I had a legal name change last July and now my credit reports come back that there is a problem and cannot be obtained. I have tried to contact them by their web site contact info but they don't respond. Anyone have this problem? Will they keep my old name for ten years after I finally get it corrected with them. I find it absurd that it is my responsibility to correct their data. I didn't ask them to collect it in the first place. Now that it is required to have their data to rent a house or get a loan or apply for a job, it seems that they should have legal requirements to be accurate.
Maggie
Maggie, it's generally recommended that you send the three credit bureaus a copy of your name change.
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 (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 (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 (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 (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/forms/credit-report-name-change.asp)
Out of the three major credit reporting companies only one has the ability to change your name. The other two start new accounts.
A new account without any credit history for a person of her age would be worse than a bad report.
Tekla,
Thank you very much.
Thank you all very much.
Maggie
Thanks for that, Tekla! I'll have to do that as well. I have a few other name change reporting to do so that will definitely help.
Jay
Hey research is my middle name, or at least my PhD.
That wasn't a problem for me since basically the social security number and date of birth remain unchanged.
Quote from: Ava Nieves on February 11, 2009, 06:29:03 PM
That wasn't a problem for me since basically the social security number and date of birth remain unchanged.
Whose doesn't?
I got the results from TransUnion and Equifax yesterday. I used the form letter suggested by Tekla and included copies of my court order. Transunion send me a credit report with my old name listed as the primary name and in small print my new name was listed as also known as.
Equifax refused to change anything but sent me a report in my old name. They said that my new information doesn't match theirs. DUH... Now they want a copy of my social security card, and a utility bill.
What bothers me is that it is likely that my old name will be on my report forever. There goes any hope of living stealth and I will have to face possible bigotry in rentals and job apps. I know that is is illegal in CA for discrimination against trans folk but we all know how easy it is to get around that.
Kinda depressed about this.
Maggie Kay,
Sorry to hear about how difficult it is to deal with these businesses. :(
My experience to date (YMMV), I took a different route and have not notified any agencies. Within 6 months of my name change I had obtained two forms of credit, one unsolicited. So the credit is building, and the history looks a bit short, but it has not caused any problems with rentals. Maybe renting in San Francisco helps. ;)
As for stealth, well, in this 'information age', all of one's past is available for a fee, it is unlikely that one can disappear unless you were never part of the 'age' to begin with...
Hugs,
Rhonda
Experian sent me a credit report with the statement:
"We are responding to your request to change your name on your credit report due to a legal name change. We store information based on identification information provided to us by credit grantor(s) and public records. Once you report your new name to your credit grantor(s) they may report it to us."
In other words, they won't do it until I have credit in my new name and I can't get credit in my new name because there is no official file in that name. I currently do not have any credit cards or debt. It seemed so me that a court order was evidence of a public record...
Incredible.
I am applying for a rental and will have to include a letter stating that I am a transssexual and give my prior name so they can run a credit check. What FUN!
Maggie
My experience is that if one notifies a change of name with an existing supplier of credit ( required under UK law ) then that supplier notifies the relevent agencies that it does business with.
In addition, notifying the electoral registration authorities ( also required under UK law ) will see this alteration notified to the agencies owing to the fact that these agencies are used to verify identity and address for taxation reasons. Your mortage holder/landlord will also notify the agencies owing to the fact that they supply credit also.
My point being that those you do business with do the legwork if you have notified the relevent suppliers and they have agreed to it/accepted the change of name. It is only if you see a problem in a hard copy of your report that you challenge the information held and you have to pay but this is my experience in the UK, I have no idea what other countries might manage this problem.
I think that it is amazing that they will change the name of a woman who gets married at her request but not a legal name change. Or is it really that someone is trying to be nasty?
According to the TSRoadmap what I did should have worked. Something has changed.
Quote from: Maggie Kay on February 20, 2009, 02:57:29 PM
I think that it is amazing that they will change the name of a woman who gets married at her request but not a legal name change. Or is it really that someone is trying to be nasty?
According to the TSRoadmap what I did should have worked. Something has changed.
