After that whole violating debit card incident, I decided to sign up for Privacy Assist Premier™ from Bank of America.  I fell for one of their “Following this call, a customer service representative would like to speak with you about protecting your identity” spiels and decided to sign up for their 90-day trial.  They send me my credit report once a quarter from all three reporting agencies, along with tips on how to improve my credit, what to clean up and who to contact. They also send me immediate notices when there’s been an addition or change to my credit report.  I figure for only twelve bucks a month after that, it’s worth it to me to know what’s going on.  Pretty sweet, actually.

So, I get my first booklet with my credit report and most of it looks how I expect, except that my credit score is slightly lower than I anticipated. Nothing catastrophic, but it’s not likely I’ll be pre-approved for an AmEx Black any time soon. I started scouring the report line-by-line and lo and behold… the fifth item listed is not mine.

Not mine to the tune of $9664.  And next to it, nestled among all my “paid in fulls” and “currents” I see UNPAID in fat block letters.  Gee, no wonder my score is lower than I expected.  The debt is for an apartment complex in Frisco Texas that I never lived in.  I did live in Frisco, Texas for a few years, but I lived in another complex, owned by a different company on a completely different street.  Oh, and I moved away in September 2003.  This debt is opened in December 2003 and continues to be outstanding.

  This irks me.  Here’s why:

When I moved away, I forwarded my mail from Frisco, Texas to my new address in San Diego… like you do.  I’ve moved 19+ times in my life, so I think I know a little bit about forwarding my mail.  I am certain I did it correctly.  But, once in San Diego, I started to receive mail for a woman with a very similar name to mine.  Her first name was only off from mine by one letter (I usually only use my first name in legal situations and go by my middle name) and our last names were the same. And we both lived or had lived in Frisco, Texas.  I found that really weird, considering Frisco was a pretty small suburb of Dallas, but not implausible.

First, it was bills and the occasional offer.  Then, it became what looked like collection notices.  Normally, I would write “return to sender” or “does not live here” and leave it for the postman, but I also called the relevant post offices and informed them of the issue.  But, one day I accidentally opened a piece of mail that belonged to her and it turned out to be a court summons for custody on some children (I assume hers). I thought it was important enough that it warranted a phone call.  So I called the number of the court in the letter, informing them that they had the wrong address and then I called the woman whose mail I was receiving.

Overall, my doppelgänger seemed pleasant enough. I told her I was getting mail and that after accidentally opening a piece, it looked to be really important, so I thought I should let her know in case she was missing any detrimental documents.  I gave her my number in case any of my mail showed up at her place, then she thanked me and assured me that she would take care of the misunderstanding with her creditors and legal people.  Slowly, but surely, over the last year or so, I’ve stopped receiving her mail.  It could be the fact that I’ve moved several times myself, but I was happy it had stopped.

Now, this thing with my credit report. I can’t help but think it might be this woman, what with all the bills and collection notices I received addressed to her.  I’m thankful there’s nothing else on my credit report linked to her.  I’ve contacted Bank of America and they’re sending me some dispute package thing that I need to fill out and submit to the reporting agencies so they’ll investigate it.  Hopefully, they’ll remove it.

Or I’ll have to fly to Frisco, Texas and get my rumble on.

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