Are all names listed on your credit report under Cross References valid to use when applying?

The credit bureaus don't work that hard.
Whatever you on file with your credit issuer is what gets reported to them. They just list the names on your report and any variations. They don't do any manual work to try to combine or match them. They just match on the other obvious info that has to match (SIN, Birthday) to ensure it all goes into 1 profile, they'll keep adding names as long as you keep changing them.

So won't matter no. Adding additional names would only make things worse actually.

Due to he fact since you have multiple names on there, it would likely break automatic approval for many issuers, would require human verification. Though that's something that would take you a long time to fix anyways, you'd need to send TU/EQ ID and ask them to remove your previous/alternate names, and that would likely take 6+ months minimum. They'll ask for the usual 2 pieces of ID, so you don't need more than that. (one main with photo like passport or DL + government secondary)

Eleventeen wrote: ↑ They don't do any manual work to try to combine or match them. They just match on the other obvious info that has to match (SIN, Birthday) to ensure it all goes into 1 profile, they'll keep adding names as long as you keep changing them.

But I was wondering if it would verify from the other end - from the credit issuer. I'm not as worried about TU having extra info or matching it for me, but I was really wondering if when I apply to like a new card, are they not checking for one of these previously reported names?

Eleventeen wrote: ↑ Due to he fact since you have multiple names on there, it would likely break automatic approval for many issuers, would require human verification.

I should be clear they are all basically screw ups of iterations of my current name...Like one has no first name and half of my middle name, half for God knows why. It just kind of gave me the idea to fasttrack some things this way. In this case though, I plan on changing my name so it won't be pieces of the same name. So they don't automatically compare to the names on file? That sounds odd. That's why I thought I'd get them to add it...and while they're at it remove the broken duplicates. I guess I'm just trying to determine is if when doing the credit check for a card do the alias' count? Can I use any other name or piece of name in that list for example?

Eleventeen wrote: ↑ that would likely take 6+ months minimum.

Whoa! Usually add/amend usually only takes about 8 weeks, is it because it's the name specifically?

Thanks.

CouponBaron wrote: ↑ I should be clear they are all basically screw ups of iterations of my current name...Like one has no first name and half of my middle name, half for God knows why. It just kind of gave me the idea to fasttrack some things this way. In this case though, I plan on changing my name so it won't be pieces of the same name. So they don't automatically compare to the names on file? That sounds odd. That's why I thought I'd get them to add it...and while they're at it remove the broken duplicates. I guess I'm just trying to determine is if when doing the credit check for a card do the alias' count?

Should be all fine then. First few years I got cards, I just used my initials, no issues and eventually after I just used my legal name, the initials just fell of the report without any ask from me (took years though). And later I saw some variations with/without my middle name, I still got auto approved for stuff. A few banks demand to put my middle name on the card, all the rest I don't have it, doesn't really matter to the credit bureaus.

They aren't picky about your details, just they have to match enough to have a very positive identify verification. So if the names a bit off, but SIN, birthdate and address match, 99% all fine, maybe they-ll need to talk to you to verify at the most. If just Sin and birthday match, but address and name are off, they might ask for address verification. Ultimately the credit issuers want business, they don't do so much work to make it that hard when it's just a minor name issue. The bureau itself provides nothing more then information they receive, they do basically no work to match or aid issuers on this stuff, thus why you get all kinds of variations on the report.

There's just not so much effort and communication done as one would assume. Ultimately they are actually relatively small companies and simply don't have the manpower to fine-comb every single person who ever applies for credits profile. They do stuff like that purely on request, and they actually charge the all the banks quite a bit of money for any requests, thus the banks try to limit how much they ask to a minimum. The big 5 even keep their own records and rarely even look into the bureaus if they can avoid it to save money.

Timeframe:
I say that more because when I had to get stuff changed that required ID, they demanded snail mail, no option to do it online, and canada post is pretty slow these days. But I noticed they are getting better about doing things online lately, so yea if they let you send in the ID online, might be fast enough. But yea, covid, everything's slow.

Thank you @Eleventeen , very helpful!

CouponBaron wrote: ↑ But I was wondering if it would verify from the other end - from the credit issuer. I'm not as worried about TU having extra info or matching it for me, but I was really wondering if when I apply to like a new card, are they not checking for one of these previously reported names?

I should be clear they are all basically screw ups of iterations of my current name...Like one has no first name and half of my middle name, half for God knows why. It just kind of gave me the idea to fasttrack some things this way. In this case though, I plan on changing my name so it won't be pieces of the same name. So they don't automatically compare to the names on file? That sounds odd. That's why I thought I'd get them to add it...and while they're at it remove the broken duplicates. I guess I'm just trying to determine is if when doing the credit check for a card do the alias' count? Can I use any other name or piece of name in that list for example?

Whoa! Usually add/amend usually only takes about 8 weeks, is it because it's the name specifically?

Thanks.

Search for one of my older posts where I stated ones credit bureau file consists of two may core categories called identifiers and qualifiers.
Your name is variable identifier because people can short form them when applying for credit. There are a dozen other identifiers used to match you other than name

It shouldn't take 6 months, your best bet is with the online dispute for TransUnion and via fax for Equifax.

Eitherway, when I've used fax for both credit bureaus I usually get things cleaned up within a week.

Just know that in my experience Equifax is much harder to work with than TransUnion...

my very first service I ordered was a Cell phone when I was of legal age, the provider spelled my last name WRONG at the time of activation which i managed to fix months later, this was like a good 25++ years now, and to this date I still see the wrong spelling on my trans union credit report in the "other names" section. not sure if it will ever drop off, oh well.

mikeymike1 wrote: ↑ Search for one of my older posts where I stated ones credit bureau file consists of two may core categories called identifiers and qualifiers.
Your name is variable identifier because people can short form them when applying for credit. There are a dozen other identifiers used to match you other than name

I assume it's this one :

mikeymike1 wrote: ↑ Your credit bureau file comprises of two main core groups called identifiers and qualifiers. It's the IQ of your credit file.
All identifiers are ranked and gauged for importance. Some identifiers are variable and some are static. For instance your SIN number is the highest ranked identifier because it is static and never changes and/or subject to change while your address is variable and ranked fairly low.
Your date of birth is also static and ranked high (but lower scaled than SIN because multiple people can have same 8 digits) while your own personal name is variable and ranked in the middle.
Most people these days don't apply for credit with their SIN number so majority of the data points you enter into an application will be variable.
With this said the systems matching has to do extra work to find you.
It becomes harder when people short form their birth names and/or adopt names they were not born with (a habit well known by Asians and Indians etc.)
When you get a hard copy of your credit file from either one of the entities pay close attention to any recorded aliases. Stop using those if any show up.
Only other solution is to add your SIN when you next apply for a credit product. That should match you up immediately

Something else I should add, over a decade ago the majority of all FI's stopped using open fields for DOB and switched to pulldowns because open fields created a lot of mis-matching issues.
If you see an app with open fields pay close attention to how you fill it out.