My balance with Capital One was charged off recently, and they called me to discuss the matter. As the lady was giving information, she said can I take out money against my house, etc. Well she happened to pull my fathers credit report, not mine(we have same name). Does my dad have any legal claim against them? Thanks
If he has no account with them, they have no permissible purpose to pull his report. If they are already mixing you two up, he would be wise to go after them, or else he might find your charge-off on his report, too.
Is your billing address for your Cap One account also your father's address, or is it a different address?
If your names are the same, you both have a good chance of getting accounts mixed between your files, particularly if you may have had a common address at some time in the past, even if it is different now.
Definitely have your father pull his report and see what's on there. If they are reporting on his report, better get started on it now!!
Not only could you each end up with tradelines meant for the other file, if one of you was to die, the other could have their credit blocked as creditors misreported that, even as the survivor might be trying to deal with managing an estate.
Yep. This has essentially been the story of my husband's credit life for the past decade or so. Crossed accounts between himself and his father. It outta be illegal to name a child "Jr." or anything else identically after a parent - it really should.
Does he have any legal rights to sue Capital One, I know its a violation to pull a report without that persons authorization.
I'm wondering what information was provided to obtain the report - does the fault lie with Crap 1 or with the CRA for giving them the wrong report?
There is usually a defense of "innocent mistake." They could probably get away with it by saying it was a mixup of similar names. I would send both Cap One and the CRA a letter, CMRRR, telling them of the mistake and asking that it be corrected. Keep copies of everything. Now, after that, I would say they are definitely liable, because they've been put on notice. You might be able to sue now, but my concern is that a judge would dismiss as just being a mistake. This way you're covering your tail.
I beleive they can pull a report with just a name, no SSN needed. Others might have more information. Regardless of whether they get away with this one, if you don't challenge them, they will get away with the next one, and the next one, until the two files are mixed. At least if they claim it was a mistake, they have acknowledged that there is a problem and they have a responsibility to fix it, and you have a paper trail that they knew it.
