How to Notify Credit Bureaus

Credit bureaus keep track of information about your financial activities, such as credit card accounts, late payments on bills and installment loans you have outstanding. This information is used by banks and other financial institutions to decide whether or not to give you loans or increase your credit limit. You want it to be accurate as possible so you are not penalized by banks which use your credit report for inaccurate negative items such as an overdue account that is actually paid. There are many circumstances you may need to notify credit bureaus of, such as the death of a relative, inaccuracies on your credit report or an incident of identity theft.

Instructions

1

Call the big three credit bureau's fraud lines to notify them that you are the victim, or potential victim of identity theft. These are the three major credit bureaus. Beware of scams on the Internet.

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)

2

Gather documents supporting your notification. These could include a police report, as evidence that you are an identity theft victim, account statements, credit report with inaccuracies circled or relative's certificate of death, to prove your relative is deceased.

3

Write a letter briefly describing the situation about which you are notifying the credit bureau. Provide specific details about the notification even if this information is repeated in your evidence. Also, list evidence you will be attaching. There are samples you can base your letter on in the resources section.

4

Print four copies of the letter, one for each of the three major credit bureaus and one for your own records.

5

Make four copies of the supporting documents. Keep one with your copy of the letter, the others will be sent to the credit bureaus.

6

Mail a copy of the letter and supporting documents to each of the three major credit bureaus. Their addresses are:

Equifax Information Services LLC
Office of Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 150139
Atlanta, GA 30348

Experian
PO Box 9701
Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion
PO Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834