are not a major source of credit reports and scores for most credit transactions.

The big-4 have their own, common credit reporting manual, which primarily limits information to that obtained from furnishers, as opposed to information obtained from consumers.  I can see how duplicate information can occur under their distinctive form of sources of information.

While they have a distinctive process of accepting information, they clearly qualify as a national CRA, and are thus subject to all of the same dispute procedures set forth in the FCRA.  You can either file a dispute directly with them, which in this case would assert the inclusion of information that does not relate to you, or you can file a direct dispute with the "furnisher" of the information if you know their identity.

However, since PRBC does not have a standard and published credit reporting manual that requries, for example, reporting of the full name and address of the furnisher, it might be difficult to file any direct disputes.