How to Dispute an Address on Your Credit Report

If an address you don’t recognize was added to your credit report, first verify that the address change is not legitimate by searching the address online or contacting your creditors to see why the change was made. If it’s not legitimate, you then need to dispute the change with the credit bureaus.

You should also file an identity theft complaint with the FTC and consider freezing your credit reports to prevent scammers from accessing your credit information. It’s a good idea to sign up for a WalletHub account to get free change-of-address alerts as well.

Below, we provide more details on the steps you need to take now to confirm what’s going on with the address on your credit report so you can set your credit record straight.

Verify It’s Not a Legitimate Address

It’s usually pretty easy to tell if you have a connection to a given address, but there are some situations where a legitimate address change could understandably be construed as fraudulent when you first see it.

You might not recognize a legitimate address if:

• You co-signed a loan or credit card for a friend or relative who ended up moving, and that person’s new address was added to your credit report.
• You are an authorized user on a credit card account, and the primary cardholder’s address is listed on your credit report.

If the address you see fits one of these scenarios, then it is legitimate and cannot be removed from your credit report. However, if you see an old address you are no longer associated with, you can try disputing it with the credit bureau to have it removed.

If the address is completely unfamiliar to you, you may be looking at a case of identity theft. The following steps can help you investigate further and figure out what to do.

Review Your Credit Reports

Reviewing your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus regularly can help you catch any potentially suspicious changes early. You already have your TransUnion credit report from WalletHub, and while Experian and Equifax credit reports contain largely the same information, there are some differences in terms of their data sources and the financial institutions that use them. You can access your credit reports directly from those bureaus or through AnnualCreditReport.com.

Seeing how a suspicious address change is listed on your other reports may provide additional context about whether it’s fraudulent or legitimate. This will also give you a chance to review the other addresses listed on each of your reports to make sure they’re accurate, which is extremely important given the growing sophistication of identity theft tactics.

"People always overlook this," says Carrie Kerskie, an identity theft specialist and president of Kerskie Group LLC. "Creditors know identity thieves will use different addresses than the victim, so the creditors will no longer issue credit to an address that’s not associated with the credit report. So the criminals are now tying fraudulent addresses to the credit report months before they even apply for the credit."

Contact the Issuers of All Your Open Accounts

It can be hard to tell which of your open credit card and loan accounts the new address is associated with just from looking at your credit report. Just to be safe, it’s a good idea to contact all the issuers of your open accounts to make sure they have the right address for you.

This is critical to ensuring that you, and not an unauthorized third party, receive important correspondence related to your account. Even if you haven’t used a given account in a while, there’s still a chance it could be abused if it’s still active.

File an Identity Theft Complaint With the FTC

If you determine the address change was not authorized, you are probably dealing with a case of identity theft. You can file a formal identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission through its online complaint form.

Once you have submitted your complaint, the FTC will generate an Identity Theft Affidavit. If you don’t set up an account with the FTC, it is very important that you save and print this document, as it can only be viewed once through the online system. The FTC Identity Theft Affidavit is a critical supporting document for investigations into suspected identity theft.

File a Report With Your Local Police Department

Bring a copy of your FTC Identity Theft Affidavit to your local police department, along with a government-issued ID, proof of your address (e.g., a mortgage or utility bill), and any additional documentation you have concerning the unrecognized address. This will enable you to file an official police report, which, together with your FTC affidavit, will comprise your Identity Theft Report.

People are often hesitant to report a seemingly minor sign of identity theft to the police, but it’s important to remember that taking this step — which may be as simple as filling out and submitting a form at the station — is more of a procedural milestone than the beginning of an active investigation by law enforcement.

Dispute the Unauthorized Address With the Respective Credit Bureau(s)

While you can certainly dispute an unauthorized address earlier in the process, first obtaining your FTC affidavit and police report may help the investigation proceed more efficiently. For each credit report on which you find an inaccurate address, you can file a dispute with the credit bureau online, by mail, or by phone.

The credit bureau will then send the creditor with the inaccurate information a request for verification. "Generally within 30 days, the source must verify your account data," said Michael Bruemmer, head of global data breach resolution at Experian.

How to File a Dispute With the Credit Bureaus

Learn more about filing credit report disputes.

Place a Security Freeze (and Fraud Alert) on All Three Reports

A security freeze completely prevents most parties from viewing your credit report, though exceptions do exist, such as for the government, existing creditors, collection agencies, creditors who prescreen you for offers, and yourself. You must contact TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax individually to put a freeze on each report, but freezing and unfreezing your reports is free for everyone.

"It is the best, cheapest, and most effective thing that someone can do," said Steven J. Weisman, a senior lecturer of law, taxation, and financial planning at Bentley University and author of numerous books about identity theft.

Another thing you’ll want to do is ask TransUnion to put a fraud alert on your credit report. TransUnion will be legally required to notify the other two major bureaus, and you will receive a confirmation letter from each one after the alert has been added to your file. It will remain in place for one year, even if you lift the security freeze on a report, warning potential creditors that you might be a victim of identity theft.

Update Account Passwords & PINs

In order to limit a case of suspected identity theft to an unauthorized change of address and prevent further intrusion into your financial life, run antivirus software on your computer, then update all passwords and account PINs associated with your open credit cards and loans.

Making sure your computer is well protected may help patch up a vulnerability that allowed your personal information to be obtained in the first place. Updating account security thereafter helps prevent further incursions and allows you to update account preferences (e.g., paperless statements) for more controlled visibility of account activity.

Sign Up for a WalletHub Account

WalletHub offers basic credit monitoring and identity theft protection with a free account. That means you can get change-of-address alerts, password monitoring, Social Security number trace alerts, and notifications about suspicious activity on your credit report. You can also get access to your credit report and score, which are updated daily.

With a premium account, you can do things like lock and unlock your TransUnion credit report from your WalletHub account, get USPS address monitoring, and have access to identity theft insurance and identity theft restoration services.

Change-of-Address Scams

One of the most popular scams among identity thieves is to gather enough information about a person to complete a change-of-address form, either electronically through the U.S. Postal Service website or in person at a local post office. This allows scammers to gain access to any of your credit information that may come in the mail and use that information to change the address on file with your creditors, adding the new address to your credit report.

Similarly, if fraudsters are able to gain online access to one of your credit card accounts, they may be able to divert monthly statements to an address of their choosing by updating your listed contact information. The purpose of doing so is to prevent you from noticing that charges are being racked up in your name until well after the damage has been done.

Final Thoughts 

Hopefully, these steps will result in the removal of any inaccurate addresses on your credit reports and enable you to handle any related identity theft. Keep in mind, however, that depending on how the unauthorized address change happened, you may also need to get in touch with organizations such as the U.S. Postal Service, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, or your state’s department of motor vehicles in order to clean up collateral damage and prevent future fraud.

Furthermore, there are a few additional identity theft prevention steps that you may want to take, just to be safe, given that address changes can be a precursor to other types of fraud.