Credit report issues after legal name change

[MeghanAndrews]

Its your responsibility to give them the name changes, they only report the information they have collected.

This is information for women after marriage, but change the words and I'm sure it will work.

Date

Equifax Credit Information Services Inc.
https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/consumer/forward.ehtml?forward=home
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374

TransUnion LLC
http://www.transunion.com/Personal/OrderOtherMethods.jsp
Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022

Experian
http://www.experian.com/consumer/index.html
National Consumer Assistance Center
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013

Re: Request to change name on credit report

Dear Sir or Madam:

My credit information with your company current is currently held under my maiden name: Full pre-marriage name. However, I have recently married and now am legally known as: Full married name.

This letter is my formal request that you change your records to reflect my new legal name. In addition to my new name, your data should indicate my new address. Below I have listed, along with my Social Security number, my prior name and previous address and my new name and address to which my records should be changed:

Pre-marriage information
   

Married information

Full maiden name
Social Security number
Old mailing address
City, State and ZIP Code
   

New married name
Social Security number
New mailing address
City, State and ZIP Code

If you have any questions about these changes, you can contact me by mail at my new address or by telephone at work phone number during business hours.

I also am enclosing a copy of my marriage license. This will verify my name change and ensure accurate spelling on my updated credit report.

Thank you for your prompt attention to my request.

Your Signature
Your Typed Name
Your Address
City, State and ZIP Code

Enclosure: Marriage license (copy)

This site has information and PDF forms

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/forms/credit-report-name-change.asp

I was in the credit industry for a long time and Tekla is very accurate with the info here. IT's near impossible to get rid of every trace, especially if you already have a bunch of credit established in your old name, but you can definitely save yourself a lot of pain and aggravation by following the steps Tekla proposes here

[MaggieB]

I followed Tekla's advice exactly. I sent the documents and they all responded by saying that they would not change anything nor add any names.

Maggie

[MeghanAndrews]

That's puzzling. The part about the name being changed by changing your name with every creditor on your report is definitely correct. I had two incorrect names (provided proof) removed and I had them add my transitioned name but I think my situation was different because I already had credit under my new name. They won't remove the old legal name, but it will eventually drop off. They don't have to remove it because it was a name you used to obtain credit even though it's different now. Maybe focus on changing it with all of the creditors (get your reports from all three bureaus, then go down the list and change with each)?

[JoshuaDavid]

I've just gotten my legal name cange as well and am not having very good luck with the credit bureaus. I'm thinking I may have successfully set up a new credit file under Experian with Joshua David, instead of Jennifer Rosa ... but I have not had luck with Equifax or Transunion. So, will they add my name to my current crappy credit file, or will they set up a new complete file? This is quite confusing ....

[MaggieB]

I've just gotten my legal name cange as well and am not having very good luck with the credit bureaus. I'm thinking I may have successfully set up a new credit file under Experian with Joshua David, instead of Jennifer Rosa ... but I have not had luck with Equifax or Transunion. So, will they add my name to my current crappy credit file, or will they set up a new complete file? This is quite confusing ....

From what I was told in both letters and on the telephone with an agent, we have no way to direct them to do anything about how or with what name they associate the data with.
I learned from other sources that the only way to start a new file is to have a new social security number and that can be obtained with a gender change but the procedure requires a lawyer to obtain one.  From what I was told, US law says three types of cases warrant a change in SSN. Identity theft, witness protection and gender change.

My main problem is that I have no creditors. All my accounts are at least five years old and none are open.  I have no debt or credit cards.  The utility companies won't report nor will my bank. My landlord is a private citizen and not keyed into the credit reporting system. So there is literally no one who will report my new name. In fact, there is not a single entry in my report that is newer than five years.

Maggie

[Jay]

Credit report.. well our credit ratings over hear are slightly different. My credit report hasn't changed at all from last year and I still got a new credit card this month! Surprisingly... credit crunch and all! I am pretty sure Britain has the moto if you are more in debt you are more than welcome to more! and we wonder why our economy is well...

