Cannot pull credit report for wife

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Jan 7, 2009
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Rochester, MI, US, World
This is getting very frustrating. Recently I've been doing a thorough check of our financials, just as a precaution. I'd never looked at my credit report or scores before, other than what I'd seen from insurance companies, etc. that gave them to me. I recently pulled my credit report and got scores from a couple of the bureaus, no issue. But my wife can't. For the record, she has never had a credit card ACCOUNT in her name. But, she has rented an apartment in her name, been an authorized user on several of my cards for years, and her parents' cards when living at home (all account holders have excellent credit). However, none of the usual methods, I.E. CreditKarma, annual credit report.com, CreditWise, etc can find anything on her, or say that the information doesn't match. I'm stumped. I know for a fact that one of our credit cards reports authorized users to the bureaus. Does she not have credit, or is this just a technicality with addresses or something else? I called the annual credit report number and we submitted her info over the automated system, so we'll see if they show up in the mail. I've heard that this often doesn't work though.

We've been married for 8 years so any name change would have long since been settled, FWIW. We've tried old addresses and maiden name to no avail.
 
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Just speculating, but I wonder if she would have to be a joint account holder, rather than just an authorized user. I think that would make her equally responsible for the account, where this way, you are solely responsible.
 
I can't speak for the States for certain, but you may have to fill in a form and do it the old fashioned way, by mail. They do have that provision up here with the credit reporting agencies. Check with the websites of the actual credit reporting agencies and see if that's possible. Here, they have to let you do it at least once per year for free by mail.
 
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Originally Posted by zrxkawboy
Just speculating, but I wonder if she would have to be a joint account holder, rather than just an authorized user. I think that would make her equally responsible for the account, where this way, you are solely responsible.


I don't know... I feel like joint accounts are uncommon. And even though I'm responsible for the accounts, everything I read says that when the credit card companies report on her behalf, it does reflect on her credit.
 
Have her get a $400 credit card account in her name, matched by savings account at a credit union if necessary. Have her use the card for a minimum charge monthly, i.e. $25 of gas monthly. Pay it off on line completely every month. Told my slacker, mentally deficient step son to do this ten years ago. My wife died, got his sorry butt out of the house (thank god). Unlike my kids, who are afraid to use credit, but probably have huge education debts, he apparently has excellent credit scores. Actually called me a couple of years ago. Had some scammer tell he could get a mortgage because his FICO was 800. Pointed out to him that probably wouldn't work because he made $12 an hour. But he does get tons of credit card solicitations coming to my address and they're main line, credit card solicitations too, not the low end ones. So I do believe him when he says his FICO is 800+. Hopefully he's continued to use his car monthly for a small amount and pay the whole thing off.
 
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No credit in her name, that the problem. Renting an apartment is unlikely to report on credit. She has no credit history. She should get credit in her name...ie her own CC..car loan etc...even a store card would help her establish credit if its kept in good standing.
 
Sounds like she has no credit history since she's been an "authorized user" on your accounts...and the apartment likely did no reporting.

She should open a car loan, credit card or something and establish credit.
 
My mother in law lived to her mid nineties and had no credit. Everything was in her husband's name. Your wife needs to establish credit now. She can monitor with Credit Karma (not a FICO score but similar), or get one of the cards with free FICO reporting.
 
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I added my wife as an authorized user on one of my credit cards, it helped boost her credit as she had none before.
 
You can basically say that your wife is a ghost. That's what we call people with no credit history. You need some tradelines in order to establish credit. As a landlord we never report rent to the credit bureaus. Authorized user used to be a trick to boost credit but I believe it changed and it doesn't really do that anymore.

Go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free copy of her report. There are many similar sites, but they are fake ones and charge money. Some of those credit monitoring sites we call them Fako scores as they use a different scoring model than what the banks use. You have to read the fine print and see what scoring model is used. Top scores can range from 839-850 depending on the scoring model. But some of those fako scores go up to 950.

Remember, credit is the ability to borrow money and pay it back on a timely basis. If they weren't in her name, she never demonstrated that.
 
This sounds like a great time for your Wife (to finally) get her financial life in order.

Have her get a Credit Card in her name and start using it (pay balance EVERY Month)
Never pay credit card interest

My first Credit Card had to be tied in with my Savings Acct. (only way I could get a CC)

Use AnnualCreditReport.com for checking your Report yearly at
1) Equifax
2) Experian
3) Trans Union
The reason you check your 'report' is for preventing Identity Theft and accuracy of all other info.

I went to OptOutPrescreen.com to remove my name from any credit card mailing lists (meaning: I don't receive CC Applications in the mail).

For my Credit Score, my credit card company has that on their web-site and I see it every Month when paying my bill.

It's a lot of work to do (keep good notes) but chip away at it.
You'll be glad you did.
 
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I have a couple of "authorized users" on a business card and if I remember correctly the only info provided to add them was their name and very basic info - no SS# or birthday info = this does not have any impact on their credit score and I'm totally on the hook for their charges. This is different than what I have with my wife who was always a co-applicant on CCs - we did have to provide her SS#, etc and these do show on her credit history.
 
