Hi everyone,
Does anyone know what happens with your credit rating once you've changed your name and updated this along with your gender on everything?
I am assuming with current laws there will be something in place to cover this, as it could be a big problem in living your life if there weren't things in place, but I'd just like reassurance and some info on what I'd need to do to ensure everything goes smoothly and to plan.
I currently have VERY good credit and am also self employed with future plans to expand further, so could possibly be looking at borrowing a lot of money (I'm talking 6 figures). If my credit was messed up due to transition that would affect my work and therefore my life and my future in a major way.
Many thanks,
Steve
I haven't noticed a credit rating change from a name or gender change on documents. It can change how people see your credit ratings as your old name WILL appear on a credit check.
Great thanks for the reply. :)
I guess that's better than nothing, but isn't that illegal to have to show your old gender? I thought we were protected against stuff like that. That said though, I when the time comes I will most likely use my own bank, so they will know anyway as I'm not planning on changing banks.
Thanks
It shows names used, not gender.
You can notify the three major credit reporting agencies and tell them that you have changed your name. They might want certified copies, though.
You can do that, doesn't stop them from listing all names used.
Quote from: LordKAT on August 17, 2013, 11:58:43 PM
You can do that, doesn't stop them from listing all names used.
The question was about whether his credit rating would get dorked up, so I told him how to retain the same rating under the new name. He didn't say that he was worried about having his old name showing up on the reports, so I assumed that it wasn't an issue.
Good point.
Hey thanks for the replies everyone.
So basically, all it is is a name change. So this means there's no change to your rating and your records aren't kind of 'lost' due to being under a different identity. Is that about the size of it?
Yes you are right, my question was simply about the rating itself, but that was because I assumed under the gender discrimination laws that your old identity would be hidden. The credit people have no reason to know your tran's status.
This DOES concern me, as of course it means people making money decisions on your behalf would have the opportunity to discriminate against you if they were tran's phobic or whatever (and to be fair a lot of what I read online is actually due to lack of education on the subject and these people will probably not be educated on it and it's not like you can explain it to them like you can your family and friends - even then it's hard for some).
However, given the choice of having my rating lost or become disjointed in some way and having people see my old name (girly so would give it away), I'd rather go with keeping the rating. I was hoping to achieve both the rating and my privacy on the matter though, but oh well.
Again, thanks everyone for your help :)
Steve
Since the OP is from England (at least based on his username I assume so), I want to mention that those from the U.S. that said that your former name will appear on the report may be incorrect for his case. IIRC I think under the UK's Gender Recognition Act the agencies are required to remove a former name changed due to a gender transition. On legal issues where one lives can make a big difference (so remember to keep that in mind, especially when there are clues as to where they live*). As I say, the physical aspects of transition vary more by the direction of transition (FTM vs. MTF) than where you live, while legal issues are the opposite.
(As a side note, as anyone who has moved to a foreign country or has hung out on an expat forum can tell you, for better or for worse credit history does NOT generally transfer internationally; the credit rating systems are often completely different. Since a U.S. credit report's names are based on ones you've used to obtain credit, moving there for the first time after transitioning would be an exception to your former name appearing; likewise for someone whose name was changed for whatever reason before being old enough to have a line of credit. Conversely if you've used a variant of your name, such as your middle name or nickname as the given name, to obtain credit that name will also show up.)
*A cue I've also used in the past is if I see a date like 18/8/2013 (the date I'm making this post) that indicates they're probably not from the U.S. since there are not more than 12 months in a year (conversely a date like 8/18/2013 would indicate they are). Also look for spellings with the presence or absence of extra u's in words, etc.
Yes I am indeed from the UK. So would that effect the answer to my original question? If you can change both your name and gender in relation to your credit rating does it then all still match up from your past or is the time before your transition lost, or at least has the potential to get lost within the identity change.
In fact thinking about it, I would hope they have figured out ways to keep it consistent as those with bad credit could wipe their past and start afresh. That's not so good!!!
Anyone know then how it works in the UK?
Thanks
I'm not sure if the rating would "carry over" or not, but like you said I think it would because otherwise someone with bad credit could start fresh. Nonetheless, in the UK the law (if I remember it correctly) should allow you to have no sign that you're transgender on your report. (Thanks to that act there are fewer gray areas with TS legal issues over there as compared to in the States.)
