The credit report also indicates the list of the credit accounts that are open or closed under your name. This is a credit card, retail store credit, auto loan, mortgage, student credit, and any other credit that one has ever employed. It needs to be monitored regularly to verify that none of the accounts were created by an identity thief and to assess the condition of the credit. Here are some steps to see all credit accounts in your name: Here are some steps to see all credit accounts in your name:
1. Obtain Your Credit Report
The first plan of action is to obtain a copy of the credit report from the three credit reporting agencies, namely Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can get one free credit report per year from each of the bureaus using the AnnualCreditReport. com. Do not forget to ask for your report from all three credit bureaus because each of them may have different information. You can also directly buy your credit reports and credit scores from any one of the three credit bureaus. It is also important to review your reports more thoroughly to identify all the credit accounts that are being reported.
2. Review All Accounts Listed
Depending on the two credit bureaux, your credit report will indicate any credit accounts in your name whether they are currently active or have been closed, and also other details about each trade line. For open accounts, important information shown will include: For open accounts, important information shown will include:
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Account opening date
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Credit card accounts, auto loan accounts, mortgage accounts, and so on.
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Credit limit or amount of loan that can be availed.
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Current balance owed
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Your payment history
For closed accounts, you will see: For closed accounts, you will see:
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The date when the case was opened, and the date when it was closed.
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Type of account that could be – paid on time, a delinquent account, an account that has defaulted, and so on.
Status of final accounts – fully paid, partially paid where the balance is written off as bad debt.
Go through all accounts with a fine-tooth comb and see if it is indeed you who opened the accounts, and whether all the information such as balances, payments, etc. is correct.
3. This is especially crucial because employers, clients, friends, and families may spell your name differently than the version you use on your CV or application.
What many individuals do not know is credit accounts may not always reflect their full legal name. For instance, if you are officially known as Robert Smith Jones, an account may appear as Rob Jones, Bob Jones, Robert Jones, R. S. Jones, etc.
If you get your credit reports, ensure you do not find any accounts with other names that you have not registered for any credit facilities. If there are accounts that one does not recognize, this may mean that another person has dishonestly obtained credit in your name and this is something that should not be tolerated.
4. Look For Duplicate Accounts
It is also important to check that when you have credit reports, there are no accounts that are repeated. There can be one credit account that is reported by one credit bureau and is also reported by the other credit bureau, but you will not want it to appear twice within one credit report. Alphabetic repetition of accounts could make it appear that you have many total accounts or overdue amounts to pay. When there are duplicate entries, fill a dispute with the appropriate credit bureau requesting them to delete the repeated item.
5. Check Account Inquiries
In addition to the open accounts, credit reports also have “hard inquiries” any time your credit is demanded specifically, generally with a credit application. The recent inquiries that will be displayed next to the name of the financial institution or the lender who pulled your report include. These requests can be reported on your credit report for up to two years but the effect they have on your credit score gradually reduces over the years.
Check that your inquiries do not contain any additional requests you have not made that you do not recognize from new firms. Hard inquiries that were not timely predicted may be a sign that the fraudster has attempted to open another line of credit in your name. If so, act to add a fraud alert, or credit freeze—to prevent more identity thefts.
6. Request Account Documentation
You do not need to worry if there are new accounts that you do not recognize or if there are accounts that look suspicious. Start collecting records of open accounts to cross-check the information provided. Go back to your credit card statements, auto loan accounts, etc, and see what they have on file regarding account number, date the account was opened and credit limit, and compare with the report of each credit bureau.
In cases where you do not know any accounts reported on your credit report, you can contact credit bureaus and request documents such as credit applications and statements that are related to the account in question. This is required by law and should be done under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It helps in deciding whether the account in question belongs to you or not when comparing documents.
7. Report Unauthorized Accounts
Regretfully, it is rather frequent nowadays and it is possible to find such an identity and open a credit card or a loan for example. If after reviewing your credit report and comparing it with your identity you are sure that the account listed does not belong to you then the best thing you should do is to call the credit bureaus to report the item as fraud. Filing a complaint initiates a procedure of checking an erroneous account of events.
Finally, it would also be wise to put a credit freeze or fraud alert on your credit file to prevent any more credit applications from being made with your names. When falsely opened accounts using the same information an Identity theft report filed with the FTC also aids the dispute process. In the future, you should always make sure that you frequently scrutinize your credit reports before the fraud alert expires.
The best way to handle a credit report is to check it as often as possible to be able to know when there is an error or a fraudulent account opened in your credit report. While it might take a while on the initial side, conducting scrutiny of your credit file is handy in protecting your personal and financial data. Another advantage of proactively reviewing the accounts listed is that you can get on the right track toward better credit through responsible handling of credit.
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