Either way, my credit card company says it’s open. And there is no reason for them to have closed it as it has been in regular use even before my gym membership was put on it.

Thanks for trying…
Danna

In this instance my thinking is that if you agreed to have your gym bill the credit card, then your credit card closed your account, the card would still make the payments since you had initiated this process while the account was still open.

Have you tried to use the card for any other purchases?

Any ideas?

I signed up for a credit-monitoring service after the disputes to see if anything changed. Nothing changed for 6 months or so. I quit the service. I also haven’t pulled my report since this disheartening experience, because if I can’t change something as seemingly straightforward as an account still being open, why bother. I might be willing to try it again, but I would like to know how to make the dispute actually get to the correct information.

Thanks so much for this article. As a Realtor I have been encouraging my Buyer clients to always pull a FREE copy of their credit before they initiate the home buying process. I also have my renters pull their own credit to present along with their rental application and references to their prospective Landlord, if they will accept it, and that helps them to avoid an unnecessary Third Party Inquiry on their credit report. I will be referring all of my students and clients to this posting. Thanks for this…

Randy Wilburn
RealEstateGuyPodcast.com

I’m going through a “freeze” period right now and happen to be one of those rare cases of being denied access to credit reports. I’m sure with some effort I could have sifted the contact info out, but this makes it too easy. Now I’ll just have to hope that the phone prompts aren’t as convoluted as my cellular provider’s “customer service”…

I guess it’s good to know if you’ve been delinquent, but otherwise you don’t really need to find out. The system is pretty good where everybody’s credit scores are reasonable if they are responsible creditors.

When I applied for another credit card recently, I was refused, the reason being that they couldn’t find enough information about me, so they had to reject me?

Any idea how I can establish my identity with all three credit agencies?

Also, how long does it take for an immigrant (with a good job!) to the US to establish decent credit to get a decent mortgage on a house?

thanks

Good stuff

If you’re planning to apply for a mortgage or other loan, always ask your creditor what credit score will obtain the best terms (because creditors’ definitions will vary!)

The only score that matters (or the one referred to as THE credit score) comes from FICO. As far as i can tell, creditkarma uses their own formula, so it’s only an estimate. Nowhere on the site does it explain how it arrives at your score.

Apparently there was some random credit card that I have had for 3 years that I knew nothing about. Ensuring that everything on your credit report is accurate is really easy to do and could potentially save you a lot of headache further down the road. Thanks for posting such a useful guide!

How do I begin sorting this out? What is the best, least time-consuming way for me to I prove to the credit companies that I am me and not her?

The problem is I’ve opened up and closed a lot of bank accounts in my day because I alternated between full-/part-time employment and full-time course loads throughout my college career (spending all of the money I earned while working when I went back to school, effectively draining my checking accounts). Now I can’t remember what exactly what accounts I opened, so I don’t know how to begin sifting through the dozens of accounts on my credit report and identifying which ones are mine…

Help!

I can. It’s easy. My life now, five years after I stopped caring about my ruined credit score, is better than it’s ever been. Keep in mind that it takes *seven* years for items to fall off your credit report, so I’ve been doing just fine with all my late payments and accounts sent to collections and whatever else still on there.

It’s in the credit industry’s best interest to convince you your credit report is important — it makes it more likely they’ll get paid. But really, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as everyone says.

I have a friend who’s 31 years old and has never had a credit score. He’s never borrowed money for anything. He buys cars cash and has been saving to buy a house in cash when he decides he wants one. I think he’s got about enough saved up by now, too. I don’t know exactly how much, but he’s got six figures in savings and investments. He’s never needed a credit score in his life and he’s better off financially than pretty much everyone, and he’s only 31.

I recently changed to Bank of America’s Privacy Assist and for $20/month it gives me all 3 credit scores and reports and emails me whenever there is any change. It is the cheapest one that does everything I have found so far. They were a bit of a pain to start though – I had to fax them proof I was me.