Ok, thanks everyone :)
In the U.S., your old name can hang around on a credit report for a long time. I changed my name in 1996, and my old name was still on one credit report the last time I got a free report about two years ago.
Which reminds me...it's about time to get a new report.
At least the name appears at the very end of the report and is unobtrusive. And my old name was fairly exotic.
All my information is for the US, but what the heck.
I've never seen gender listed either. Name change works out more or less the way it does for someone who changes their name at marriage - the change *should* percolate through to all the credit reporting agencies without you needing to do anything. In practice, there may be some glitches (a couple of college-era loans dropped off my report), and you can contact them directly with the info if it really matters to you. Generally, your info is considered linked by your SSA number, not your name; if you change *that,* and I hear you can, you'll have to start fresh with zero credit rating, but otherwise they should catch up to you eventually.
My experience was that a) it took about a year before all three agencies had everything updated b) my old name does appear as an AKA on at least one report and c) my credit score actually went up slightly. :) Overall, it wasn't the nightmare I'd feared.
Quote from: Jenna Marie on August 18, 2013, 05:10:24 PM
Overall, it wasn't the nightmare I'd feared.
Thanks Jenna, whenever I read the above words I breath a sigh of relief!!!!
P.S. In case anyone following this thread is confused, I've changed my name and seeing how I like it. Tough decision choosing a new name. I think Matt will grow on me :D
Glad it helped, and I like the name Matt. :)
Jenna,
Changing your SSN in the US is not an option even with changing name and gender.
I do wish they would change your name on credit reports here but they wouldn't even change it on a mortgage I had, and that was with sending proof of name change. It is causing problems for me even now.
Quote from: LordKAT on August 18, 2013, 07:39:43 PMChanging your SSN in the US is not an option even with changing name and gender.
From what I've been told there is
theoretically a way for a TS to get a new SSN after transitioning, but it would be a long and complicated process requiring a lawyer. Therefore most don't attempt to do so (and as has been said you'd then end up with
no credit history, which unless you've just come of age or immigrated to the country would raise even worse eyebrows than a credit report showing a TS-related name change).
Quote from: tgchar21 on August 18, 2013, 07:52:58 PM
From what I've been told there is theoretically a way for a TS to get a new SSN after transitioning, but it would be a long and complicated process requiring a lawyer. Therefore most don't attempt to do so (and as has been said you'd then end up with no credit history, which unless you've just come of age or immigrated to the country would raise even worse eyebrows than a credit report showing a TS-related name change).
Hmmm, I really need to find out for sure what's the deal with all this in the UK. Might make a phone call tomorrow :)
Quote from: LordKAT on August 18, 2013, 07:39:43 PMI do wish they would change your name on credit reports here but they wouldn't even change it on a mortgage I had, and that was with sending proof of name change. It is causing problems for me even now.
What's the issue? Assuming you have a court order they should be required to change your name upon showing the proof.
Quote from: Mattfromengland on August 18, 2013, 07:54:54 PM
Hmmm, I really need to find out for sure what's the deal with all this in the UK. Might make a phone call tomorrow :)
What I said in that quote is how it applies to U.S. Social Security numbers, and thus would not be applicable in your case unless you are also a U.S. citizen or have lived/plan on moving to the U.S.
They said they can't change it as it was a legal document made in my former name, sort of the argument you get from high school on changing it there.
Quote from: LordKAT on August 18, 2013, 08:11:11 PM
They said they can't change it as it was a legal document made in my former name, sort of the argument you get from high school on changing it there.
A court-ordered name change should supercede any previous 'legal' document.. In fact, I'd try arguing that any 'legal' doc in the old name was null and void - try that one on a mortgage and see how quickly it gets changed..
Quote from: Kelly the Trans-Rebel on August 18, 2013, 08:37:46 PM
try that one on a mortgage and see how quickly it gets changed..
Thumbs up there Kelly!!! ;D
That might work for the mortgage people, but not the high school. High school says it was my name when I graduated and has to stay that way since it wasn't changed before then. Grr to those people.