Not that there is anything wrong with my credit as I am a good boy!

Jay

[pong]

This is what I found on the experian website, under Personal events. I am assuming it would be same process when one has legally change their names:

Women who take their husband's surname after getting married need to notify the Social Security Administration and their current creditors of this change. You do not need to notify the credit reporting agencies of a name change. They will automatically update the name on a credit report when creditors report it.

[JoshuaDavid]

Thanks for all the great info! I'll have to check on it and hopefully work something out. I've contacted my attorney who assisted with the name change to see if getting a new SSN would be a good idea, he's looking into it. We shall see...

[sneakersjay]

Thanks for all the great info! I'll have to check on it and hopefully work something out. I've contacted my attorney who assisted with the name change to see if getting a new SSN would be a good idea, he's looking into it. We shall see...

You don't need a new number, just need to take your documents and get your name changed with SSA.  I waited until after top surgery and got the gender marker changed also -- one trip.


Jay

[pong]

You don't need a new number, just need to take your documents and get your name changed with SSA.  I waited until after top surgery and got the gender marker changed also -- one trip.


Jay

Hi Jay,

Did you ask your employer to change the gender marker in their record as well? How about your health insurance? 

Thanks,
Pong

[MaggieB]

You don't need a new number, just need to take your documents and get your name changed with SSA.  I waited until after top surgery and got the gender marker changed also -- one trip.


Jay

The reason to get a new SSN is to force a new credit record. I have all documents updated with my new gender and new legal name including Birth Certificate and SSA.  It was very easy and straight forward as I mentioned. I did not get the new SSN because I did not see the need and I can't afford a lawyer.

The issue here is that the reporting agencies only take information from creditors who will report to them. I got rid of all debt five years ago and have debit credit cards. my bank is WAMU and they never have reported anything of my banking information to the credit agencies.  So unless I get a credit card or apply for a car loan and they choose to give it to me in my new name, I can't get it changed.  Getting credit is not easy now under any circumstances and I don't want any debt. The only reason I want my CC records changed is to rent a new place without having to come out to the landlord. 

In fact, if I did have a new SSN, I'd be in a similar position because no credit record is worse than a bad one. 

As for insurance, my spouse changed the gender markers on the forms at work. There was a big hubbub over us being same sex and whether our marriage was legal.  Finally, the she showed them the pdf from the State Bar Association of California about legal issues of the transgendered. It states that the only way in California to end a marriage is by divorce or death. Since we have had neither, our marriage is legal. That may change if the CA Supreme Court rules that all same sex marriages, regardless of when they happened, are now void.


Maggie

[sneakersjay]

Hi Jay,

Did you ask your employer to change the gender marker in their record as well? How about your health insurance? 

Thanks,
Pong

Yes. 


Jay

[JoshuaDavid]

So, I think I've got it! Mind you ... I actually work for a branch of Experian and am more confused about this than ever!! So here's the scoop, what I'm doing is as follows: I've applied for a credit card under the name of Joshua David Ortiz, which it what my name has been legally changed to. I've gotten denied ... which is expected, since there is no credit file under that name. As soon as I get the letter of denial, I'm sending that, a copy of my DL and SS card to the bureaus and requesting the credit report I am legally entitled to after a credit denial. They will then key in my information to send me a credit file, in essence creating a new one. It has already worked with Experian. My Experian credit file to totally blank now, under Joshua David, instead of Jennifer Rosa. I'm hoping its that simple with Equifax and Transunion ...

Hope this helps some of ya!

[NicholeW.]

I'm gonna go off-track a bit here. I was sorta wondering about Maggie's statement that she could change her SSN. I was under the impression that w/o some sort of horrendous identity theft in which you use every, and then some, means to try to resolve, or being in the witness protection program that such a change was not on the cards.

She sent me a link to this thread which has a voluminous post by a former member, Amy T. also known as seldom, that there was a special dispensation for post-op transsexuals.

