Thread: PO Boxes "THe Usual Suspect"?

I was wondering if anyone has any experiences with credit reporting agencies providing negative info about PO boxes dragging down their credit score?. If so has it caused any problems with potential creditors? I read recently that they do drag down your scores. This is ridiculous if true. Any comments?

I don't know about the CRAs and PO Boxes dragging down the score, but lenders don't like it unless you live on a farm and can give a description to that farm or acreage.

People don't like to send money to a P.O. box either unless it is for an installment payment of some sort.

My parents use a PO box ever since they had a break-in a few years back and the bad guy made off with some important documents and a credit card they hadn't yet activated--whew!

The still get at least 5 pre approved Visa, Mastercard, Discover offers every month! Sent to the PO box even! Since a lot of merchants don't/won't use US mail (Amazon will) for shipments, my dad had to have their home address included on their Visa account for charge approvals. But other than that, they haven't had any problems using a PO box. In fact, they got my mom a 1998 Mercedes S420. The financing and insurance paperwork all go to their PO box.

Our mail boxes are out on a major highway quite some distance from the homes. Every now and then our mail is found scattered all over the place and on several occasions has been found scattered in the next town. Most of us who have not already done so are thinking of getting mail boxes. Can't see why creditors would object they all use them.

I use a Po Box for almost everything but I think I'm going to change everything to my home address and heres why. When applying for certain items that wont allow the PO BOX I'll use my Home address. That inturns make some creditors report my home address and some report my Po Box. This is biting me in the but now because I don't know which CRA has which address as the current one. I also have a problem with verifying my billing address on net purchases. Some companies require that I speak to them before they ship my purchase. Egghead is really good for this.

Also Worthknowing wouldn't give me a report because the TU address was a PO BOX and they won't let people with PO BOX addresses use there service. But who cares since I live in GEOO-GA and we get two free a year.

I used to use a MBE type place and I noticed from some old CRA reports that they (especially Experian) flagged it as an alert for being a "commercial mailing center"

I've had a PO Box for well over 12 years. ALL of my mail goes to the PO Box, including all of the credit card bills. I get several pre-approved offers for credit cards every month and on none of them does it request a street address be provided on the form to be sent back. I recently got a Chase Platinum, USAA Platinum, and Cap 1 Platinum using only the PO Box address. The CRAs only have my PO Box address. I disputed old former addresses off my reports several years ago.

All of the utility bills are in my partner's name, so there really is no record of where I actually live anywhere. I prefer it that way.

Some credit card issuers (notably MBNA) have sent me "requests for updated information" asking specifically for a street address. I simply ignored them and they took no adverse action against me.

A creditor (or anyone else) can get your street address (or at least the address that you put on your application) by serving the PO with the proper legal documents. Oops, I forgot to update mine when I moved in 1997. The Post Office recently changed their policy on giving out this information so that it must be subpoenaed in the case of non-governmental entities. Law enforcement can no longer just ask for it, they have to show at least probable cause.

Personally I like the privacy and security a PO Box affords. I have noticed no adverse impact to my ability to get credit. Another benefit is that it precludes direct marketers from 'profiling' me and it cuts down on the junk mail a great deal. The mail, including the credit card statements, the convenience checks, the bank statements, and everything else that has personal information on it stays locked in it's little box until I'm ready to get it. It's not sitting in a box out by the street waiting for some boob to come along and steal it and write themselves out some checks.

A PO Box is superior to a Mail Drop, like at Mail Boxes Etc. The street addresses for these facilities are sold as a data base product. The CRAs use this product and flag the credit file if someone is using one as their 'principal' residential address. They just assume that someone is trying to pull some funny business by using one. However, there are legitimate reasons why someone would. The most commonly cited example is a person who is being stalked or the victim of being a battered spouse/partner who needs to still run their life and have a street address, but doesn't not wish to let their abuser know exactly where they live.

These facilities also accept deliveries from UPS, FedEx and anyone else. The Post Office will not. This is the primary reason why most merchants will not ship to a PO Box. They use UPS exclusively. They do not want to have to deal with the hassle of the Postal Service and UPS gives them better tracking capability.

Using a Post Office Box, in my experience, does not adversely impact ones credit score.

well said - thought provoking - I agree. Unless its a high risk card like any we all can name.

nice to see you here J Edgar :)
dogman

I also use PO Box all the time. The Cra's also report it as my address
I was approved online in January for two citi 9k/each and BofA/6K using my PO Box
address no question ask (Or telephone calls)!

You could also try getting rid of all that junk mail by getting off the mailing lists. I did this and it really worked. 6 letters and I stopped getting any preapproved credit card applications.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/card...ellLists.shtml

The credit reporting agencies are the biggest culprits.