4 Possible Reasons for Mixed Credit Files
Mixed Credit Files – 4 Possible Reasons
Mixed credit files are the common credit errors that arise during the credit reporting process. Studies from Fortunely say that 4.5% of people in the US become victims of identity fraud every year. Wonder how often credit reporting mistakes actually occur? The Federal Trade Commission released a study a few years ago that estimated there to be over 40 million mistakes present on the credit reports of US consumers. Other studies have estimated the number of credit reporting errors to be much higher.
Mistakes in Credit Reports
The credit bureaus get a bad rap, and often deservedly so. After all, when credit bureaus make mistakes on credit reports the consequences can be quite serious. These serious consequences are not experienced by the credit bureaus themselves, of course. Instead, it is you, the consumer, who pays the price for credit reporting inaccuracies.
Mistakes in credit reports can lead to many problems for the affected consumers such as lower credit scores, difficulty qualifying for loans, higher insurance rates, and even problems landing a job.
Yet many of the credit reporting mistakes which occur do not originate with the credit bureaus themselves. That is not to say the credit bureaus are not culpable. It is the bureaus, after all, who actually place the incorrect information on credit reports. Still, a large percentage of credit reporting errors occur because the credit bureaus accept bad information from a data furnisher (aka a creditor, collection agency, or other company that supplies data to the credit bureaus).
Why Mixed Credit Files Are Different
Although many of the mistakes appearing on credit reports originate with bad information submitted by a data furnisher, mixed credit files are different. Mixed files occur because of mistakes made by the credit bureaus themselves. Due to the nature of this mistake, mixed files are one of the most difficult types of credit reporting errors to see corrected.
What Is a Mixed Credit File?
The mixed credit file is a type of error committed by credit reporters or credit bureaus. When a consumer’s identity or file is mistaken for the other one, these sorts of errors occur. This mixed credit file can considerably affect the credit score of the consumers.
Thankfully for most consumers mixed credit files are not incredibly common, though the people that experience this credit reporting nightmare often suffer greatly. The problem occurs when a credit bureau confuses you with another consumer. This confusion can result in your credit information and someone else’s credit information being merged or mixed into a single file. When your credit file is mixed together with someone else’s file your credit reports can become littered with dozens of accounts and other information which does not belong to you.
Mixed files are often the result of similar names, addresses, or perhaps other personal information. For example, fathers and sons who share a name (senior and junior) are common victims of mixed files. Siblings sometimes find their credit files mixed together due to a shared last name and perhaps a shared former address. Occasionally mixed files happen to people with very common names as well (i.e. Tim Jones or Amy Brown)
4 Scenarios For Mixed Credits
A mixed credit file will mostly occur due to carelessness in reporting the data. Though there are ways to figure out the consumers uniquely with a social security number, these sorts of errors are frequent as a result of carelessness. Here are some of the scenarios when the credit data of people may get mixed up.
Common Name Errors
If a consumer name is quite common and so more than one person shares the same name, this error can occur.
Misspelled Names
People may use different spellings for the same name. This may cause confusion and result in mistaking a person for others.
Mixed With Family Numbers
People from the same family may share the same last names. This may also lead to confusion if not attended carefully. The other problem is there is also the possibility to get mixed up with people with the same family name.
Careless Data Entry
This is a more frequent mistake. Entering the details of the adjacent number in the series can also collapse the data. Entering one data of the customer wrongly can leave their whole record mismatched.
What Happens When Your Credit File Is Mixed?
Mixed credit files can make it hard for you to qualify for new financing. If your credit file is mixed with a consumer who has poor credit management history the results can be catastrophic. Your once fantastic credit scores can plummet quickly once the bad credit history belonging to someone else is mistakenly added to your credit reports.
Mixed files can still make it difficult to qualify for a loan even in circumstances where the other consumer has good credit as well. If a significant amount of debt is incorrectly added to your credit report, even if that debt is paid on time and managed well, your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio could increase. As a result, a lender may not believe that you can afford the new, additional debt.
Correcting the Mixed Credit Files Problem
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to dispute any information on your credit reports that you question or believe to be incorrect. You can initiate disputes on your own or, as many consumers prefer, you can hire a reputable credit repair professional to do the work for you. Since correcting mixed files often proves to be difficult, it can pay off to have a pro working on your behalf.
Additionally, permanently correcting a mixed file is generally not a matter of a simple dispute. Even if incorrect information is removed, if the credit files remain mixed together then the offending accounts could potentially reappear on your credit reports again in the future.
Correcting the mixed file issue permanently involves getting through to a credit bureau employee who will actually suppress the incorrect accounts, thus preventing them from ever reappearing on your credit reports again in the future. Of course, connecting with someone at a credit bureau who is willing and able to properly assist you is often very difficult, especially if you have no one assisting you with the process.
Credit Repair Services To Fix Mixed Credit Issues
Cheap credit repair services like The Credit Pros will help consumers come out of these common errors. They monitor the credit records and identify errors. They also proceed with disputing the errors on behalf of their customers. Check out their prices and make use of this quality service.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are mixed credit files?
When a credit bureau mistakes you for another customer, these mixed credit file problems arise. This may affect people’s credit scores and thus becomes an important issue to resolve.
What may be the reasons for mixed credit files?
Mistaken identities like similar names misspelled words, careless data entry are the popular reasons for mixed credit files.
How to recover from a mixed credit file?
Approaching credit reporters is the right choice. They will make sure to fix the mistakes for which they are solely responsible. If not, you can also go for credit repair agencies to fix the mistakes.
Conclusion
Mixed Credit Files may sound quite uncommon. But the article explained how common it could be., due to similar names and addresses there are possibilities for mistaken identity.
If you are a credit consumer, make sure your data are matching with your credit reports If not, reach out to any credit repair agencies to fix the errors. They will work on your behalf and fix all the errors. For more information, call us at 1-800 411-3050.
