http://creditreportmaven.com A Girl's Guide to Improving Your Credit Fri, 09 May 2008 04:43:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en According to my student loan company, my name has been updated on my student loan account. They never notified me that they received my request update my account, so I logged into my account online, and there it was - my updated information. Hooray for small miracles. I figure I'll ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/correcting-the-easy-stuff-is-almost-done/ I am the proud owner of three credit reports - one from each Credit Reporting Agency, and a few nice results. Equifax - deleted all of my old addresses except, of course, my current address. They also corrected my name. TransUnion - still refuses to update my name. I finally identified a ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/progress-on-correcting-the-easy-stuff/ Debt Kid has posted a challenge at his blog wanting to know about your dumbest purchase ever. Since purchases can have a big impact on your credit score, I thought I'd share my dumbest purchase ever. In 1993, I was newly married to a Private in the Marine Corps whose take ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/my-dumbest-purchase-ever/ It's generally recommended to use CMRR (Certified Mail with Return Receipt) for communicating with credit reporting agencies, collection agencies, and creditors. It provides a trail of when letters were mailed and when they were received. If correctly used, CMRR can be used as evidence in court. Here's how to send ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/cmrr-mail/ Here's something you might not know about freecreditreport.com: It's Experian in disguise, trying to generate more profit from consumers. The following quote is from: Fair Credit Reporting Act: How It Functions for Consumers and the Economy "Ironically, all three agencies market products with 'identify theft' insurance to provide attorneys fees and expenses ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/freecreditreportcom/ I never received any kind of acknowledgement or letter from Equifax. I haven't recently pulled a copy of my credit reports, so I have no idea if it's been corrected on Equifax's side or not. I've been extremely busy and a bit fed up with this endless cycle of not getting ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/still-trying-to-correct-the-easy-stuff/ So here I am still stuck at Step 3: Correcting the Easy Stuff. Frankly, if this is the easy stuff, I'm getting a little bit worried. I haven't heard back from Equifax yet. Hopefully that letter will be arriving in the mail soon. I'm curious about what Equifax will have to ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/my-second-attempt-at-correcting-the-easy-stuff/ Just before Christmas I became yet another victim of identity theft. Somehow, someone who remains unknown to me cloned my debit card, somehow figured out my PIN, and made two rather large ATM withdrawals, emptying my checking account. I have never loaned my debit card to anyone, and until this happened, ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/identity-theft/ As mentioned in my Action Steps posted called "Step 3: Correct the Easy Stuff", I sent off letters to all three credit agencies requesting that they correct my address and name information. Enclosed with each letter was a photocopy of my driver's license and a photocopy of the Personal Information ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/my-first-attempt-at-correcting-the-easy-stuff/ If you're anything like most of us, you'll notice some egregious errors in the section of your credit report called "Personal Info". This is where your credit report lists your name, social security number, current and former employers, and current and former addresses. Somehow, it's difficult for the credit reporting ... http://creditreportmaven.com/archives/step-3-correct-the-easy-stuff/