Living With Brian Cassin – CEO, Experian

I have to change my address again. I don’t like where Bank of America has moved me to so I am going to move to 475 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. I hear that they have really nice digs there.

Following my discovery of  an issue with a link on the Equifax website I decided to return to what I set out to do in the first place - get my mailing address corrected on my Experian credit report. How hard could that be?

This is where the unholy collusion of creditors and credit reporting agencies makes a blatantly unabashed public appearance. The answer to “how hard could it be?” is “it is surprisingly hard.”

Any creditor can report a change to your mailing address, your gender, your age, your marital status, etc., and Experian will change it and you cannot contest it. Your creditor has to change the information for you. If your creditor will not (or cannot) change it then you are "attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis."

In this case Bank of America has explicitly told me that they have no idea where the incorrect information is in their systems. The address is correct in my online profile, just not in the system that reports to Experian.

Nobody knows how many millions of Americans have incorrect personal information on their credit reports. Experian has no idea because there is no data validation. Consumers do not know because changes are made secretly, and even when they are discovered, there is no recourse.

Even with free annual credit reports, falsified information can easily persist for months on end unless a person pays the ransom to see their credit reports more frequently. Changes to personal information should be proactively reported to the consumer. Equifax proactively tipped me off to the Experian issue.

At Experian incorrect financial reporting can be contested. Correct financial reporting can be contested. Incorrect personal information is off limits. Just one more slip of the keyboard at Bank of America and I will be a 21 year old, Native American woman, living in Finland and married to Brian Cassin. Granted that is an unlikely scenario since Finland is too cold for me.

I asked Experian “If Bank of America reports my address as being the address of Experian’s corporate headquarters, will you change it to that?” The response was “Yes, if that is what a creditor reports then that is what will be on your credit report.” Unlike Experian, changing my address online at Bank of America is simple! I think this will be the start of a beautiful friendship. I am moving in with Brian Cassin at the posh Experian headquarters.

 I know where I will live; you only think you know where you live.

Please send your best wishes to me on my move to the Experian headquarters by post at:

Randy Abrams
C/O Brian Cassin CEO
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Randy Abrams
Independent Security Analyst just trying to find his home.