I've had a hellish experience due to being named after my father as well... I don't hesitate to tell everybody I know not to make the mistake my parents made. (I can personally take credit for saving several children from the possibility of my fate.)
I used to be angry... in my case it has actually cost me tens of thousands of dollars in additional interest over the years in addition to other numerous headaches (in the interest of brevity I won't elaborate here), but with time I've learned to excuse the actions of a then 22 year-old man-child who didn't know better.
I believe my mother genuinely regrets her part in making the choice, since she's been divorced from my father since I was five years old, yet she still has a child (me) with the name of her ex-husband. That had to have been a 'rub' through the years. Since she was only 21 at the time I've forgiven her as well... like my father, she had no idea of the implications of her choice.
I will mention that ironically my very first credit card application in college was with Citibank - for their student 'Classic' Visa - and it was summarily denied due to a list of negative items on my then brand-new credit file. In my case it was an easy fix and months later I eventually got the card (most of the items were from when I was in middle school, so it obviously wasn't me) but that was just the beginning of my "adventure" - I've had to do this repeatedly over the years. Thankfully the last few years it seems to have gotten better, and since I've had my own credit issues (that were legitimately mine) the impact has been muted somewhat.
In my case I am legally a 'Jr', but my father refuses to use 'Sr.', which makes no sense to me and just helps to perpetuate the problem. The last 10-15 years I've tried to make more of a difference by purposely leaving out my middle initial (since he always uses his) but this has been hit-and-miss.
I just don't understand how anybody could be so narcissistic that they would choose to name another human being after themselves... that takes a special kind of "pride". If you're that proud of your child (as many will claim) allow them to be an individual, and later on change your own name to match theirs... don't take a chance of setting them up for failure.
Sidenote: This doesn't even touch on what happens if either 'Sr.' or 'Jr.' ever has a run-in with the law... that has actually happened in a nearby community. In my local case, 'Jr.' is serving hard-time for a well-publicized morals crime (a bad one) and his father 'Sr.' was with the county government at the time and was very well-known. Sr. and his wife eventually move out of the state after living here 50+ years; it was assumed by many because his name would be forever 'tainted' with his son's crime. I guess they learned the hard way as well.
Remember, if you're thinking about this, put your child's well-being over your own narcissism and just say no!
@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
BTW, does anyone know what it means to have a SS "associated" with you on your credit report?
It usually means that at some point the 'associated' social security number was either reported by a lender or the person used the other SS# to apply for credit, whether or not it actually happened.
If it's not hurting anything it might be less trouble to simply leave it alone. I used to be OCD about things like that, but I've learned with age that sometimes it's best to "let sleeping dogs lie", if you know what I mean.
On the other hand, I'm also a believer of correcting things before they have a chance to become a problem (when possible), so that's one way to look at it as well.
You might give the CB a call and see what will be required to remove the notation. If it's something they can quickly/easily correct I would probably pursue it, otherwise if they tell you it will require a DNA sample and a goat sacrifice it might not be worth it.
Really UnlceB?!
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for elaborating on that zerofire. That's basically what I was told too.
Easier said than done in regards to moving out I'm afraid. I haven't saved up enough.
Just out of curiosity, how can the BK pop-up in my credit report again? I'm curious.
Turbobuick - when I first received initial response from the credit bureaus, All I got from them were cookie-cutter letter templates citing the Fair Credit Reporting Act and my rights under FCRA. LIke I said, TransUnion corrected the error in their system right away, Experian did not believe my father and I were two different people, wanted me to submit more proof, and I did not hear a peep from Equifax.
The second time around with the second lawyer, I once again received those cookie-cutter letters but with a response this time. Experian confirmed that the bankruptcy was removed, but they didn't admit to reporting the bankruptcy in error. Equifax said that there isn't a bankruptcy under my SSN, even though I know there was because older versions of my Equifax credit report show one count public record, so they never really admitted to their mistake. And Transunion said there isn't a record of the bankruptcy under my SSN (which is true on their end because since they corrected the mistake in their system the first time. None of the bureaus though admitted to filing the bankruptcy in error, and I think the reason why I was able to get a response faster the second time around than the first was because I believe my counsel threatened to sue.
I know the BK is off all three reports as of August cause I paid to see the CR and I saved a difital copy of it. No public records across the board!
How does it return? Easy, the same way it was reported to begin with. Court's and companies can re-report or verify that their reported info is still in the right place. Just like you can but with much fewer restrictions. Also every bureau also has to do maintenance on their database. They like to clean out old inquiries and negative info as soon as it is time to expire them but sometimes maintenance will restore old data because it believes that the old reporting way is correct even though in your case it clearly isn't. Maintenance is done by computers and they have the same acceptable variation as the computers doing the reporting. Re-reporting and maintenance are pretty much the only ways since nobody bothers calling for manual entry anymore.
