TransUnion - Special Messages

[DONZI]

Hi,

I decided to look at the reports at the big 3 CRA this morning and TU provides a little extra info, which frankly I don't know if it's new or not.

It seems benign, so I may have never paid any attention to it before if it's old info.

Special Messages

The following Special Messages may be provided to an authorized
party when it makes an inquiry into your TransUnion credit report.
These messages provide important details concerning the information
contained in your file and/or the authorized party’s inquiry.

INPUT ADDRESS, SSN, OR TELEPHONE NUMBER REPORTED BY MORE THAN ONE SOURCE

Does anyone know if this is of any concern?

Thanks!

[DONZI]

Still there.. bump to see if anyone in 2026 may have ideas. 

[AndySoCal]

I cannot find anything specific on your message. The link below which is about the Trans Union credit report. Special Messages are covered in it. Nothing that exactly matches your message. I would call Trans Union for further guidance.

[DONZI]

Thanks for the recomendation @AndySoCal 

..dragging my feet on this for a while. Guess it's time to bite the bullet. Soon™

My few experiences dealing with EXP and EQ were kind of a drag.

[AndrewF]

TransUnion Special Messages really suck, because good luck getting rid of them and stupid landlords don't know what they mean.

My spouse has two of them because we lived in a hotel for a while before he got his green card and so they are:

"ADDRESS TYPE IS COMMERCIAL/BUSINESS"

and 

"SSN NOT LIKELY INPUT BEFORE 2011"

The second one is because he got an SSN after 2011, which is what happens when you immigrate to the US after 2011 and get a random set of the first three digits. It also happens to US citizens born after 2011, but since they're no more than 15 years old, the landlords don't see it much yet.

A landlord threatened to call the police on me and said "Tell your illegal alien husband with the fake Social Security number to take a hike."

These landlords aren't just the queens of mean, some of them are just dumb, although some are at least cunning enough that when they illegally deny you an apartment, to make the narrative nitpicky, but something legal.

Real Estate is like a safety net I think. Sitting on their butt waiting for your paycheck to arrive in the mail.

(Occasionally pausing to sneak into your apartment for no reason, or turn the water heater too low, or spray your cats with RoundUp because you left the window open on a spring day and didn't think that a psychopath would come by to spray tulips (and your cats) with RoundUp. Yes, I had one like this.)

I wish I had my phone recording that incident where the two went into a racist screed about my spouse based on a special message from TransUnion. I'd have taken them to the Human Rights Commission and I'd be the new owner of the building if they couldn't pay the $100,000 fine.

As far as "special messages" go, you don't want them. Everything that isn't "normally on there" can cause a problem with systems where people don't know what it is and can't be bothered to find out.

Instead of putting the message in plain English, TransUnion makes it sound cryptic.

Why can't they say "Social Security Number issued after 2011. This is common with immigrants and people born after 2011."?

Instead they have to put it in there like the PC LOAD LETTER message from the printer in Office Space.

Experian put one about his SSN on there too but we called and they agreed to delete it.

The Chinese have a saying, apparently, that goes "The nail that sticks out gets the hammer." Credit reports are like this.

[DONZI]

I visited all the CRA and while at TU I used the chat to ask about the message. After a verification form, the representative explained that:

(directly above this is the list of soft pulls from established, FI, etc)

The following Special Messages may be provided to an authorized party when it makes an
inquiry into your TransUnion credit report. These messages provide important details
concerning the information contained in your file and/or the authorized party’s inquiry.

"INPUT ADDRESS, SSN, OR TELEPHONE NUMBER REPORTED BY MORE THAN ONE SOURCE"

(directly below this is the standard stuff about consumer rights, etc.)
-- non profile related

..meant:

Thank You for Your Patience , so this is protection that is placed internally , to
avoid any attempts or request for any update request for the information listed on
the special message.

In which case I guess it's okay for the time being since the personal information is correct. I didn't think to ask much more than:

ME: I see. So it's nothing I need to worry about?

Nothing at all

I guess if I were to change my address I'd have to dig back into this.

The only thing I can recall is that I had some time back needed to adjust my mailing address due to a syntax problem or something. EG: Addr 1, Addr 2 Vs 1 line for both, missing suite address or something that was propagating an incomplete or non-optimal machine readable address... something like that.

I think it was about TU updating my address based on info that was provided by one of the FI, and me getting them to fix it.

[hdporter]

The myFICO made an absolute hash at displaying your myFico chat dialogue.

That said, here's my observation:  TU "Soecial Messages" (SM) merely tag reported data that merits closer examination by a prospective lender to ensure it's legitimately reported.

A "SM" isn't a fraud alert, or suggests that the data is suspicious.  It just merits a little extra confirmation.

A lender (or landlord, or whoever) should deal with the notation in a matter-of-fact manner.  In the posted case of the landlord who went off the rails over a notation, I'd suggest that TU extended a huge favor:  Do you really want to rent from an abject idiot like that?   As a tenant, he's likely to be all up in your "stuff" over inane crap!

If you have SM's on your TU file, you needn't react as if TU has blackballed you.  You might prepare a brief explanation for the remarks and offer it up the minute you become aware a creditor pulled a TU report in conjunction with a  credit request.  There's a good chance the lender will be appreciative of the proactive gesture.

[AndrewF]

That landlord responded to my review threatening to sue me for "libel, defamation, and slander".

I responded that libel and slander are both forms of defamation, so the word he was looking for was actually just libel.

And that since he saw my credit file and knew that I was (at that time) homeless and bankrupt, what did he think he would get with a lawsuit that I could keep responding to for many years while he paid his attorney money he'd likely never see again.