Oh Boy! I'm sure you've seen this happen. You're at the coffee pot Wed. morning and your co-worker comes in with a look of disgust on his face. When you ask what happened, you wish you had politely stepped out of the room.
He starts in about how irresponsible his youngest son is with his money, and don't get started on that little girl friend of his...Oh no! Anyways, he went in to apply to buy a new car yesterday with his eyes on that shiney red Mustang he has always wanted. You know the one. Anyways, when they pulled up his credit, a slew of collection accounts and late payments showed up that he knew nothing about. After a little further investigation, he found out they belong to Jr.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen this happen over the years. I've seen it benefit young kids who didn't have any credit, but mom or dad's good credit showed up in their name allowing them to obtain the credit they needed. Mostly, I've seen it have an adverse affect.
Believe me when I tell you, it's not always the child's fault. I've seen kids with excellent credit hurt by their deceased parents' bad credit or their parents' bruised credit.
The most common way this happens is with a Jr. or Sr. situation. Dad has to have his son named after him. Believe it or not, I had it happen more than once with a daughter who shared a mother or grandmother's name.
This is probably one of the most common credit reporting errors that occurs. It is not always easy to get corrected. The issue the credit bureaus have to decide is which one actually owns the credit? This has to be documented and proven to the credit reporting agencies to clarify who gets to claim the tradeline.
Mixed credit does exist in credit bureau data. A parent and adult child who share the same or similar names may develop mixed credit. This is compounded by sharing the same residence address or by having shared a prior residence address. (NOTE: Using suffixes with a name such as John Doe Jr. or John Doe III, as well as your birth date, may assist in eliminating mixed data).
The best advice I can offer is to fill out all credit applications very legibly, since this is where the credit bureaus obtain their information. Second, if you don't have to name your child with your name, avoid it. Let your child have his or her own identity. Please don't take that the wrong way. I mean it purely in the sense that our society has become very dependent on computers to keep track of information. The computer is only as good as the data going in.
Finally, if this is a big problem, you may want to consider a Credit Repair program. To get more information about credit repair, visit my link to "Fix Credit Now" in the link section of this blog (top right side). You can also click on the title to this article.
I hope this is helpful information. Remember, it is not a life threatening problem, but it can cause a lot of inconvenience if it does occur in your life. Best of luck out there.
Joshua Christensen, CMPS (c)
Mixed credit does exist in credit bureau data. A parent and adult child who share the same or similar names may develop mixed credit. This is compounded by sharing the same residence address or by having shared a prior residence address. (NOTE: Using suffixes with a name such as John Doe Jr. or John Doe III, as well as your birth date, may assist in eliminating mixed data).
The best advice I can offer is to fill out all credit applications very legibly, since this is where the credit bureaus obtain their information. Second, if you don't have to name your child with your name, avoid it. Let your child have his or her own identity. Please don't take that the wrong way. I mean it purely in the sense that our society has become very dependent on computers to keep track of information. The computer is only as good as the data going in.
Finally, if this is a big problem, you may want to consider a Credit Repair program. To get more information about credit repair, visit my link to "Fix Credit Now" in the link section of this blog (top right side). You can also click on the title to this article.
I hope this is helpful information. Remember, it is not a life threatening problem, but it can cause a lot of inconvenience if it does occur in your life. Best of luck out there.
Joshua Christensen, CMPS (c)
(505) 250-1944
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