To anyone who wishes to apply for a credit reporting servive, caution because boneheads are running the business.
My wife and I retired about 5 years ago, sold our home in California and purchased a new home in South Carolina. A few months ago we received a letter from a bank asking questions about our mortgage application. We do not have a mortgage nor have we ever applied for one, we were the victims of attempted identity theft.
After we had resolved the issue we decided to join Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) credit monitoring service and elected to receive information only from the largest credit rating service, Experian. On May 30th we received our first report which showed we had excellent credit with a FICO score of 798. On the same report we noted that American Express showed that we had an account with them which was current but showed a balance owed of $2.369.00. We had cancelled our American Express Account last January and, as we do every month, paid the account balance in full so the information that Experian had was incorrect. We then filed a dispute thru Experian and within 25 days had received an E-mail that American Express had admitted an error had been made, the account was closed and nothing was owed.
Enter the boneheads who grant you credit based on your credit rating. About 2 weeks after we had gotten notice that the error had been corrected (and in correcting the error our credit rating should have improved slightly) we received a credit alert from FICO that our credit rating had been lowered by 4 points!!!
15 phone calls later, to FICO and Experian, I found out why our credit rating is lower now than it was on May 30th.
1. We filed a dispute letter with Experian.
2. Experian corrects the error and notifies FICO.
3. FICO checks our credit report to make sure the error has been corrected.
4. Because FICO checked with Experian it generated a " hard inquiry" on our credit report, just the same as if we had applied for credit at a bank, auto dealership etc.
5. Are you ready for this - all hard inquiries lower your credit score because it indicates you are attempting to apply for credit.
Take my advice and get your free annual report, which is not a hard inquiry and dont waste your money on any credit monitoring service or on the Fair Isaac Corporation which sets your credit score based on information they get from credit reporting agencies.
I have been told that my only recourse is to file another dispute which, even when in rules in my favor, will lower my credit rating.
William
Travelers Rest, South Carolina
U.S.A.
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