I have a question about the credit reports. I have a mortgage under my old name and the mortgage company won't let me change it. I also can't get my name off the mortgage until my ex refinances the house or it's sold.

Equifax allows you to handle disputes online- including names. My concern is if I have my past names removed will it mess up the info about the mortgage? Since I pay the mortgage it helps my credit score too. Could that leave me open to a colossal credit mess up? Would it also remove any credit I earned under my old names?

When disputing online you click a box that says "this is not a previous name". Couldn't they do simple research and find out they were previous names- therefore not allowing them to be removed?

FYI for Intelius, US Search and DOB Search they want you to fax over the documents to have your info removed or hidden from the public- not mailed. That made it alot easier. I'll have to check out Innovis and send them a name change letter too like I did for the other 3.

Thank you all for the info you've given so far. It's been a big help for me on correcting documents I didn't think about.

Quote from: Radar on April 26, 2011, 11:05:28 AM
I have a question about the credit reports. I have a mortgage under my old name and the mortgage company won't let me change it. I also can't get my name off the mortgage until my ex refinances the house or it's sold.

Why wouldn't they let you change it? Have you legally changed your name?

Quote from: Keroppi on April 26, 2011, 12:55:13 PM
Why wouldn't they let you change it? Have you legally changed your name?

Probably because mortgages get into the secondary issues of recorded deeds associated with the contract.  It is not as simple as a database correction like would occur with a credit card or most vehicle loans.  This is also often an issue with people who get divorced or have a spouse who passes away while the mortgage is still an ongoing contractual obligation...

Quote from: Radar on April 26, 2011, 11:05:28 AM
I have a question about the credit reports. I have a mortgage under my old name and the mortgage company won't let me change it. I also can't get my name off the mortgage until my ex refinances the house or it's sold.

see my other response on this question

QuoteEquifax allows you to handle disputes online- including names. My concern is if I have my past names removed will it mess up the info about the mortgage? Since I pay the mortgage it helps my credit score too. Could that leave me open to a colossal credit mess up? Would it also remove any credit I earned under my old names?

When disputing online you click a box that says "this is not a previous name". Couldn't they do simple research and find out they were previous names- therefore not allowing them to be removed?

If you dispute online, then yes, you could see tradelines disappear.  Active accounts you wish to maintain should be changed with the credit grantor.  I am also not a fan of online checkbox disputes.  You give up too many rights that may exist under State and federal law. 

Mortgages actually add surprisingly little to a credit score.  They do change the scoring segmentation in which you fit, but they (and other note loans) do little for the score.  The last vehicle I bought gave me less than ten points.  If the mortgage were off of your report, you would potentially even see a score increase by virtue of the debtload being significantly decreased. 

QuoteFYI for Intelius, US Search and DOB Search they want you to fax over the documents to have your info removed or hidden from the public- not mailed. That made it alot easier. I'll have to check out Innovis and send them a name change letter too like I did for the other 3.

Figures, it is more difficult to prove a fax was actually received. 

QuoteThank you all for the info you've given so far. It's been a big help for me on correcting documents I didn't think about.

glad to help...

Quote from: Keroppi on April 26, 2011, 12:55:13 PMWhy wouldn't they let you change it? Have you legally changed your name?

Yes, it's been legally changed. The mortgage company did say I could fill paperwork out to change it. When I got the paperwork I found out the name change had to also have my ex's signature for name approval since his name is on the mortgage too. He won't do it and the mortgage company said no exceptions.

So, I can't change my name on the mortgage because they and my ex are douchebags.

Quote from: Ann Onymous on April 26, 2011, 09:21:58 PMProbably because mortgages get into the secondary issues of recorded deeds associated with the contract. This is also often an issue with people who get divorced or have a spouse who passes away while the mortgage is still an ongoing contractual obligation...

This is exactly what's going on. We'll be divorced soon but both names are on the mortgage and title deed. The only way to remove my name from the mortgage (which is what I want) is either he refinances the house (which will happen no time soon) or it's sold.

We don't want to sell the house right now due to the poor housing market and my ex wants a chance to refinance since he really wants the house.

