How do companies submit information about loans/etc. to the Credit Reporting Agencies? Is there some standard interface they use? Any criteria used? And, a company doesn't necessarily need one's SSN in order to submit an entry to a credit report? Can they just submit information to a person's credit report with just name and address? Thanks.
I found this on another board: When it comes to a creditor pulling credit reports: Listed below is how the credit reporting agencies assign importance to this information (from most important to least important) Notice the SSN is not the most important: Equifax: Last Name, First Initial, Address, SSN TransUnion Zip Code, Address, Last Name, First Name, SSN, AKA/Allias Name Experian: Last Name, First Name, SSN , Address Well with this in mind - you get an idea on the personal identification what is needed to add data to the credit reports. The banks do need to establish a membership with the credit reporting agencies in addition to meeting other criteria, like having the capability to submit a given number of accounts per month, percentage rate of no more then their cut off for errors allowable (this covers the format - not the content). Some creditors have their own reporting department & some utilize a processor that submits data for multiple creditors each month. Some even space out the reporting to every few months. There are serveral ways to which they report. Most are just called tape - even though that is not politically correct. Some are in spreadsheet data form, some are on disk, some are on reels... Plus they have to use special software that converts the data into the proper format that the CRAs can extract and blend in to the individual credit reports. When there are errors, the creditor has to take serveral steps to insure the updates take... they can use UDF forms to manually update. These are best for one time updates on accounts that have long been paid and removed off of the tapes. IF they try to use UDF for existing accounts in the tape system - then they are most likely going to have reporting problems if they fail to understand or properly follow up on updating the tapes. Because the UDF update is only going to revert back once the next tape is sent in. They now have Bullseye, which is a more secure electronic means, easier / but still requires the tapes to be updated properly. Or they can forgo with the manual means, and just insure the tapes are updated the next month properly. If all else fails, they can revert to forwarding the consumer a letter of confirmation, stating the fact of the matter concerning their account. Creditors do run into their own reporting problems, that sometimes data gets lost, or they just don't realize what they are doing wrong in the course of setting up or switching over systems. It is by no means an easy task, and the regular loan officers or customer service reps are just removed from this and give mis information to consuemrs calling in wanting updates to be made. When calling about reporting problems, I usually suggest requesting their reporting department. Instead of customer service in case they are two different things.
