I had some trouble with my credit due to someone else’s social security number being on my credit report. Don’t worry folks, I’m fine, it’s just my financial spirit that took a beating. I’d like to outline to you here what went wrong, and how I dealt with the credit bureau. I have to type up this report for my records anyways!

(Above artwork by Dan Perjovschi — one of my favorites from the Venice Biennale 2007. More on him later).

Read along if you’re struggling to deal with Experian.

THE NITTY GRITTY:

1) Call This Number: 800-493-1058
2) When it asks for your credit report reference number, enter “000″ + any string of SEVEN (7) numbers
3) Wait

While you are waiting, read the details below!!! All of this stuff below is IMPORTANT!!!!!

So I had my credit report from TrueCredit.com last week — first report I’ve ever gotten (and if you’ve never gotten a credit report, I urge you to do so immediately — who knows what will be on there! They’ll stick ya with anything!).

I noticed some discrepancies, so I spent hours calling the individual companies’ dead phone lines to ask about why they were reporting to my credit. I didn’t get very far. Lesson #1: Go straight to the credit bureau.

I then went to Experian’s website and tracked down a phone number from them to get in touch with someone who could tell me where to mail my letter contesting their report on my credit. Lesson #2: Experian’s general phone line, 1 888 397 3742, is not a happy little number. Don’t bother using it.

I could not talk to a real human being at this number, because I did not have an official credit report from Experian with an account and/or reference number to put in that they could use to “talk” to me. I did try to do that on their website, but because there was incorrect information in my account, one of the confirmation questions they ask you when you request such a report online could not be verified because I was not aware of the answer to said question (again, because of incorrect accounts attached to my credit that I had never even heard of). Lesson #3: Prepare for this process to take days, as you generally have to get things snail-mailed to you when you can’t provide phone or internet verification.

Now remember, the only reason I was even trying to talk to someone was because I needed a SNAIL MAIL location to which I could mail my documentation packet. Please note here that Experian’s website gives NO SUCH MAILING location and I was just calling to verify an address to correspond with the company. Alas, all Google searches failed to turned up such an address. I did have one from my credit reporting company, TrueCredit.com, but I couldn’t trust it was a valid address as I had learned that many addresses and phone numbers are switched/abandoned as some of these collecting agencies and credit bureaus try to outrun hapless consumers.

So I went to www.GetHuman.com, a website that provides “real” phone numbers where you can talk to “real” people. This website did give me an Experian number, 800-493-1058, which I was supposed to have an account and/or reference number for, but I faked it. Here’s Lesson #4: When calling 800-493-1058, they ask for an account number, put in ANY 10-digit number starting with 000 or any combo of 0’s and other numbers. When the automated system realizes that the number is invalid, it invariably kicks you over to an agent . I did have to wait about 20 minutes on hold to talk to someone, but it got me there.

Lesson #5: Take copious notes of your conversations. Take names and “team” or “group” numbers, in case you have to reference your conversation later. Obviously, phone isn’t as good for documentation as a certified mail letter, but I was shocked when the person in their “Special Files” (or whatever) department asked me what was wrong about my credit report, and when I started listing incorrect addresses and employers that were showing up on my credit report, he started to delete any and all account associated with social security numbers that weren’t mine, places (states, even) that I had never lived and employers I had never had. In total, he deleted 18 reports that were negatively affecting my credit. He said he would email me my updated credit report within 30-45 days.

I was surprised and shocked that he did this over the phone. Will Lesson #6 be to never do this kind of business over the phone? Will Lesson #7 be that fighting a credit bureau takes a lawyer?

I hope not — but the moral of this story is that if you have bad credit due to someone else’s fraud and/or use of your social or mix-up with a social security number close to yours, then it can be solved. Maybe. An unlikely story, and several hours of headache later, I’m waiting on my personal credit report to be emailed to me in 30-45 days. Let’s see if “Benson” from Experian comes through.

More on Dan Perjovschi’s scathing and hilarious social commentary thru chalk and marker murals to come. I’m going to go celebrate my newfound credit freedom with some ice cold lemonade and some porch sittin’.

****UPDATE!!!!******
I got my email, as promised, within 5 hours of speaking with an Experian representative.
Let’s hope it sticks. Your Opinions Are Wrong will keep you informed!

LINKS TO HELPFUL CREDIT INFO (specifically Experian):
Consumerist.com

Credit Bureau Reason Codes (how your score is ‘built’)

Written by lauren - Contact