"Thin on Equifax" on a buyer named Ortega-Ruiz is not a thin file. It's a split file. Equifax has her as Ortega with four accounts and as Ruiz with two, and neither half scores.
Same thing happens with a maiden name, a Jr. and a Sr. at one address, and any name a clerk once typed without the accent.
The ninety-second check: look at the account count on each bureau. If one is under half the others and the buyer has a compound, changed or shared name, you have a merge problem, not a credit problem. A merge problem is fixable in thirty to sixty days. A decline is forever.
What the buyer sends: identification, the marriage or name-change record, and a letter to the short bureau citing Section 1681e(b) — the reasonable-procedures clause — asking it to merge the files and state what procedure created two. Tomás walked a real one in January; eleven months because nobody caught it at pre-qual. You can catch it in ninety seconds.
One rule: don't order the tri-merge until the merge is done. The vendor will pull the same split file and charge you to see it.
Send them here for the letters. Then re-pull in sixty days.
Sources
- Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b) — reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy
- Tomás Nadier — Two surnames, and a form with room for one
Every statutory citation in this article was checked against the source listed before publication. Nothing here is legal advice; if your situation has legal consequences, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.