Q: I followed your advice and requested my free credit bureau report from Experian. I live at a Cleveland transitional housing building for veterans, some who need medical care. The credit report is showing my Lorain Avenue address as a business address, which it is not. It is where I sleep and get my mail.
It has not been a business address, even when I was first there in 2012. It is being perceived as a "high risk," as is my previous address at a veterans' Domiciliary in another part of Cleveland. These both are VA buildings that house hospital patients.
How do I correct this on my report? I have not pulled the reports from the other bureaus. I want to try to clear this up before I try to pull a credit score.
What steps do I need to take? Because it is a government address, will it make a difference on my report or score?
L.H., Cleveland
A: Good news and bad news. The good news is that this classification should have no impact on your credit score. Credit scores are based on five factors:
1. Whether you pay your bills on time.
2. How much debt you have.
3. The length of your credit history.
4. The number of inquiries for new credit.
5. The types of credit you have (credit cards, car loans, mortgages, etc.).
Nowhere on that list is where you live.
The bad news: It's highly unlikely you would be able to get the credit bureaus to reclassify this veterans' facility address as a residential address, even if it is the home for many. It's a government building.
Here's what you could do: You could ask the bureaus to add a statement to your file that your address is residential.
The "high risk" classification likely would come into play with an individual lender or creditor. If you were to apply for a credit card, for example, the company may want to do some digging about what that address is. They just want to make sure you actually live someplace where they can find you, and aren't giving an address for a restaurant or other business.
If it makes you feel better, when I used to live in a suburb that bordered Cleveland, the credit bureaus would flag my address because the ZIP code could apply to Cleveland or to my city. It was almost like the bureaus thought we were lying about which city we lived in. I learned to ignore it, and it never affected my ability to get a loan or credit card or insurance or anything else.
Q: I was issued an invitation Visa credit card, which was never activated. I was receiving information about it and periodically new cards, which got to be annoying after awhile. I was told to close it, which I did. Would this action affect my credit in any way since it was never activated in the first place?
J.K., North Olmsted
A: There's something here that doesn't make sense. You could get an invitation for a credit card -- be told you're pre-approved for a credit card. But you would still need to apply for it and accept it in order to actually have the account and the ability to use it.
If you were approved for an account and were sent a credit card for that account, then, even if you never activate the card or use the account, it still exists and it's still on your credit file.
In contrast, if you never applied for an account or agreed to open an account, it can't exist on your credit file.
Assuming you did open the account or accept the company's offer for the account, then it's absolutely your right to close it. Anytime you close a credit card, it hurts your credit score a bit. It never, ever helps. This is because you're reducing your available credit and potentially increasing your percentage of credit in use, even if you pay your balances in full every month. If you owe very little in relation to your credit limits, don't worry about the fact that you closed this card.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't close this card or any account you don't want. It might knock just a couple of points off your score. Or it could be 10 or 20 points or more if you don't have more than one other credit card or substantial debt.
If you don't want to deal with getting any more pre-screened offers for credit cards or insurance or other financial products, you can opt out of receiving them. You have two choices: You can opt out for five years, or for forever.
To opt out for five years: Call toll-free 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5-OPT-OUT) or go to www.optoutprescreen.com.
To opt out permanently: You can begin the process online and, after you fill out information, can print a form that you need to mail in to complete your request.
For more information, go to: