by Yesterday, Janna was shocked and horrified to learn CBCInnovis and “Fair Issac” think she is deceased!
Just who — or what! — is this Fair Isaac person or thing/monstrosity-upon-humanity and how did he/it become so un-aptly named and hooked up with CBCInnovis?
The great Debix Identity Theft Protection Service could not save us from the lie of Janna’s premature death!
Janna, I assure you, is alive and well and glowering at me from across the room as I write this in seeking your help and experienced insight.
It seems our bank uses a wacky, third-party — non-“Big Three” — credit reporting agency mysteriously called “CBCInnovis” and they use a “Fair Isaac” score to determine credit worthiness and, unfortunately, if that Big Ugly CBCInnovis un-Fair Isaac thinks you’re dead, you aren’t going to qualify for any loans.
We feel like having CBCInnovis and Fair Isaac in your credit life is like having your doctor hand you a vial of poison and imploring you to drink it to feel better.
Now the process becomes one of proving to CBCInnovis and Fair Isaac that Janna is un-dead.
How does one indicate the obvious to a faceless — but not nameless! — data system that thinks otherwise?
CBCInnovis won’t let you talk to a live person to get the problem fixed.
CBCInnovis won’t let you go online and dispute the exaggerated reports of your death.
You, as one of the premier “CBCInnovis Fair Isaac Dead,” have to write a letter and demand, under the federal Fair Credit and Lending Act, that you are not really actually dead and that the record be corrected in your favor to reflect your really true living status. Riiiiiiiiight.
How does a mess like this happen?
Have you ever had to prove you are something others officially claim you are not… like being not deceased?
You know this “proof of life” process is going to go on and on and on and on and no loans will be forthcoming any time soon.
That is disappointing news and it makes you want to hunt down CBCInnovis and “Fair Isaac” and teach them a thing or three about the power of justice living well and doing hard time in clenched fists and then vigorously meeting doubting, pointy, chins that are more interested in funerals and graves than in giving the living a helping hand up.
I once was told at a copy shop that I couldn’t copy something because it was copyright covered material – and only Gordon Davidescu could copy it. Ah, I said, but that’s me. I had to produce a driver’s license to copy my own stuff. 🙂
What is the name of that copy shop, Gordon?!!! I love it that they’re enforcing your Copyright, which, in the end, only serves to protect you and make you better!
Now, if they’d said, “But Gordon is Dead” after you showed them your driver license, then I’d begin to feel for you. SMILE!
Kinko’s, believe it or not! I wonder if Janna now knows how Mark Twain felt.
Love that Kinkos! They’re dead now, right? Replaced by “The UPS Store?”
Janna is feeling very alive right now — raging with anger and disappointment — and she’s handling it so much better than I would be right now! It is truly the height of ridiculousness.
The only proof of death is a signed death certificate by a physician. Or public record of the death.
Where are they getting the information?
Is there another “Janna” with same last name that was accidentally linked to her record?
I’ve heard that people steal the identities of dead people, but in this case Janna is not dead and they wouldn’t be able to secure a loan or credit based on the credit report, so why steal the identity. Unless there is something I’m missing here.
I’ve heard of people having to prove that a family member is dead, but I’ve never heard of having to prove that you’re not dead.
Crazy! Please let us know how she does. Maybe Clark Howard can help.
Hi Donna!
It looks like one of Janna’s old creditors reported her as “deceased” to clear up an error on their end instead of rightfully deleting their bad bookkeeping of having duplicate entries for the exact same account. At least that’s what it looks like to me at first glance now when we first noticed the duplicate entry over a year ago and demanded it be fixed. I know it was fixed somewhere because the Big Three have the correct information — but I have no idea why CBCInnovis never got the update.
It’s pretty terrible that one company can just decide to list you as “deceased” on a credit report and then have other agencies believe it as the absolute truth without somehow double-checking that lie against the truth of the other active accounts! What a tar pit!
Who is Clark Howard?
Clark Howard is a consumer advocate. I listen to his radio show every so often here in North Carolina. He is syndicated and can be heard throughout the U.S.
He has a call-in format and lots of the questions deal with consumer rip-off, identity theft, and credit report issues. He also knows a lot about the travel industry and how to get deals there.
Link is http://www.clarkhoward.com
P.S. David– That’s very troubling that this company would do that to make things easier for themselves creating serious credit issues for you and your wife.
I have such mixed feelings about these credit report companies.
I’d like to freeze all of mine so criminals could never take out credit in my name.
I think we should have better access to all of our credit reports (24/7 access) and be able to freeze them when we want to and open them back up when we need credit or a loan. It’s too much of an open system for everyone else but the consumer.
And why do we have to have all these credit reporting companies? How can we possibly keep up with them all? It’s hard enough to keep up with the big three.
Never heard of Fair Isaac or CBCInnovis!!
David!
this seems like one of those “so ridiculous it’s sublime” moments! i’m happy to report that i haven’t had an experience like this. yet!
Thanks for the pointer to Clark Howard, Donna!
Thanks for the P.S., Donna. I agree! There’s something untoward and sloppy going on here and we’re paying the price! We are being unfairly delayed and punished.
We have Debix protection. I wrote an article about it here. But Debix is only for fraud protection and identity theft — it doesn’t protect you from false reports of your demise!
I agree our credit system is horribly broken. Much of the information in credit reports is out-of-date by many years. Few people know what false information sits rotting away their FICO score every single day. It’s a bit depressing!
You are a lucky man, Dananjay! I understand having to fight a bad credit report that may be inaccurate or out of date — but to falsely KILL someone is to completely destroy any good that has been done to credit and care for a good report.
I so feel for Janna – what an incredibly frustrating and annoying experience.
Thanks, Nicola! We’re fully expecting to hear back from CBCInnovis in a few weeks telling us it wasn’t their fault and that we have to go there and then there and then over yonder to try to set this right again. it will take forever.