Credit Report Tells Woman She's Dead
Credit Report Tells Woman She's Dead Save Email Print
Error may have occurred with name change
Posted: 11:46 PM Aug 6, 2008
Last Updated: 11:46 PM Aug 6, 2008
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

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There are many reasons to check your credit report and you can get a free copy from each of the credit bureaus every year. You might even find a mistake. One woman found an error she couldn't believe. She was dead.

Mary McCreary has been searching online and visiting car lots looking for a good deal on a used car. She found a few good options and headed to Tier One Bank for a loan, but instead of getting a loan, she got a eulogy.

“When I talked to the loan officer she told me that my information showed that I was deceased and obviously that's not the case because I'm still here."

Mary went online and ordered her yearly free credit report. "When I checked my credit report it said that I was deceased."

Most of the information is correct, including her past jobs, but after she got divorced and changed her name back to her maiden name, the current status indicates she’s dead.

“When I tried contacting the credit report companies, it's all automated so it's not real easy to get the information to them. I never really got it resolved."

All the credit bureaus provide an 800 number, but when you call it tells you to file your complaint online. They say it actually speeds up the process, it’s secure and allows for instant correspondence with the person filing the complaint.

We asked how long it would take. By law, credit bureaus have 30 days to fix a complaint, but they say it usually takes around three days to resolve one. "I really would like to get my car, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that."

Mary will file an online complaint and hopes she will no longer be listed as deceased.

Six On Your Side spoke with CSC Credit Services and it admits it was a mistake and they are going to take the deceased status off all her credit reports.

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Posted by: J on Aug 8, 2008 at 11:37 PM
Mary, just make sure the next identity you adopt has a clean credit record.

Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 8, 2008 at 11:02 AM
I can only wish my credit report thought I was dead. My phone would stop ringing constantly with creditors!

Posted by: Sandy on Aug 7, 2008 at 04:47 PM
Good luck:( I have incorrect info on my report and after 2 online requests for changes and 1 phone call to each bureau there is STILL incorrect info on my credit reports!

Posted by: S on Aug 7, 2008 at 02:30 PM
Does this bureau think that EVERYONE has access to a computer. The statistics are high, but there are still a lot of people who do not have a computer. And I sure wouldn't file this on a public computer. Whatever happened to Customer Service?

Posted by: Cool on Aug 7, 2008 at 01:18 PM
Everything written off then!

Posted by: llr on Aug 7, 2008 at 09:58 AM
Well then, if she has any outstanding loans or credit card debt, can she legally refuse to pay them?

Posted by: Marianne on Aug 7, 2008 at 07:45 AM
Credit reports, got to love them. We had a car repossession on ours, and we were still driving it! The bank that reported it was here locally. I drove the "repo" to them and pointed the vehicle out. It took us almost 3 months to correct their error. The bank did absolutely nothing to help us. It was our dispute letters that finally resolved the situation. One error on the part of the creditor, and your credit could be down the drain. We now check out our report every year. Better to do now, then try to make a major purchase and find out your score has plummeted through no fault of your own.

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