In the case of (U.S.) school records that they won't change, if you really wanted the records updated you could make a federal court case out of it and argue that FERPA, which requires that records be accurate, would require them to acknowledge your new name (no guarantees that your old name would be taken off though unless your name was changed before you ever attended there, but at least if someone were to run a check of attendance under your new name it would pass). (This applies only to public institutions which fall under the scope of FERPA; if you graduated from a private school, especially a religious-based one where the institution could defend itself with the First Amendment's separation of church and state, you basically have little if any legal recourse.) Or, if it's high school records in question and you still live in said school district (you won't really have the clout if you don't), next time a school board seat is up or they're putting a bond levy or tax increase to the voters, you might campaign against the incumbent or bond/tax increase if there are enough voters sympathetic to you to make the candidate lose or the issue fail (of course that would out you to the public, but I once suggested that tactic for a school that wouldn't accommodate a TS student).
It is a public school. I never heard of FERPA before. They did say that it was correct when I graduated and that to be accurate it could not be changed. Perhaps I could try again.
I no longer live in that school district.
Quote from: LordKAT on August 18, 2013, 09:05:53 PM
It is a public school. I never heard of FERPA before. They did say that it was correct when I graduated and that to be accurate it could not be changed. Perhaps I could try again.
I no longer live in that school district.
FERPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FERPA) is a federal law that governs educational records and who they can be released to, and schools that don't comply can lose part or all of their federal funding. My idea is that if a federal court says that a name change has to be acknowledged under the law then you should be able to get your records updated unless the district wants to lose money.
Another strategy is if your birth certificate has been amended present that and not just your name change order. I've heard in some cases where a student's name had been changed because of a paternity dispute, remarriage, etc. they had to present that to enroll them under the proper name; if the school uses that logic then you may have success that way.
Yeah, I've never understood why public high schools claim that they cannot change your name retroactively but public community colleges and universities are only too happy to comply. I think it's a crock.
Quote from: Arch on August 18, 2013, 09:12:32 PM
Yeah, I've never understood why public high schools claim that they cannot change your name retroactively but public community colleges and universities are only too happy to comply. I think it's a crock.
It's because post-secondary institutions have more to lose since they get a lot of support from their alumni associations, whereas high schools typically don't get as much directly from their associations. That's why I suggested if you're still a patron of the district (and have clout to influence their policies) to vote in school elections against the incumbent board member or any tax increases.
LordKat : As Tgchar says, it's theoretically possible to change SSN but fiendishly difficult. I know of a couple people who did it, though. I think maybe it was more common in the "deep stealth" days a couple generations back?
As for mortgages, I'm not 100% sure the name was changed on the original *document* for me, although it has been for the loan account. (I do at least know it was changed on the legal title to the property, thank goodness.)
Mortgage people would only hyphenate or add a name, not change it. The name didn't match my checks or ID but that didn't stop them from changing my name to something it was not instead of to something it was.
For what it is worth, the mortgage company illegally foreclosed on my home and I do have a partial settlement coming from them. I had to send my name change papers to get a check in the correct name. That was sent to the lawyers and people issuing the checks.
My birth cert was amended when I changed my name. I have not tried that tactic. I am working on changing my gender on the birth cert and getting it impounded. Perhaps that will be enough to do it.
SSN changes are extremely difficult and a name or gender change will not be enough to do so. Witness protection programs will change them and I'm sure there are other ways but I do not think it worthwhile to persue.
Back to the original issue, a name change sent to the credit report agencies results in them adding the name as AKA, not actually changing it.
I got to looking about the issue of changing school records, and like with birth certificates there are three possibilities:
1. They'd update your records without any mention of your former name and/or gender (at least on the transcript that outsiders would see). This of course would be the best procedure, but the only way it would probably be legally guaranteed is if your name changed before you ever attended said school (in such a case the only way that registrar should know about your former name is if you had to tell them to ensure that records further back matched up).
2. They'd add your new name to the records, but your former name/gender would still be shown. While this will out you to anyone who sees the transcript, this would at least eliminate any ambiguity that the records are yours and would allow those verifying that you attended there and earned said diploma/degree to do so without knowledge of your old name. If someone were to make the FERPA court challenge as I mentioned earlier in the thread this is probably as successful as they'd get, and for anyone who changes their name while attending the school you should already be able to get at least this far. When I contacted the high school I graduated from this is what they said they'd do (they said they had to keep the name a student attended under there on the record).
3. They won't update your records at all. This of course is the most problematic for TSs, and is what you may be able to get around if you were to contest it in court (based on the logic that FERPA requires the records be accurate).