FAQ

We have staff available from 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. mountain time to take your phone calls. However, you can fax, phone or (the best option!) enter online your tradeline requests any time of the day or night.

Most revolving debt (balances and payments) can be verified through automated system; however, we need for you to supply us with complete account numbers. Mastercards and Visas are 16 digits, American Express is 15 digits, and minor credit cards vary.

Yes. In order to add a tradeline (auto loan, mortgage, etc.) that is not already on the credit report you will need to provide us with a loan number, the creditor’s phone number and a borrower’s authorization so we can verify the information. Please note this can only be done cosmetically for our credit report only. We cannot add anything at the bureau level.

Not all tradelines can be verified over the telephone. Some creditors do not report to the bureaus, have automated systems or verify over the telephone. For example, Chase will only verify by mail and with a $20. fee. Other companies will not, under any circumstances, verify to a third party. Unfortunately, we have no way around these restrictions.

Yes. The borrower can always, by law, get information. There are creditors who will not, under any circumstances, verify to a third party (Advantage Credit or any other Credit Reporting Agency).

If an account was awarded to a borrower’s spouse through a divorce, yet it is still on the credit report, we cannot remove it. If we are provided with evidence, we can add a footnote on the account that reads, “Borrower is not responsible for account per divorce decree.” Borrower will need to dispute this through the Bureaus.

Yes and no. Credit reports provide very little information on the public records and are often not accurate. The borrower should always keep a copy of the release or satisfaction and we can use this to update the credit report. Some counties will give us the information over the phone, some require a fax with borrower’s authorization and some will provide no information at all. For example, California courts will do no third party verifications. There are counties that require the borrower to go to court and research it in person! Again, we will do whatever we can to obtain the information requested, but we are restricted at times by certain guidelines imposed on us.

We cannot verify the authenticity of inquires since we do not have access to information on inquiries. If a borrower says an inquiry is a mistake, (i.e. he/she did not authorize credit to be pulled by a certain company) they will have to dispute this through the bureaus.

Tradeline supplement changes will not impact the credit score.. Any permanent changes the borrower wants on this credit report will have to be done through the repositories. Any information we add or take off a credit report is for that credit report only. This will not affect any permanent information at the level of the repositories. Also, any changes we make to a credit report will not show up if you pull a new credit report. Any changes added to a new report will have to be done over again.

All requests for updates are done in the order in which they are received. Whether you call or fax your request, we enter the request into the system and they are attended to the same as requests entered online.

While Fannie Mae and the repositories have advised us not to discuss credit reports directly with the borrowers we are happy to participate in a conference call directly with our customer and the borrower.

We cannot verify items that show up on someone else’s credit report. We can verify the information if another report is pulled through us..

Yes. We need as much information as possible (Landlord’s name, phone number, length of rental and amount). At times we will also need a borrower’s authorization. Some landlords will verify only information that we already have. Any extra information you can provide will be very helpful and appreciated.

Secondary Use is a repository mandated policy pertaining to the process whereby a credit report is ordered by one lending entity and then forwarded to another or multiple entities as part of the lending process. To learn more, read “Secondary Use FAQ”

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) requires creditors who report information about accounts to report it in the names of all people with a relationship to the account, including cosigners or authorized users. To help lenders identify your legal liability on all your credit accounts, credit bureaus add a code to each account, termed the ECOA code. Each credit bureau lists ECOA codes differently, but these are the basic categories:

• Individual: You alone are legally responsible. This designation gives you a strong credit reference, assuming a good history.
• Joint: You and someone else – often a spouse – are both legally liable. A joint account is equal to an individual account for building your credit history.
• Co-signer, secondarily liable: You signed loan documents for someone else to help them qualify for a loan.
• Co-signer, primarily liable: You took out an account for yourself, but someone else co-signed for the loan to ensure payment.
• Authorized user: You can use the account and may have a card in your name, but you did not sign the application and are not legally responsible. Because you have no legal obligation, this designation does not help you get your own credit history.
• Undesignated: No status was reported by the creditor reporting the account information