Marriage is perhaps expected and unquestionable. Anything else invites scrutiny but if one has the relevent 'law' in hand to support the change of name, then it is a matter for others if they choose to deny you your rights.
QuoteI can't get credit in my new name because there is no official file in that name
Start with a bank account. Then change you utilities to your new name. Then you can get a credit card as well as dept store cards. Then an auto loan. Then a mortgage. Your employer will verify you income. When people marry they combine credit histories. Change your name is like starting over even with the same SS number. Your old history will last 7 years.
After obtaining my legal name change, I changed my bank account and credit cards to my current name, waited a few months then wrote the reporting companies using the links and a letter modified appropriately from above along with my court ordered name change.
I received letters from all three reporting companies and credit reports from two of them within a month. My old name did not appear on them anywhere.
On Jan 31, 2008 I received my first W-2 with my new name on it, so finally decided to go shopping for a house thinking that I had all of my bases covered.
Sure enough I was pre approved for a home loan and made an offer on a house. Much to my surprise, the lender included an US IRS form 4506T in the loan processing packet requesting a transcript of my 2007, 2006 and 2005 tax returns. It had been 16 years since I last purchased a home and I did not recall lenders doing this previously.
I contacted the lender and asked for an exception for this request, I'll hear back from them this next week. If they don't grant the exception, I'll either have to wait three more years or grant their request.
Just goes to prove, it is damn near impossible to cover ALL of the bases!
Jennifer
Quote from: JennMW on February 21, 2009, 12:04:02 PM
After obtaining my legal name change, I changed my bank account and credit cards to my current name, waited a few months then wrote the reporting companies using the links and a letter modified appropriately from above along with my court ordered name change.
I received letters from all three reporting companies and credit reports from two of them within a month. My old name did not appear on them anywhere.
Jennifer
I did this too. I called one of them and they indicated that unless a creditor reports the new name, they will not change it even if there is a court order, change in SSA records and DL. They say public records will do it but they have been done too and no change. They also said that they will always list my old name as an AKA. The only thing I can possibly get is to have my new name added to my record. One did say that if I contacted every creditor I have ever had whether they are in business or not, and get them to report, then they might remove my old name. Imagine how absurd that is! Asking some bank where I had a credit card years ago to even find my records, let alone have them report it!
My problem is that I am self employed and have no credit cards or debts. I have my bank accounts in my new name as well as several of my utility bills. None will report to the credit agencies!
I contacted Andrea James and she wrote that I should apply for a new bank account or ask my bank to make a report to the agencies. I don't want to do that because I will have to explain and out myself.
Darn frustrating!
Maggie
Start a new bank account at another bank, do what you have to do. Once everything is done, close it. Yes you would be outed, but its not in a place you regularly do business with and odds are they would quickly forget about you. Also talk to a manager or someone higher up, not a normal teller, this at least keeps it a little more discreet.
You may have to bite the bullet though at talk to a manager at your bank, and get them to report it, or have them issue you a credit card. If you have been there a while most will give you one no questions asked. I am also self employed and they almost begged me to take a card, of course they are begging me to take every option with it they can sell me now.
Or how about taking out a small personal loan from them. Not spend it, and pay it all back early.
Either of these should effect your credit.
Quote from: tekla on February 06, 2009, 06:45:29 PM
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 (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 (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 (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 (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 :)
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
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)?
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 .... ???
Quote from: JoshuaDavid on March 15, 2009, 05:59:55 PM
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
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! ;D
Jay
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.
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...
Quote from: JoshuaDavid on March 16, 2009, 07:50:05 PM
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
Quote from: sneakersjay on March 17, 2009, 11:16:54 PM
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
Quote from: sneakersjay on March 17, 2009, 11:16:54 PM
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
Quote from: pong on March 18, 2009, 08:55:42 AM
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
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!
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 (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,11296.msg81993.html#msg81993) 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
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.
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!!
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
The social security card place told me they WILL NOT change your ssn even if you are a victim of identity theft (like me).
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. :)