I stay at the house right now because he's unemployed and we really don't want to rent it. We've had experience with renters and they tend to tear stuff up. I don't mind staying here since the monthly mortgage is less than most rental places around here. I also refuse to pay the mortgage if someone else is living here. That's in the legal separation agreement.

Quote from: Radar on April 27, 2011, 10:38:56 AM
Yes, it's been legally changed. The mortgage company did say I could fill paperwork out to change it. When I got the paperwork I found out the name change had to also have my ex's signature for name approval since his name is on the mortgage too. He won't do it and the mortgage company said no exceptions.

So, I can't change my name on the mortgage because they and my ex are douchebags.

(No, I am not saying the following will necessarily actually hold up in court.) Assuming you had changed the name with the land registry / on the deed to the house or whatever, you should have turned around and said since you're no longer (old name), you would consider yourself no longer party to the mortgage and hence under no obligation to contribute to any repayment.

Quote from: Keroppi on April 27, 2011, 05:41:00 PM
(No, I am not saying the following will necessarily actually hold up in court.) Assuming you had changed the name with the land registry / on the deed to the house or whatever, you should have turned around and said since you're no longer (old name), you would consider yourself no longer party to the mortgage and hence under no obligation to contribute to any repayment.

while your comment appears to be made in jest, some other considerations to the above:

After which one could expect reasonably to be sued for the breach of contract citing, among other things, fraud upon the Court and unclean hands.  When one gets a name change, one of the things generally attested to is that the change is not being sought in an attempt to defraud any other party or to avoid a legal obligation.

Other consequences would be to increase the hurdles to be jumped by anyone else in that jurisdiction seeking to change their name by way of court order...

Quote from: Ann Onymous on April 27, 2011, 06:32:00 PM
while your comment appears to be made in jest, some other considerations to the above:

It was, however...

QuoteAfter which one could expect reasonably to be sued for the breach of contract citing, among other things, fraud upon the Court and unclean hands.  When one gets a name change, one of the things generally attested to is that the change is not being sought in an attempt to defraud any other party or to avoid a legal obligation.

Other consequences would be to increase the hurdles to be jumped by anyone else in that jurisdiction seeking to change their name by way of court order...

It's not changing name for the purpose of fraud because the person did inform the parties involved, it was the other parties that chose not to update the records.

Quote from: Keroppi on April 28, 2011, 10:01:30 AM
It's not changing name for the purpose of fraud because the person did inform the parties involved, it was the other parties that chose not to update the records.

But...the unilateral contention of no longer being a party and hence no continuing obligation to pay would be construed as an act of fraud.  The affirmations on a name change done through the court incorporate not only fraudulent acts being covered up but also those that could be contemplated in the future.  And many things that are not viewed by the actor as fraudulent WILL be viewed through the legal pleadings as being fraudulent in nature.  One does not get to walk from a debt unscathed simply because they changed their name no matter what the other parties to the contract might do...

Update:
So I requested for these companies to remove me from public searching and they did after a few weeks. So, they will do it. I assume that they still keep your info and make it available if someone pays for it, but I feel better knowing anyone searching for free can't access my info. Few people would pay for it without a valid reason.

If anyone finds any other sites like these that might be of interest to us for privacy reasons please list it.

Wow, that's great, Radar. I haven't gotten around to making any requests because my address change is still in process. As soon as I get that straightened out and close down my old mailbox, I will start requesting that my name be removed from some of these sites.

I don't recall giving them an address so I don't think that matters. I believe I even marked my address out on my DL- I can't remember. They didn't mail me anything anyway. I just tried their sites one day and I was hidden from public searches. I never came up when I did before- on all the sites.

These companies seemed to do pretty good on tracking my past address except there was one I never lived at. If you move it probably wouldn't take them long to track that down too. It's actually scary the amount of info they've collected on you- even though some of it was incorrect for me.

I can't stand the thought of someone nosy or vindictive snooping around gathering info on me- especially about my past. Yes, if anyone looks hard and long enough they can gather tons of info about you. I just want to try to make it a little harder for people.

One of the forms that I printed out requires evidence of address and listed acceptable types of evidence, none of which I had at the time. That was a few weeks ago. I plan to do all of these forms at once, so I will wait a bit.

