 TITLE: How to Dispute a Name on Your Credit Report CONTENT: Why Does My Credit Report Show Variations of My Name?\n-----------------------------------------------------\nIt's not uncommon for your credit report to list your accounts under multiple versions of your name.\nYour accounts may reflect different variations of your name that you used on credit applications—Suzanne Smith, Sue Smith and Suzanne A. Smith, for instance.\nIf you've ever changed your name (through marriage or divorce, for instance), past versions of your name also may be reflected in your credit reports. That's especially true of accounts that are no longer active: A student loan or car loan you paid off before you got married will be listed under your unmarried name, for instance, and will stay that way even after you marry.\nWith open accounts, when you inform creditors of a name change, your new name should eventually be reflected in your credit reports. It may take a few months, however, for each creditor to update all three national credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax), and then for the bureaus to post the changes to your credit report.\nIf you have a hyphenated last name (or adopt one when you marry), it may appear on your credit reports in its correct form (Smith-Jones) as two words (Smith Jones) or as a single word without a hyphen (Smithjones). The way it appears reflects the way lenders' automated systems handle (or don't handle) hyphens.\nThe national credit bureaus recognize that people may use different names at different times. As a result, your credit report from each bureau lists all the various names under which your accounts are listed. Credit reports are formatted differently at each bureau, but here's an idea of what the name list looks like on an Experian credit report: END