[olePigeon]

So I ran into some extra money, but I wasn't able to dispute successfully a collection from a medical bill, so I requested a credit report so I could get the name of the agency to pay them off.

I've tried 3 different credit report companies and they all show my residence history, balance history, but ALL of my credit accounts are gone, even the good.

Any accounts from AT&T, PG&E, past apartmentes where I've lived, all of them that used to be on there, are all gone.

Even the collection is no longer on there. It's like it's been wiped clean.

Can this happen? Has it happened to anyone else? It's totally weird, it's like I'm starting from scratch again.

[Blasphemy]

Big Brother's first step to wiping you out. Watch your back!

[ghporter]

Bee-Zaarrr. It's not supposed to happen at all. That it HAS happened to you shows that the credit reporting agencies are "human" just like the rest of us.

If you have old records (especially the good credit records) NOW is the time to get CERTIFIED copies of them and send them off to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion with a letter (and a copy of the report they sent you) explaining that you WANT your credit history to be there.

WOW. Just wow.

[SpaceMonkey]

I was under the impression that things like rent and utility payments, when paid on time, don't count as "good credit." They're not supposed to show up unless you missed payments.

[ghporter]

Payment history is payment history. It may not count as "credit" but it is a good reference for how you pay your bills.

[Wiskedjak]

I *hate* the credit reporting industry. Too much power, not enough accountability. In Canada, the industry is protected from lawsuit regardless of how badly they mess up. A few years ago, one of the agencies had a leak where a few thousand people's information was stolen. No action could be taken against the agency.

Stuff like this freaks me out.

[chris v]

I'd keep an extra-close eye on your post count, too.

[Spliffdaddy]

Any entries on your credit report that cannot be verified must be purged. Perhaps those entries were purged without your intervention. Unlikely as it sounds.

Any entries on your credit report that are older than 7 years will be purged.

A lot of times 'inactive' accounts whether delinquent or not will be purged - that's why creditors of delinquent accounts like to get you to send them a couple of dollars when you owe them thousands - in order to keep the negative credit info on your record.

A more likely scenario is that the portion of the hard disk on which your records are stored became corrupt. And you thought you hated Microsoft's NTFS filesystem!

Don't ask why your record is cleaner - just appreciate it and move on.

That being said, you still owe any creditors you used to owe. But unless they get a judgement against you in court (they won't bother) there's nothing they can do about it.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Payment history is payment history. It may not count as "credit" but it is a good reference for how you pay your bills.

That's what I'm getting at--that utility companies don't report payment to the credit bureaus unless you miss payments. So a good history of paying bills on time (bills that aren't revolving credit, I mean) doesn't add anything to your credit report. At least, that's what I've been told.

[Spliffdaddy]

Hey, olePigeon, try this...

go to one of those online places to check your credit score. See what it is.

If your credit report is truly empty you'll see the same result I do: "Insufficient credit data"

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy 

Any entries on your credit report that are older than 7 years will be purged.

I haven't had a single account on my credit report purged, even ones that are much older than 7 years.

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

I haven't had a single account on my credit report purged, even ones that are much older than 7 years.

Contact the credit reporting agencies and ask them to remove those entries. They don't operate automatically. It doesn't really matter since creditors don't use any information older than 7 years - even if it's available.

I saw a statistic somewhere that said one-third of all credit report entries cannot be verified. Either the information is lost of destroyed by the creditor - or the creditor is out of business. So if you have negative stuff on your report just dispute all of them - and the reporting agencies have 30 days to verify the accuracy, else the entries must be purged.

[larrinski]

I think you may be missing the word "credit" here. If you pay your rent, telephone bill, etc... you don't borrow money from them and then pay as agreed. Credit reports are meant to report anytime you borrow from someone that reports to the credit bureau. If you don't pay for a service and you owe someone, they hire a collection agent that reports the deliquency to the credit bureau. If your credit is not used for more than 7 years, good or bad, it falls off the report. It doesn't sound like anything odd going on here.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy 

Hey, olePigeon, try this...

go to one of those online places to check your credit score. See what it is.

If your credit report is truly empty you'll see the same result I do: "Insufficient credit data"

Equifax gives me the Insufficient Data error.

Experian and TransUnion are both blank except for my addresses.

I know I had bad credit because of the collection, but now even that's gone.

I've also never used to get credit card offers in the mail, then over the past few months I've been getting 1 or 2 a week.

Something is totally weird. I'm going to call and actually talk to a person.

Judging from your responses, I'm guessing this isn't normal.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by larrinski 

I think you may be missing the word "credit" here. If you pay your rent, telephone bill, etc... you don't borrow money from them and then pay as agreed. Credit reports are meant to report anytime you borrow from someone that reports to the credit bureau. If you don't pay for a service and you owe someone, they hire a collection agent that reports the deliquency to the credit bureau. If your credit is not used for more than 7 years, good or bad, it falls off the report. It doesn't sound like anything odd going on here.

Oooh. OK. Well, maybe that's what happend. I'm still gonna call. I don't really care at all, that collection fell off, too, so that's $250 I don't have to pay (maybe the company went out of business.)

