 TITLE: How to Dispute a Name on Your Credit Report CONTENT: When Is It Necessary to Dispute a Name?\n---------------------------------------\nIf your credit reports list accounts that belong or belonged to you and are under names you no longer use, it's probably not necessary to file a dispute to correct them. One exception, though, is if you've informed a current creditor about a name change, and it's reflected in their communications with you (monthly statements, updated credit cards, etc.) but your credit reports aren't updated after several months. If this were to happen, you may want to submit a dispute with the credit bureaus to bring the reports current. (More on how to go about that below.)\nBut sometimes names you've used could be connected with account information that isn't yours—and that's when it becomes important to dispute the information. This isn't a common occurrence, but it can happen accidentally or under suspicious circumstances, such as identity theft.\nYou're particularly at risk if:\n*   You share a name with a parent or child—particularly if neither of you uses a suffix (Jr., Sr., III, etc.) with your name.\n*   Your name is fairly common, and someone who shares your name also shares your date of birth—a situation that's atypical, but also not as rare as you might think.\nAccidental mixture of your credit data with those of another person who shares your name creates what's known in the industry as a \"mixed credit file,\" or mixed credit report. A mixed credit file distorts your credit history and can lead to erroneous credit score calculations.\nA mixup with someone who manages credit poorly could lead to an inaccurately low score. But even a credit history merged with a responsible credit manager can also cause grief: A lender that sees an extra student loan or mortgage mistakenly listed on your credit report, for instance, could determine (even if the loan is in good standing) that your debt-to-income ratio is too high for you to qualify for a new loan.\nUnfamiliar loans or credit accounts listed in your name on your credit report also can be a sign of criminal activity. Identity thieves commonly use a person's stolen personal information (such as their name, date of birth or Social Security number) to open bogus credit accounts, \"borrow\" money and then disappear without repaying it, leaving a negative mark on the victim's credit history.\nIf your credit report lists an account in your name that you didn't open, you should alert the national credit bureaus immediately and notify the lender that issued the account, using the contact information that appears on your credit report. You should also consider reporting the potential identity theft to authorities and taking action to protect your credit reports from criminal abuse. END