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Posts Tagged ‘Legal Issues’

The concept of investigating credit reports is quite complex. It is done for many different reasons. Sometimes it is consumer fraud while other times it is because of identity theft.

It also could be a case where a consumer is just careless with money and has run up a “bunch” of credit card bills. It could be for any number of reasons or any combination of these reasons put together.

In any case, there is a variety of different ways that credit investigations are made. For instance, sometimes a credit report is checked. Usually this is done by way of social security number or birth date.

Other times other financial records such as bank accounts or credit cards are accessed. Of course, all of this is only done by the proper authorities who can be trusted to handle these investigations.

Investigative Concerns

Sometimes credit bureaus or other governing agencies investigate overextended consumers. However, they do not always do their own research. They sometimes hire detectives of different sorts who sift through personal records.

All of this is done in order to search for financial judgments, liens, or other “dirt” against a homeowner. If there is any negative action on a person’s record, the detective then reports this to a credit bureau.

This further puts a person in financial trouble in even more jeopardy. New information is placed on a person credit record that would prevent them from getting a mortgage, car loan, or job.

There have been legal battles in recent times as to whether or not it is lawful for credit bureaus and other financial agencies to hire these detectives. Lawsuits were even filed in various geographical locations such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

There are a variety of different methods and tools that are used to investigate credit. You can read about these in a future blog entry.