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I can't get my credit report from Equifax, and I can't sign up to Credit Karma for the same reason: When verifying my identity by asking about loans/mortgages, both places ask me about a mortgage I got in 2011, which is unanswerable -- I have no mortgage and never have had one. So I clicked 'None of the above' on all the questions about the mortgage, which was correct, since as I said already, I don't have a mortgage.

Also, very recently I applied for a credit card and was told I had no credit history, so even if my identity was stolen, how did the thieves manage to get a loan in my name??

Update: I've now emailed Credit Karma about this, and am awaiting a reply.

Edit: Since applying for the credit card, I have gotten a loan (co-signed) and have made payments on it for 5 months now, never being late. So it seems I should have at least a little bit of credit history by now.

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    Whenever I've seen such questions, they have a "None of the above" option, which is what you choose in such a case. Checking whether you know whether you have/had a mortgage or not is part of the verification.
    – BrenBarn
    Nov 26, 2015 at 4:57
  • @BrenBarn I did click 'None of the above' which was the correct answer. But apparently both Equifax and Credit Karma thought that was the wrong answer. My question is WHY did they think that was the wrong answer, and WHAT do I do now?
    – BenjiWiebe
    Nov 26, 2015 at 6:00
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    Okay, but that's not the question you asked in your post. You presumably need to contact Equifax and/or Credit Karma and discuss this with them.
    – BrenBarn
    Nov 26, 2015 at 6:08
  • Either that, or you've got a whopping big identity theft .... You didn't, perhaps, cosign for someone else's mortgage, did you?
    – keshlam
    Nov 26, 2015 at 6:19
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    Or it's one of the other questions they disagree about.
    – keshlam
    Nov 26, 2015 at 6:20

2 Answers 2

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Whenever a credit bureau has been unhappy with my answers to those questions when requesting a credit report online, they've always said something like, we can't give you a credit report online, you have to mail a paper form in, with certain pieces of identification. Does it say something like that for you? If so, you just have to do it the paper way, which is slower, but you will eventually get it.

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  • Yes, I think it did say to try the paper way. I guess I'll have to try that.
    – BenjiWiebe
    Nov 28, 2015 at 4:40
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The site tries to match the information you provided to the information they have in their database. When you have no credit history nothing should match.

When they do find a match they use the questions to make sure that the person on the keyboard is really the person they claim to be.

When they can't make a match they use the near misses to determine if they have incorrect data in their database. The near miss could be name (William vs Bill), partial social security number, or date of birth.

But because your credit history is either empty or very thin (you did apply for a credit card) it may be possible that their search will return no results or if they find anything it may only be the near misses.

Contact them to determine if they found nothing (good) or found bad data (a potential problem).

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  • Wouldn't having gotten a loan (co-signed) about 5 months ago cause my credit file to be find-able?
    – BenjiWiebe
    Nov 28, 2015 at 4:40
  • You have now added two key pieces of info after the initial question: the applying for the credit card which I addressed, and the co-signed loan with payment that you added after this answer.
    – mhoran_psprep
    Nov 28, 2015 at 12:45
  • Sorry, I'm not sure why I didn't think to add that at first.
    – BenjiWiebe
    Nov 28, 2015 at 17:31

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