Answers

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A consumer credit report is a factual record of an individual’s credit payment history. It is rather like a snapshot, because it reflects information that is current as of that date but is subject to change.  Credit reports are provided to credit lenders for a purpose permitted by law.  The most common purpose is to help a lender make a decision quickly and objectively about extending credit to an individual.  Most information in a consumer credit report comes from the companies an individual does business with, but some information is from public records.

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A consumer may request his or her own credit report at any time.  Access to a consumer's credit information is regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"), and administered by the Federal Trade Commission.  Companies may request a consumer credit report from a credit-reporting agency when they have a "permissible purpose" that qualifies under the FCRA.  Permissible Purposes include:

·         The granting of credit

·         The collection of a debt

·         The underwriting of insurance

·         Employment purposes

·         For issuing a license as required by some government agencies

·         For a legitimate business transaction between a business and a consumer that is initiated by the consumer

Any person who knowingly and willfully obtains information on a consumer from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined (under Title 18, United States Code), imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.

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Argus Search, Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency/reseller of credit information provided by the repository Equifax. Our contractual relationship with the repository allows us to provide credit reports to our clients (in connection with mortgage, automotive, and other consumer loans; and/or employment and tenant screening).  Argus Search, Inc. does not maintain permanent files from which new credit reports are produced.  Rather, each time we prepare a new credit report, we order the information from Equifax.

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Mixed credit does exist in credit bureau data.  A parent and adult child who share the same or similar names may develop mixed credit.  This is compounded by sharing the same residence address or by having shared a prior residence address.

NOTE: Using suffixes with a name (such as James Dough, Jr. or James Dough III), as well as your birth date, may assist in eliminating mixed data.

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A divorce decree does not take the place of the original contract with the creditor.  It does not release your legal responsibility on the account.  If an account was awarded to your ex-spouse in the divorce decree, you must contact each creditor directly to release your obligation.

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If you are a co-signer on a loan, you are responsible for the debt.  If the primary account holder does not pay on the account as agreed or defaults on the loan, the delinquencies will appear on your credit report and you will be responsible for the repayment of the debt.

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Credit grantors may shorten, lengthen, or truncate account numbers when reporting to the credit bureaus.  These deviations may be the result of software incompatibility between the credit grantor and the credit bureaus.  For security reasons, creditors may also scramble account numbers.

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Most credit grantors report to the credit bureaus on a monthly basis.  Time requirements of creditors to prepare and transmit data to the credit bureaus vary.  Time requirements of credit bureaus to load the data into their computer systems vary.  The combined time requirements for creditors and credit bureaus may extend to several days, weeks, or months.

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You can contact Argus Search directly at 702-613-4931 to speak with a customer service agent who will be able to assist you.  Our business hours are Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 5:00 p.m., Pacific Time.  To place a dispute on the credit report Argus Search provided, you can also email us at support@argus-search.com; we recommend, however, that you fill out the form provided on our Feedback page.

NOTE:  Should there be a dispute, please submit the following information:

·         First name

·         Last name

·         Complete Address

·         Home Phone

·         Work Phone

·         Email Address

·         Social Security Number

·         Date of Birth

·         The Reference Number of the Credit Report

Our dispute procedure is as follows:

·         We will reinvestigate the disputed information free of charge.

·         Within 5 working days, we will contact Equifax or other person that provided the disputed information and notify them of your dispute.

·         In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the information provider is required to investigate and report the results to us by the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date that we received notice of your dispute.

·         If the reinvestigation finds that the disputed information is inaccurate or incomplete, the information provider must also report the results to all of the consumer reporting agencies to which it reported the information and that maintain files on consumers on a nationwide basis.

·         We will notify you of the results of our reinvestigation, by letter, within 5 business days of the completion of our investigation.

·         If you have additional information that you believe is relevant to our reinvestigation, please provide it to us any time during the reinvestigation process.  We will provide all such relevant information to the information provider.  If you provide us with such additional information prior to the time we have completed our reinvestigation, we may extend the period of reinvestigation for up to 15 business days.

·         If we cannot verify the disputed information within that time frame, the disputed information will be deleted from your credit report or updated as requested.

·         A revised credit report, reflecting the results of the investigation, will be sent to you at the conclusion of the investigation.

Please note that Argus Search, Inc. is a Reseller of credit information provided by Equifax (a Repository).  Argus does not maintain a database from which new credit reports are produced.  Rather, each time we prepare a new credit report, we order the information from Equifax.  Although Equifax is notified of modifications or deletions we make based on our reinvestigations either directly from the creditor or through us, you may wish to contact them directly yourself to confirm that the modifications and deletions are reflected in their files.  If not, subsequent credit reports they prepare on you may continue to contain the disputed information.

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Yes, if Argus Search has resolved all attempts in answering your questions.  The repositories can correct any inaccurate information that they may have in their permanent files. To dispute any inaccurate information with the repositories, you will need to contact them, as follows:

Attn:  Disputes

Equifax

P.O. Box 740256

Atlanta GA  30374

 

800-378-2732

www.equifax.com

 

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