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How to Request Your ChexSystems Consumer Report
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The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) give you the right to review your credit reports every twelve months. Most people are aware of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) but did you know that the rule applies to all consumer reporting agencies, which includes several other types of reporting systems.
One of those systems is ChexSystems. ChexSystems is a network of financial institutions that contribute “mishandled checking and savings account” information. This includes everything from how many checks you’ve ordered, if you’ve had any bounced checks, the number of financial institution inquiries, to instances of identity theft and fraud. Whereas your credit report discusses only loan-related items and your credit score focuses on the probability you’ll default on a loan, a ChexSystems report “fills in the blanks” on how you’d be as a customer of a bank.
You can request your ChexSystems Consumer Report here.
Request Your ChexSystems Report
The request process was very easy. In fact, it’s much easier than request a credit report because you don’t have to provide much information at all.
All you need to know is your name, address, Social Security Number, and the address of your residences in the last 5 years. After that quick form, you will get the report mailed to you in 5 business days. It would’ve been nice to be able to review the report online but they don’t offer that capability.
If you ordered it and are eager to see what types of information may be included in your ChexSystems Consumer Report, they offer a three-page sample ChexSystems consumer report you can download.
Now we wait five days.
{ 22 comments, please add your thoughts now! }Related Posts
 By Jim |
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New ways to rate us all the time. What will they think of next?
John DeFlumeri Jr
I ordered mine last year. It was really boring. It had my address on it and nothing else. I guess that was good news.
I should request mine, not sure what it will say but I don’t want to run in to problems opening a bank account later.
I knew about Chex Systems but not that you could obtain your own report. Thank you.
Nice and easy. 5 days till the truth.
Good information to have an accurate handle on. Thanks for the tip, Jim!
Seeing as we have been at our CU for the past 20+ years and quite happy with the service there, this is probably something I will not need in the immediate future. But good info to have, just in case.
is it for free?
Yes, it is free to order this report from ChexSystems once per year.
Coincidentally, I ordered my report last month. I had two checking accounts reported and a mention of a box of checks being ordered. One of the checking accounts reported was a credit union.
Not much information included in the report, but a nice precaution to check against fraud.
Thanks will try this out, I never knew about this.
You used to only be able to request your ChexSystems report if you had been denied opening a bank account (you had to specify the bank that denied you in your request for the report). Looks like they’ve got their heads on straight now and let you review it once a year BEFORE you apply – brilliant!
Thank the government! The same law that requires bureaus to share also applies to these guys.
Interesting. I’ve heard that if you open too many bank accounts in a short amount of time you may get rejected on your next application based on your ChexSystems report. I’m now curious what’s on mine. Thanks!
More info for free, what a bargain!
Got mine today…everything looks good.
Thanks!
About time I did this! It’s been on my list for a year or more. Ok done!
A problem I’ve had with a ChexSystems report is the section that says “Social Security Number Validation indicates the year and state that a particular sequence of digits first became
available for issuance by the Social Security Administration.” In my case, the year they said was before the year I was born. My understanding is that they only know when a range of numbers started being assigned and they don’t know dates for specific numbers in that range, so this doesn’t indicate a problem (maybe it would if it was reversed, with the person’s birthdate earlier than this date). But when I tried to open an account at WaMu, their computer flagged this as an error and wouldn’t open the account (they did eventually open it after I went to the Social Security office and got a printout stating the SSN belonged to me). Is this just a bug in WaMu’s system? Does anyone have more info on this?
I got my chexsystem report in Dec and found out that BofA had reported me for account abuse. After disputing it with the credit buearu, chexsystems, BofA and the collection company(which took less then 30 days) BofA took it from both my credit report and my chexsystem report
Hi,
I attempted to pay for an ER vet bill via check, as the Vet agreed to hold the check for me for 10 days per my request until I received my bonus but Chexsystems would not validate my check. I only write checks for church donations – for amounts greater than that check and never had one returned. Yet, this was my first non-donation check. So, I called to inquire why it was rejected and was told my check fell outside of their approval guidelines. After I insisted for a better answer, I finally was told since I had not written a check that went thru their system before they did not have any history on me and just declined it. She followed that up by saying now that they have history on me my checks will be reviewed based on that history. How is one to build a good history when the first check was declined and not for a good reason if you ask me? Fortunately, I had the money in the bank account and just paid with the Visa checkcard for the same account. Has anyone had a similar problem? Even still, how do you respond to such action?
So just the fact that they declined your first check was enough to give them a history on you, and it won’t be a problem in the future? That seems pretty silly, but maybe that answers your question.
I agree govenar. Talk about an oxymoron – “I declined your first check because I am not sure it is good but now I have a history for you.” It is interesting how they can build a history without knowing whether a check is good or bad. Another reason, when I’m dealing with commerce, I’m going to stick with my checkcard for all purchases over $4. At least, I’m “suppose” to have some protection against the ruthless merchants. I would do away with all check writng if it weren’t for the fact that fees are charged with credit/bank card purchases. Once I’m done with the batch of checks I have received free from the bank, I’m going to stick with cash, bank card, and online bill pay. Chexsystems have in essence lost a customer that they never had.