Originally Posted by Klutch9
For the record, she has never had a credit card ACCOUNT in her name. But, she has rented an apartment in her name, been an authorized user on several of my cards for years, and her parents' cards when living at home (all account holders have excellent credit).


You don't understand how building a credit rating works. Do your homework and you'll figure it out.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
You can basically say that your wife is a ghost. That's what we call people with no credit history. You need some tradelines in order to establish credit. As a landlord we never report rent to the credit bureaus. Authorized user used to be a trick to boost credit but I believe it changed and it doesn't really do that anymore.

Go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free copy of her report. There are many similar sites, but they are fake ones and charge money. Some of those credit monitoring sites we call them Fako scores as they use a different scoring model than what the banks use. You have to read the fine print and see what scoring model is used. Top scores can range from 839-850 depending on the scoring model. But some of those fako scores go up to 950.

Remember, credit is the ability to borrow money and pay it back on a timely basis. If they weren't in her name, she never demonstrated that.


He said in his original post that he has already tried annualcreditreport.com and found nothing for her.
 
It sounds like you have an iron grip on the family finances. Let her have a little.

Find a good rewards-bonus card on https://old.reddit.com/r/churning that pays $300-500 for signing up and have her do it in her name. Don't get hotel points or air miles, go for cash. Make the minimum $4k in purchases over 3 months then boom-- you get a signup bonus and she gets a credit rating.

I also believe it's the law that if she gets denied, the bank has to spell out a reason, which is a good place to start/ continue your homework. In this overheated economy though she'll probably get a card with a "lower limit" which will still be "huge" to most of us.
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
It sounds like you have an iron grip on the family finances. Let her have a little.

Find a good rewards-bonus card on https://old.reddit.com/r/churning that pays $300-500 for signing up and have her do it in her name. Don't get hotel points or air miles, go for cash. Make the minimum $4k in purchases over 3 months then boom-- you get a signup bonus and she gets a credit rating.

I also believe it's the law that if she gets denied, the bank has to spell out a reason, which is a good place to start/ continue your homework. In this overheated economy though she'll probably get a card with a "lower limit" which will still be "huge" to most of us.


What's an attainable card for someone like her? Most cards I've researched have a recommended credit level to apply, but it appears she has none. Is a secured card the way to go? She's had a bank account with a healthy balance for well over a decade; should we get her a card there?
 
Watch out for fee based credit checking masquerading as freebies.

Credit Karma tracks two of the three credit reporting agencies (Equifax and Transunion) and, unlike annual credit report (which I use annually for Experian), you can check it daily if you want. It shows new credit activity almost instantly. I use it as a free credit monitoring service as well as credit score monitor (Vantage Score 3, not FICO), in addition I use two cards which have (different) FICO reporting scores, there's a lot of those.

BUT WARNING--

Just a few minutes ago, I attempted to Google "Credit Karma". The actual site was about five down from the top. I actually clicked on another "fee bait" page that used the name Credit and Karma in its subject line tags. I caught on before reregistering, but Google is pushing actual primary search targets lower and lower on its search results in the interest of the almighty dollar.

Credit Karma BTW is great, although its free income tax service (at least two years ago when I last tried to use it) is not ready for prime time.
 
Originally Posted by Klutch9
Originally Posted by eljefino
It sounds like you have an iron grip on the family finances. Let her have a little.

Find a good rewards-bonus card on https://old.reddit.com/r/churning that pays $300-500 for signing up and have her do it in her name. Don't get hotel points or air miles, go for cash. Make the minimum $4k in purchases over 3 months then boom-- you get a signup bonus and she gets a credit rating.

I also believe it's the law that if she gets denied, the bank has to spell out a reason, which is a good place to start/ continue your homework. In this overheated economy though she'll probably get a card with a "lower limit" which will still be "huge" to most of us.


What's an attainable card for someone like her? Most cards I've researched have a recommended credit level to apply, but it appears she has none. Is a secured card the way to go? She's had a bank account with a healthy balance for well over a decade; should we get her a card there?


You should be able to get a regular credit card from any major credit card company. They will probably just give you a low credit line to start. If you're having trouble, start with the store credit cards like Macy/Sears etc., they're easy to get because they all want you to start using it. Use them a few times, don't carry a balance and pay it off. If you read the credit report, you can't really tell if people carry a balance or not. It just tells you the current balance and the minimum monthly payment. Usually the store credit cards give you a bonus like 10-15% off the first time you use them.
 
Originally Posted by JLTD
Sounds like she has no credit history since she's been an "authorized user" on your accounts...and the apartment likely did no reporting.

She should open a car loan, credit card or something and establish credit.


I wish I never had. I truly wish my credit score was "does not exist."
 
Find out when your credit card issuer reports to the credit bureaus. If you have a credit balance that's larger than usual, make two payments in one month. This will keep your reported balance low, so it won't produce a high ratio.
 
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