I am not declaring that the post is definitely wrong, but after spending an hour or two searching through SSA's website and speaking with two SSA employees on the phone for about 1/2- 3/4 oif an hour I am fairly sure that the info given in Amy's post may well be hearsay and not absolutely set in stone.

She did say to contact legal representation and to have them do the procedures necessary for this "transsexual" change, but if it exists it is certainly a mystery item that is not on the website that I was able to discover nor in the information deliverd to me by either the national representative on the phone nor to the person I spoke with at the local office. 

So, perhaps you can contact Lambda Legal or a Social Security case attorney and get a different answer than I have managed to get, but I wouldn't count on it. I will speak to a friend this evening who is an attorney who works almost exclusively with Social Security cases and see if she knows anything about this alleged program.

Whether or not she has or not doesn't mean that the opportunity doesn't exist. But I am wondering about the availability of a program that neither Social Security or their reps has ever heard of before being in actual existence.

I'd suggest that no one gets her or his hopes up too high for this "number change." A program so secret that it's unheard of seems sort of ... well, unexpected I suppose. Besides, as someone pointed out in the linked thread, having no history at all is worse than having one in two genders.

OTH, the credit corrections suggested in that last post by Joshua seem neither fraudulent or fantastic to me.

Nichole

Nichole

[MaggieB]

Just so it is clear, I did not say that I had tried to get a new SSN just that I was aware of it. I did send the link to Nichole of one of the sources that I could find. For me once a lawyer has to be involved, I am not going to be able to deal with it because I don't have the financial resources to pay a lawyer. 

I did successfully change my records on both gender and legal name at the SSA and DL and my birth certificate is now corrected too.  However, they are still my old account numbers.

I will try Joshua's method which is to apply for some credit knowing that I will be denied because my new name isn't on the record. Then I will use the free credit report that the credit reporting companies will then be required to send me as a way to send them copies of my SS card and DL. Maybe then they will change it or at least make a new record.

[JENNIFER]

Firstly, my apologies if I have missed anything relevent to this post. Secondly, apologies if I appear disrespectful to the US and those of you that have to deal with government therein.

I was born in the UK to UK parents. At that time, I was allocated a 'National Insurance' number, perhaps the same as a SSN to US citizens, I do not know.   This number dictates my dealings with the state from birth to death. 

When I changed my name in the legal way here, I immediately went to the tax office and requested my details be ammended accordingly.  That was it, nothing else needed to be done.  No court appearance, no new number, no awkward questions asked and NO MONEY requested or demanded for the privelige.

Within days, I recieved confirmation of my new name connected to my national insurance number, a new NI card and my tax record ammended accordingly.  One visit to one office with one person to do one thing. I scratch my head when I read of the trauma that US folk have to endure to gain legitimacy!!

[NicholeW.]

As promised I talked with my friend. And she confirmed for me what I had suspected: that without witness protection or a really nasty and pernicious identity theft debacle that you have made mammoth efforts and can show that you've made such efforts: It is the policy of SSA not to change SSNs.

The restriction is not a legal one, as in written into a law in some Federal Register, but is accepted policy and for many reasons: tax, retirement benefits, disability benefits, etc, the SSA does not make such changes.

However the name changes and other changes are easily done with proper documentation and normally do not require an attorney to assist the individual. It's a matter of bringing the required documentation into your neighborhood SSA office and having the changes made.

Thus, Jennifer, in respect to that USA is no more complex than UK. The crazy-quilt of state laws here is often a more pressing difficulty than is the federal. I suppose you could liken it to South Riding Yorkshire having one policy and procedure and  North Riding another very different one.

Nichole

[NotTGbutIloveUandME]

The social security card place told me they WILL NOT change your ssn even if you are a victim of identity theft (like me).

[Radar]

Thank you so much for posting this. I didn't even think to add credit report companies on my list of places to change my name. It could be disastrous to find out the hard way that this needed to be done too. I mailed mine out yesterday.