It's been a little more than 7 years since I was 18 and moved outta my mom's place and got my own place. Makes sense.

[larrinski]

As a banker, just a word of warning. That company that you owe money to, may at sometime in the future "sell" your account to a collection company, or a different company may buy your account from the other collection company, if they think they can track you down and get you to pay. It is better to pay off a small debt now, for fear of being turned down in the future for something really important like a car or home...

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by larrinski 

As a banker, just a word of warning. That company that you owe money to, may at sometime in the future "sell" your account to a collection company, or a different company may buy your account from the other collection company, if they think they can track you down and get you to pay. It is better to pay off a small debt now, for fear of being turned down in the future for something really important like a car or home...

That was the point of my search, but now it's not on my report anywhere.

[larrinski]

They may have only done an inquiry on you. Look at the bottom of the report to see who has been looking at your credit report. Do you know if they reported it on your credit report or did the company just say that they would report it to the credit bureau? Sometimes a company sells the deliquent accounts in a lump sum to a collection agency. The collection agency then owns the account and tries to collect on it. I guess I am just saying that if you know you owe the money, it may show up later when you don't want it to...

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy 

Contact the credit reporting agencies and ask them to remove those entries. They don't operate automatically. It doesn't really matter since creditors don't use any information older than 7 years - even if it's available.

I saw a statistic somewhere that said one-third of all credit report entries cannot be verified. Either the information is lost of destroyed by the creditor - or the creditor is out of business. So if you have negative stuff on your report just dispute all of them - and the reporting agencies have 30 days to verify the accuracy, else the entries must be purged.

If none of it is bad, why should I bother?

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by larrinski 

They may have only done an inquiry on you. Look at the bottom of the report to see who has been looking at your credit report. Do you know if they reported it on your credit report or did the company just say that they would report it to the credit bureau? Sometimes a company sells the deliquent accounts in a lump sum to a collection agency. The collection agency then owns the account and tries to collect on it. I guess I am just saying that if you know you owe the money, it may show up later when you don't want it to...

It was actually on my credit report, that's how I found out the first time. Now it's just gone.

[bstone]

Stop everything and immediately proceed to: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=2

Sounds like you have a split file to me.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by bstone 

Sounds like you have a split file to me.

In case anyone was wondering, I did indeed have a split file.

I'm working to get it corrected. My name had been misspelled by one or more of the creditors. My first name is Douglas, but for whatever reason they listed it as Doughlas (hehe, sounds funny.)

Anyway, my collection was listed under Doughlas while my other stuff was listed uned Douglas. I called the collection company and I successfully disputed my collection and had it removed, which was a double bonus.

The ironic part was that my current and all previous addresses were listed on both credit reports, one was just spelled wrong. So they had absolutely no reason to not know what my address was to send me any collection notices.

Anyway, I paid the medical bill (only $188) and they agreed to remove the collection from my record because I never got the initial bill nor subsequent notices because they entered my name wrong and never bothered to check the credit report they were collecting on.

So, I'm happy. Gonna make sure this "Doughlas" person doesn't exist anymore.

[larrinski]

That makes sense! Good job paying the bill and working it out with the collection agency. Split credit files can happen, and many people that go by a couple of different first names have this happen. I.E.-Doug, Dougie, Douglas etc...and the really odd version Doughlas...

[Blasphemy]

make sure you follow up and get those commitments in writing. They may just be paying you lip service.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Blasphemy 

make sure you follow up and get those commitments in writing. They may just be paying you lip service.

They sent me a signed confirmation letter about getting the collection removed. They addressed it to "Doughlas," so I guess it's up to me to get them to close that account or whatever it is they do.

[philly05]

I saw the topic of Insufficient Data come up a few times here, so I'll ask my question

I get rare credit card offers and have applied for a few store credit cards. I keep getting rejected due to Insufficient Data. How does one get data if they're so insufficient?

I am young, moved a few times, and got married. Any tips on how to get my 'data' issue straightened out so I can at least get a low brow credit card? I have no collections and no credit at all in the past. I can't even find an address for Transunion that would apply to my issue, only fraud and name opt out addresses

Thanks

[olePigeon]

I think it has something to do with not enough credit history. The only way around this, I think, is to set up a secure credit card.

[James L]

Originally Posted by philly05 

I saw the topic of Insufficient Data come up a few times here, so I'll ask my question

I get rare credit card offers and have applied for a few store credit cards. I keep getting rejected due to Insufficient Data. How does one get data if they're so insufficient?

I am young, moved a few times, and got married. Any tips on how to get my 'data' issue straightened out so I can at least get a low brow credit card? I have no collections and no credit at all in the past. I can't even find an address for Transunion that would apply to my issue, only fraud and name opt out addresses

Thanks

You are entitled to a free credit report each year from each of the main reporting agencies. In Canada (where I am from) it is Transunion and Equifax. I think in the US there is a third (Experian comes to mind, but I am not sure).

Here is some basic info:

Credit score (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Start by obtaining your credit reports, and make sure there are no mistakes. I know you said you have very little credit history of your own, but the credit reporting agencies often make mistakes. Your name, SSN, address, etc may be wrong. Even worse, they may have accidently reported other peoples bad credit on YOUR report!

