Credit monitoring service reported address change - should I be worried?

February 20, 2024 6:22 AM

I signed up for a free credit monitoring service through Experian a few years ago after some of my data was exposed in a breach somewhere or other. Today I received an alert notifying me of an address change, and I'm not sure if I should be worried/take action.

Salient facts:

• The "new address" is an address that I used to live at, but not for more than a decade.
• The "old address" is my mailing address in the US (I live in Canada now but still have US bank accounts, etc, so I need to keep a US address on file).
• In the notification, the "source" is listed as "Equifax".

The last thing has me a bit puzzled. The credit monitoring service is through Experian. Does this mean that Equifax decided my address changed for some reason and then notified Experian about it?

I don't have any accounts anywhere that would list this address, no consumer debt or anything like that, so I have no idea why anybody would decide this address is current. But this definitely isn't random since it's an address that I actually did live at.

I guess my question is, do I need to take any action here? Is this a sign that somebody's in the process of stealing my identity?

posted by number9dream to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Probably worth the fifteen minutes to call both Experian and Equifax and tell them that the data is obsolete. While you're on the line, have them lock down the account, and do any other tightening-up that you can.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:29 AM on February 20, 2024 [6 favorites]

I would probably start by specifically getting and looking at the equifax report. You should be able to get all three for free once a year, and they may not be identical.

Are you sure that this isn't just equifax pulling in an old address *as an old address*? Your report will have multiple old addresses. This may be more apparent on the equifax report (and then maybe experian made a mistake).

Is there any old debt that could be associated with this previous address that could have changed state? (E.g. it got sold.)
posted by advil at 10:00 AM on February 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Are you sure that this isn't just equifax pulling in an old address *as an old address*?

It was definitely them using an old address as my current address. I couldn't see whether this address was new to them, but I lived there for six years, so I would be pretty surprised if they didn't have it on file previously. I don't have any outstanding debt and haven't moved recently, so I really have no idea why this would have changed just now.

I called Experian and disputed the change of address, then figured out how to initiate the dispute online at Equifax. It wasn't too hard. Then I pulled my report from TransUnion and it turned out that they had a different old address listed as current, so I disputed that as well.

The Experian employee I talked to said that it wasn't especially worrisome since there was no credit inquiry associated with the address change, so I didn't have them freeze the account. He also said that these reports are often full of mistakes and this isn't necessarily unusual. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but I appreciated the honesty.
posted by number9dream at 10:27 AM on February 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

As a matter of basic financial/credit hygiene, I'd recommend freezing your credit reports anyway. It's free to do, and it's generally fairly easy to unfreeze them temporarily when you are applying for something that needs to pull a credit report. Just mention the freeze and ask them what agency they pull reports from so you don't have to do it with all three. Dealing with the minor speedbump is worth the peace of mind, in my opinion.
posted by Aleyn at 1:05 PM on February 21, 2024