Credit Report Question...

EatSleepFly

Well-Known Member
I was just looking at my credit report to make sure nobody has said anything bad about me, and everything is in great shape except for one thing that shows up on there. It appears to be an open charge account, but I do not have one. The acount name shows up as CBUSASEARS, anyone know who this is? There hasn't been any late payments or anything, but the fact that I don't have and never have had such an account worries me- especially since it says the balance is $2580 and it has been open since May of 1998.
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Anyone have any ideas on how to find out more info. and/or what to do about it? Also, is there any way to get a truely *free* credit report from all three agencies? I really don't want to have to shell out $25 just to see what the other ones say.

Thanks!
 
Yeah, me too, but the only thing I've ever bought at Sears was a pair of socks and maybe a screwdriver. I've never had a charge account with any store in my life.

Another thing I just noticed- there is a P.O. Box address listed under "previous addresses" that I've never even seen or heard of before. Someone is going to have some serious questions to answer when I find out what is going on!
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Hey ESF,
I'd rectify that immediately. There should be a phone number next to CBUSASEARS; I'd call them and ask them about account activity. Then, contact one of the big 3 credit unions and let them know that you have no knowledge of account usage; in many instances, they will notate your account and may even exonerate you from charges if they suspect credit card fraud. $2580?!? If there are no late payments, I wonder if someone is unknowingly treating it as their own credit card (making the monthly payments on time, using it at their own discretion etc).
 
Send a letter to the CRA (Credit Reporting Agency) that you ordered to discover the error. Copy the letter to the other big 2. The letter should state that this is not your account and you want it removed immediately. Addresses for the CRAs are available online from the Federal Trade Commission. Because you have an error, CRAs will individually investigate your file for free and return a copy of your report (contents will vary by CRA). They will send either a corrected copy and results of the investigation or provide a copy of your report proving the account does not show on their records.
 
I don't know about a free credit report. I always get my credit report online from www.equifax.com and it costs around 9 bucks. It's always a good idea to have a current copy of your credit report.

Smokey
 
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There should be a phone number next to CBUSASEARS; I'd call them and ask them about account activity.

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Hold on there, don't call them, you won't get anywhere. THe people you talk to on the phone won't take you seriously and are so low-level they can't help you. Anyways, there is a 99% chance it someones elses legitimate account and the activity is not your business.

EatSleepFly, check your hotmail account.
 
CBUSASEARS:

Citigroup completes purchase of Sears card unit
Mon November 3, 2003 03:10 PM ET

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the world's largest financial services company, completed its purchase of Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research) credit card portfolio, the companies said on Monday.
Citigroup, the largest U.S. credit card issuer, paid a 10 percent premium, or about $2.9 billion, on Sears' $28.6 billion of private label and bankcard credit card receivables, plus $300 million for other assets, offices and employees.

Citigroup also assumed $10.4 billion of securitized debt and other liabilities. The companies signed a multi-year marketing and servicing contract expected to provide revenue and cost savings over the life of the alliance. Citigroup is based in New York, and Sears in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

The purchase adds 64 million Sears accounts to Citigroup's credit card portfolio. It was announced July 15 as part of an overhaul designed to return Sears, the largest U.S. department store chain, to its retail roots. The card division generated $366 million of operating profit in the third quarter.

Citigroup said there will be no immediate changes to Sears' card programs and operations, and that cardholders may continue to use their cards normally.

Citigroup said it now now has 161 million card accounts and $146 billion of card receivables in North America, and 176 million accounts and $160 billion of receivables worldwide.

Citigroup shares traded Monday afternoon at $48.24, up 84 cents. Sears shares traded at $53.50, up 87 cents.

© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved
 
ESF, Sears in notorious for this. What happened is they targeted you for a credit card in their system and automatically approved you. The thing is, you never applied. It is sort of a scam and one of the many things wrong with the credit reporting system in the States. But the deal is, like others have said, get it off. You will need to get a hold of Sears and insist they send a letter to all three primary credit agencies telling them the account was paid. Insist you also get a copy of that letter. You should either get a copy or furthermore insist on having them write you a specific letter stating that you have cleared the account with them

Something to be aware of: When you are applying for a loan you credit is pulled. The credit score is a reflection of how good you would be to pay that loan back. So, if you have an open credit line, most loan programs and credit agencies look at that number as a potential liability. For example, on the Sears thing you owe $2500 or so. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but compared to your salary as a CFI this could be well into double digits in percentage or you salary or earnings. To a creditor uses statisitics for everything this is a major red flag. But to continue the example, if you have a credit card that been bumping up your credit limit on your card it will most likely affect your credit rating dramatically. If you have a credit card limit with something like $25,000 a creditor will look at that limit as you being able to potentially go out and spend it all the day he gives you a loan. So before you get your credit pulled ask your cards to lower you limits, it will dramatically effect your score.
 
i just got my credit report from freecreditreport.com. it only reports one agency though.

one side note though is that it is free with a trial to some service to monitor it or something for 79.00 per year. After you get your report just call them up and cancel your subscription to the trial. or you ll get shafted for 79.00

I have a loan for my vehicle from the bank but it didn't show up on the report. Anybody have any reasons for this? Maybe that would boost my credit if they started reporting that
 
Not all lenders report your tradelines to every credit reporting agency. Typically the bigger the lender the more agencies they report to.
 
Do you know anyone in the car business or mortgage business? If you can get someone to run your credit through a mortgage company, you can get all three reports as well as all three scores. I don't think a report from a car dealer is as detailed as a homeloan report, but I could be wrong.
 
I've actually signed up for one of these credit monitoring services this year, and found it really useful. Didn't cost anything out of pocket for me. It came with Microsoft Money 2003, which was certainly less than $75.
 
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If you can get someone to run your credit through a mortgage company

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Yes, but you'll get hard inquires. Best to pull the reports your own, if you have a car dealership pull your report it looks like you tried to get credit and weren't able.
 
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