I think it's funny that I share a last name with the people who owned the UPS Store where my old mailbox is. They are listed as relatives on a couple of information sites. I have no intention of altering that. The more obfuscation, the better.

I am going to ask these companies to take down listings in my current name, but it has occurred to me that I ought to have my old listing removed, too. I hope I have sufficient identification to do that. I have to hunt up those forms...I'm in the process of cleaning up my desk, and the forms are in one of the piles I haven't sorted yet. Gah.

I forgot about that. There's just so much to do and paperwork to change your name & gender and try to keep your past as confidential as possible to not out yourself that I sometimes forget what I had to do for each thing.

Quote from: Arch on May 31, 2011, 07:38:38 PMI think it's funny that I share a last name with the people who owned the UPS Store where my old mailbox is. They are listed as relatives on a couple of information sites. I have no intention of altering that. The more obfuscation, the better.

Yeah, they had aliases for me that weren't true. I didn't have them fix them because, like you said, the more mistakes the more unreliable the info is. It helps people realize that the info they find isn't the complete truth which helps with real past names.

Quote from: Arch on May 31, 2011, 07:38:38 PMI am going to ask these companies to take down listings in my current name, but it has occurred to me that I ought to have my old listing removed, too.

I had them remove my current and all past names. Thankfully I just listed them to them and didn't have to fill a separate thing out for each name. They removed (or publicly hid) all my names- past & current.

I purposely saved a photocopy of my F driver's license since I knew I had to surrender it when I changed my name.  Figure I could use it to remove her name from the searches too.


Jay

Quote from: sneakersjay on June 05, 2011, 07:28:34 AM
I purposely saved a photocopy of my F driver's license since I knew I had to surrender it when I changed my name. Figure I could use it to remove her name from the searches too.

Jay

They actually never asked for proof or ID of my previous names.

I've kept my past Driver Licenses too (we get to keep them) just in case they're needed. It looks like I'm going to need them for changing my name on the house's Deed of Trust. I found out last night from a real estate specialist you can't transfer the deed or even sell the house until your name is revised on the deed. Yet another thing to take care of.

Every time I think I'm done I learn of something else that needs to be changed too. Oh well, better to learn about them and do them now than find out the hard way..

In my state, too, we get to keep expired driver's licenses. I think I kept an old one from before my name change--this would have been 1996--and I kept all the ones with my new name and the female marker. Jay's solution is smart when you can't keep the original license. We should always photocopy any old documents we aren't allowed to keep. Then put the copies in a safe place. I keep all of my stuff in a 9 by 12 envelope in a fire resistant safe.

Radar, before you had your name taken out of the public eye with these companies, did you purchase copies of the info they had on file for you? I'm debating doing this. I'm particularly wondering if they identify our sex as part of the package. If they do, I might want to systematically access all of my info for these sites, correct anything I want corrected, and then request to have my name removed from free public viewing. Yet another unpleasant and tedious project to kill my free time this summer. There are too many such sites, and I'm sure I haven't found all of them yet.

No, I didn't purchase any copies. I just did searches under my current and past names. Under the searched name they would list aliases. All my aliases were listed but there were some bogus names too. They also listed possible relatives and they were all correct too.

Aside from future possible employers doing simple searches I also didn't want my ex's family snooping around trying to cause trouble (sad but true).

For the simple search it didn't list my gender but they do have generic male and female icons with your name(s). Mine was male. I don't know if the bought info says it or not.

I'm going off the hopes that future possible employers will be too lazy and/or cheap to get paid copies. I think if you seem like a decent, honest, hard working and talented person they probably wouldn't suspect anything. If simple confirmations are legit like past employers & references, Social Security & DMV info, etc. then that's probably good enough. The exception might be government jobs- especially those needing clearance.

From my research it seem those 4 sites were the main sites. Any other companies who offer this service seem to just get their info from these main 4 sites, so they're basically middle men. There might be some smaller companies out there who do their own research, but I doubt many people use them.

The exception might be government jobs- especially those needing clearance.

Well the two other, (much bigger) exceptions are a) any job that entails dealing with children, and b) any job that would give you access to money (cash or the ability to alter and shift records).  Then there is the great hidden reason, they run background/credit checks on new hires because their insurance carriers require it as part of the policy.