This was written long before the infamous Equifax Data Breach debacle, the information you get is good, unfortunately the company holding it had very bad security measures.
So thanks to the Home Depot debacle with my account information being pilfered (evidently it is still going on in Canada), however, thanks to that I now have unlimited Equifax reports for an entire year.
Thanks to this, I have found about 4 credit accounts that I must close, as I don’t use them, and my opinion is the less credit vehicles available, the less likely it is that someone could pilfer them.
There were two other more interesting pieces of information that I collected from these very interesting reports (I run them once a week, just for fun, and to get my moneys worth). The first and most interesting piece of information is that Equifax has my first name completely wrong. For those who haven’t figure it out my first name is Alan, however the name Alan has many interesting derivatives and spelling:
- Allan (I pronounce as ALL-AN)
- Alyn (Welsh, and is actually pronounced Al-un)
- Al (fricken’ heck never call me that)
- Allen (I pronounce ALL-EN)
Strangely, Equifax has associated with my correct Social Insurance Number the Allen spelling of my first name?!? To their credit they have my correct name under their “Also Known As” section, however, I have never been known as Allen in my life.
The other interesting thing on my credit report is that I am evidently still employed by Nortel Networks. For my regular readers, that has not been true for many years now. Guess they don’t know I am a Civil Servant now.
I suppose I am going to have to fill in a bunch of forms to get all this straightened out, but without having this report, I suppose I would never have known?
I wrote to get my free credit report and one of the items they required on the application was my SIN.
When I received the report, it showed that they did not have my SIN until they received my request for the free report.
It irked me to think that I was disclosing additional information as the price of getting this report. Wonder if they would have sent the free report without my SIN on the application?
My first kick at the cat in attempting to get a credit card was a failure. I did nothing about it for a few months. My second attempt, (same place wiht the same credit manager), got me the information that I had an unpaid account at some chain store similar to Kmart. I got the account number from my bank, (well if it is mine, then you can give me the account number right?) and got a 1-800 number to call into the company’s delinquent accounts section. I mentioned that I was Mr. Lastname in regards to account #xxxxxx. They confirmed that the account was delinquent, and that action would be taken to collect the debt. So, I said I wanted to ensure that they had all the information correct such as name and address, and they had the first name correct, not the second or third name and the last name was correct. When I explained that they had put that debt on the incorrect person, not even in the right city, and that I explained who I was with all my names, and that they were stopping me from getting credit, they promised to get thing checked and fixed. They did.
When I then spoke with my person at the bank, I reminded her that I KNEW that I had never attempted to get credit before, and that within a couple of weeks I would need that credit card and sure enough once the mistake was fixed, I had my card.
There are SO MANY people with errors on their credit info. Not just misreported items but items that are not even theirs! It can be fixed with a bit of effort, but it takes that plus patience to get it fixed.
One minor thing. Joseph is my first name, and all the girls in my family have the first name of Mary, something the Roman Catholic French people like to do. This means at a family reunion, If you yell for Joseph from across the room, ALL the men will have to come and see what you want! We go by our third name not our first. This is what caused the primary issue in the account being put on my credit report. I have also received medication in error for someone else who had the same first and last name as me. One other thing about it is that all Government ID has me as Joseph and so when people call for Joseph, I have to see if they actually want someone else or me! It is a REAL PAIN! Use different names for crying out loud! I will never name my children the same way as in my family’s past. I have seen the errors it causes, and knowing that someone with the same name as me uses Viagra is NOT something I should know!
Excellent name rant. My Father and his Father (and I think one or two more levels about that) all had the same name, and my Father (in his family) was known by one of his middle names, whereas my mother called him by his Real First name, made for a lot of confusion for me, when I was younger.
I remember the first time I wrote for my free credit info. I was sure it would be full of mistakes and odd things based on all the stories in magazines and newspapers. It was really disappointing to find nothing but my one credit card. Sounds like yours at least was worth reviewing!
Oh yes, quite exciting, in the wrong way.