Credit Bureau Name Changes

[Michelle Lawson]

As we navigate the myriad issues surrounding getting our name changed, one area concerns getting your name changed with the three credit bureaus in the US. Those credit bureaus are; Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. With this in mind, I decided to do a bit of research. And that yielded the following three web links below. Please feel free to read through these and comment with any additional info you come up with. Thanks, Michelle

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-transgender-people-can-change-their-name-on-experian-credit-report/

https://www.equifax.com/personal/education/credit/report/change-update-name-credit-report/

https://www.transunion.com/blog/credit-advice/transgender-name-change-credit-report

[Brielle]

Thanks and good timing, Michelle! I’m going to be changing my ID the latter part of this year. I’m going to find out all I can at Keystone, but there are always things that pop up I don’t think of like this.

I also want to mention something a few of us may have – oil or gas leases, or rental property. The name change has to find its way on every piece of legal paperwork. And there are so many!! I’m going to make a spreadsheet with contacts, what is needed, when, etc. so I can catch it all.

Hugs,

Brie

[DeeAnn Hopings]

That is exactly why I decided against changing my name legally. It runs through so many things:

• birth certificate
• driver’s license
• bank accounts
• credit cards
• car title
• home ownership
• engineering license
• medical and dental records
• online store accounts
• Social Security
• pensions
• public school and university records
• will
• voting information

And those are just the ones that occurred to me while I was writing. All you need is for something to get hung up because a name somewhere didn’t get changed. At 73, given the effort and constant checking, I didn’t see an upside…

[Michelle Lawson]

DeeAnn, lol, i have done all but two; will & birth certificate. I just did things in the right order, slowly and methodically, and had no issues. I made a list, including all of the contact info and the required paperwork. Then, as I contacted each of them I made sure to record how, and when, I did, and what the outcome was. It worked well. Michelle

[DeeAnn Hopings]

It just isn’t a priority for me…

[Lauren Mugnaia]

My own situation is a bit different and I will have to find out what to do by asking the appropriate people. My birth certificate from the state of California has my first name as Lauren. My family moved to Canada when I was 13, I never worked in the states so I don’t have a social security number. When I was in school here in Canada, because they kept placing me in Girl’s PE and home rooms, I went to the school office and asked them to do a simple spelling change of my first name – from Lauren to Lorne. My immigration and citizenship papers have my name as Lauren, there was never any legal name change so my name is legally Lauren. My Canadian Social Insurance Number has my name as Lorne and all my banking info says Lorne, but it isn’t legally my first name.

Hugs girls,

Ms. Lauren M

[Michelle Lawson]

Wow Lauren, that is gonna be a tough one. I’m not sure where to even begin to wrap my head around that. I guess I’d start by contacting the places that list Lorne and just explain the situation, and see what their process is for getting it changed to Lauren. I would also contact the National Center for Transgender Equality (https://transequality.org/) and see if they have any suggestions. Maybe they know of a Canadian counterpart they could suggest. Please keep us posted in case there is something we might be able to help with. Hugs, Michelle

[Dana Munson]

Oh, my word, Lauren!  That’s an amazing tale of dual ID’s. Not being Canadian, I am left to wonder how you could get official citizenship papers as “Lauren,” and yet get a Social Insurance card as “Lorne.”  And here I thought the U.S. government sometimes had difficulties with “left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.”  I am currently going through this whole changing names business (most important boxes are all checked, thankfully). Updated my voter registration as part of the process of getting a new (Real ID) driver’s license as Dana – “2 birds with one stone,” literally.  Also, changing my name with Social Security automatically changed it with Medicare.  Still, there’s a bunch of places that still need to officially meet “Dana.” So I really do appreciate Michelle’s posting the credit bureau info.

[missyjo]

don’t forget it should be changed in other people’s papers too, as in your friend wants to leave you money, 10 years ago they included you as Fred Barnes, bur you’ve changed your name to Susanne Smith, now what? just a thought. good luck  girls

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