Hello all, First time poster. I am a 24 year old working person, planning on attending graduate school in the Fall. I will be taking out student loans for this. For the first time today, I decided to check my FICO score using myFICO and purchased an Equifax score. The score is 807. Active Accounts that I am sure are mine: BkOfAmer Credit Card -- $12,000 Limit -- $163 Bal -- 12/2006 BkOfAmer (MBNA) Credit Card -- $8,000 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 7/2004 Student Loan -- $2,719 Bal -- 9/2002 ---------------------------------------------- Accounts I am unsure are mine: Chase Credit Card -- $7,000 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 11/2003 Citi Credit Card -- $7,500 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 5/2004 Note: I do not have the cards for these accounts and I may or may not have opened them. I fell for a few stupid free t-shirt offers in college and immediately cut up the cards for some of them but never cancelled accounts. ---------------------------------------------- Accounts I am sure are NOT mine: Unvl/Citi Credit Card -- $18,700 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 11/2000 Sunoco/Cit Credit Card -- $350 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 3/1991 BkOfAmer Credit Card -- $19,700 Limit -- $0 Bal -- 7/1990 Now, obviously I wasn't opening credit card accounts when I was 7 and 8 years old. I suspect that these are my father's accounts. We have the same first and last name, different middle name but same middle initial. ---------------------------------------------- My questions: 1) How do I handle the two accounts that I am unsure if they are mine? 2) Is it common to have accounts that are not yours linked to your name? 3) How do I rectify the situation with accounts that aren't mine being on my account? Total n00b questions, I am sure, and I appreciate the help. If you need more information I would be happy to provide it.
Well, with a FICO score of 807, I would suggest you do nothing. Obviously these accounts are not hurting you in any way. Be aware that removal of the "Not Mine/Unsure" accounts will lower your FICO score. You may want to look at your report again: Are the "unsure" accounts listed as "Open/Current"? (i.e. still open) Are the "Not Mine" accounts listing you as an "Authorized User"? Your father may have put you on these accounts as an authorized user, perhaps without your knowledge, to help build your credit report and score. You may want to ask before seeking removal. Again, I would suggest you think about leaving this report as is. If you do want to have these removed, dispute with the Credit Reporting Agencies (follow the directions included with your credit report, and dispute as "Not Mine". You can also call the issuers directly, and inquire about validating, and closing the accounts.
I'd at least wait until you got any student loans you wanted before cleaning up your report. Some student loans DO consider FICO so more is definitely better when it comes to determining the interest rate they'll grant. Once you've become financed, then you can clean things up and the resulting dip in scores won't cost you any interest points. Eventually, as you keep your credit behavior clean, the score should rise back up within a year or two (i.e. by the time you graduate
As Biz suggested, leave it be. With that type of report, there is nothing to clean up. I'm not trying to be rude but, you'd be an idiot to mess with it.
I agree with Biz and Apex. Leave it be. There are no negatives on the lines, it appears. The reason your score is so high is because you have a long history (because of the accounts you think are your father's) and a low utilization. The high limits on the unknown accounts are helping your utilization percentage stay low. If there were negatives you might want to do something, but with a score that high I'd leave well enough alone.