If you find any errors, dispute them and get them corrected (instructions are found on each agencies websites).

Now that you have a blank slate, so to speak, learn about how FICO scores work. I quickly googled and found this:

http://www.ucu.maine.edu/understandcreditscore.pdf

You will quickly realize that there are tricks. For example, obtain a credit card (even if it is a secured card... i.e., your bank offers a visa credit card. You give them $500, they give you a credit card that has a $500 limit. Once you have proven your credit worthiness, they usually return your deposit).

Once you have your credit card, your history will build based on its use. The FICO score is based on things such as your payment history (no late payments), how long you have had credit, what your card balance is compared to your credit limit (always keep cc limits below 25% of your limit... being higher actually lowers your FICO score), etc.

Once you understand FICO, and manage your card responsibly in a way that benefits your FICO score, you will see your score go up. After a while you will then have a credit history to obtain other credit cards, etc.

It takes time, but in a year or so you will have better credit, and then it just builds. Start with getting your reports. Clean them up if necessary. Only once they are cleaned up, get a secured credit card. Use it responsibly for a period of time to build up a FICO score. Use that score to get other, non secured cards.

It is a simple process, just be patient.

Cheers,

James L

Edit: And if you are still applying for credit cards right now... STOP!!! Having several inquiries in a short period of time lowers your FICO score also. Get your reports, clean them up, go to your bank and have a sit down with someone. Ask them "what will it take to get a low limit cc?" Be prepared for a secured card. Once you have it, DON'T apply for anymore credit for a while. Let your FICO scores build.

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally Posted by philly05 

I saw the topic of Insufficient Data come up a few times here, so I'll ask my question

I get rare credit card offers and have applied for a few store credit cards. I keep getting rejected due to Insufficient Data. How does one get data if they're so insufficient?

I am young, moved a few times, and got married. Any tips on how to get my 'data' issue straightened out so I can at least get a low brow credit card? I have no collections and no credit at all in the past. I can't even find an address for Transunion that would apply to my issue, only fraud and name opt out addresses

Thanks

I worked really hard to earn my "insufficient credit data" status. It took several years of not owing money. It feels better than any 850 FICO score.

Honestly, you shouldn't ever *need* any sort of FICO score or other credit rating. Obtaining a home mortgage doesn't require a FICO score. You can use a Visa Debit card instead of a credit card.

There's a lot to be said for staying out of debt. You can't replace the feeling of freedom.

On a related note..

My first credit card was an American Express Gold card. I was maybe 22 years old - and I didn't have any debt nor any credit. One day they sent me a pre-approved application. Apparently AmEx noticed I was a regular traveler to Europe, that's all I can figure. Perhaps they monitor travel agencies or airlines. Anybody else heard of this happening?

[larrinski]

Well, to put my 2 cents worth in...

A mortgage is generally less risk for a creditor than an unsecured credit card. It is important to get some credit. I don't recommend applying for credit for a while now, or you will continue to be turned down repeatedly. Some credit card companies offer a secured card where you give a deposit and use their card. After a set period of time, they may give the deposit back. Department store cards are usually easier to get, as the majority of time, you can only use them at their store. And they are a higher interest rate.

A general rule, is to only apply for credit when you "need" something. Example: a car, house, furniture at a store. Visa, MasterCard, Amex can be used almost anywhere, so their criteria is steeper.

[James L]

Originally Posted by larrinski 

Well, to put my 2 cents worth in...

A mortgage is generally less risk for a creditor than an unsecured credit card. It is important to get some credit. I don't recommend applying for credit for a while now, or you will continue to be turned down repeatedly. Some credit card companies offer a secured card where you give a deposit and use their card. After a set period of time, they may give the deposit back. Department store cards are usually easier to get, as the majority of time, you can only use them at their store. And they are a higher interest rate.

A general rule, is to only apply for credit when you "need" something. Example: a car, house, furniture at a store. Visa, MasterCard, Amex can be used almost anywhere, so their criteria is steeper.

I completely agree. Credit is not a bad thing. Lack of personal self control is. The only people who need to fear credit are those with a lack of self control.

In regards to the mortgage... that is just about the safest loan a bank can make. The property is appraised prior to the mortgage being granted, the mortgage lender requires proof of insurance on the property, 99% of properties are only going to increase in value over the long run, etc. It is easy for banks to recoup their "losses" if someone defaults on a mortgage.

[James L]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy 

I worked really hard to earn my "insufficient credit data" status. It took several years of not owing money. It feels better than any 850 FICO score.

Honestly, you shouldn't ever *need* any sort of FICO score or other credit rating. Obtaining a home mortgage doesn't require a FICO score. You can use a Visa Debit card instead of a credit card.

There's a lot to be said for staying out of debt. You can't replace the feeling of freedom.

While I totally agree with you that being debt free is an awesome feeling (and one I am thankful for), one can have an 850 FICO score AND be debt free quite easily.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Edit: And, Kudos to you for being debt free!