Transunion is usually more accurate then Equifax and Experian because they only do individual reports. The other two usually get really messy very quick because they mix personal reports and buisness reports together and buisnesses constantly adjust their names or get perchased so a lawyer is easier for them to understand especially Equifax. For buisnesses Dun&Bradstreet is the bureau that replaces Transunion.
@Anonymous wrote:Hi Everyone,
I've been a lurker on these forums for quite some time. Decided to join and do my best to become as active as possible on this message board.
Nothing but nice, friendly people, great advice, and great discussion on here! I regret not joining sooner. I guess you can say that this is my introduction (first thread). Not sure where else to have introduced myself though so if you need to move this thread, that's fine.
Anyways, yeah, just quickly want to share my story. Please excuse the length.
So, I'm a working yuppie in Chicago. I've been working professionally for close to four years now and trying to finish graduate school at the same time. I've been staying at home with my parents to save money so I can get my own place and pay tuition on my own, so I commute back and forth from school/work. Fortunately I was able to graduate from my bachelor's degree debt-free!
As life would have it, I was named after my father. I have a middle name, he doesn't. In Dec 2015, he filed for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, that bankruptcy was tagged on my credit report, even though we both have different SSN's, reason being that we (essentially) have the same name, and the same address.
The past year has been nothing but headaches, working with TWO different lawyers to get the bankruptcy taken off my credit report with all three credit bureaus. I had just started building up my credit the year before after successfully getting approved for the Citibank Citi Forward Thank You Card (college student card no longer offered/discontinued by Citibank), and for the American Express Premier Gold Rewards Card. My credit scores were in the 750's before all of this happened.
Only reason why I found out about the bankruptcy was because I was trying to make a purchase with the Citi Forward card and the card got declined. I called the bank to try to figure out if it had been frozen, and that's when Citibank let me have it. Citibank wrongfully closed my account, and even though I had explained to them that I wasn't the one that had filed for bankruptcy, that it was my father, they would not open it back up again for me until AFTER the bankruptcy was removed from my credit reports and I had proof of that.
Dealing with the credit bureaus was a nightmare! The first lawyer got TransUnion to comply, but never got a word back from Equifax, and Experian said that they didn't believe my father and I were two different people. The second lawyer was able to get the job done, and he scorned my dad by telling him that by naming me after him and having to file for bankruptcy, he had basically signed my name in blood. In August 2016 was when everything appeared to be getting back to normal.
My counsel advised me to not pay the balance I had on the wrongfully closed card until the bankruptcy was completely eliminated from my history. As of yesterday (09/19/16), I was finally able to make that payment. Funny enough, that morning, Citibank updated their system to show on my account that the bankruptcy was reported in error, but they are not doing anything to restablish the credit line that I had with them. And they won't approve me for a new credit line. I feel extremely betrayed by Citibank because I've had a checking and savings account with them over the past decade now, and apparently it means diddly. The CSR told me that they couldn't open the account back-up because it had been closed longer than three months.
Fortunately, I was able to salvage the American Express Premier Gold Rewards card because I called AMEX immediately after finding out about the bankruptcy and they noted the potential mixup in my file. I was able to garden with this card (not by choice) for the past nine months or so, and paid it off in full every time I made a payment, sometimes making up to three payments a month, the same days my direct deposits would kick in.
It's September 2016, I'm starting rebuild my credit and I'm trying to pick-up where I left off. I'm not sure if I'm in a better or worse position coming out of this than going in. My credit scores are in the 660's after being in the 540's over the past year. As soon as I found out that the bankruptcies had been removed, I tried my luck and applied online for the AMEX Everyday Preferred Card and got approved for a $2300 credit limit. The same day, I applied to upgrade my AMEX Premier Rewards Gold to the AMEX Platinum, and got approved for that as well. Also in the same month, I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card after receiving the invitation to apply in the mail, and got approved for a $5000 credit limit. Lastly, I applied for the Capital One QuickSilverOne card and got approved for a $500 credit limit.
As far as Citibank is concerned, I still feel betrayed and I'm going to close my checking/savings account with them today and I'm going to open them up at Chase to keep everything more or less centralized. Maybe one day I might go back to them. Who knows? I'm still worried because I'm not sure how this is going to affect me moving forward, if at all. I have to be in good financial standing to apply for professional licensure in my state to advance my career. And I'm worried that if any record of this bankruptcy lingers somewhere, that it will impact my ability to get an apartment or buy my own place.
Thinking about gardening with the four credit cards that I have for the next year or so. I really want the new Chase Sapphire Reserved, so maybe in a year's time... Hoping to become a credit afficionado. Any other advice with respect to improving my credit history/scores and moving forward is greatly appreciated. The bankruptcy never made it to collections, by the way (if that's how you word it). Didn' wait a year?
I see you have the CSR with $13k CL?
Thank you for reading this. Again, I apologize for the length of this post, I realized I wrote a novel. LOL.
So yeah, don't name your kids after yourself. Cause I got screwed over.
>.<
