"also known as" on credit report

[Anonymouse]

My equifax credit report contains two entries titled "also known as" with slight misspellings of my name. This terminology is usually associated with criminals, and I'm wondering if it's common for this to appear on credit reports?

[YYZFA]

There's nothing inherently negative about the term "also known as". Police often use the term because criminal suspects often have different aliases or street names, but it is a very neutral term.

You'll see it on credit reports if some creditors have a different version or spelling of your name on file than other creditors do. Only be concerned if there is a loan or line of credit on your report that should not be associated with you.

Also, if it does bother or concern you, then call up the creditors and have them correct the spelling of your name, and ask them to submit their corrections to the credit bureau.

[Jacklad]

My Equifax credit report lists *three* aka entries.

One is justified - I work under my maiden name (two names, one SIN, both names listed by CRA but never normally used together). The other two are variants of my maiden name - tried to get them removed, but with no luck so far (they weren't entered by any of my current creditors, and Equifax won't remove them).

My only concern is that the two misspellings are actual names (not my name, but close) which may increase the chances for cross-linked files or identity theft. On the other hand, they haven't affected my score or my ability to get credit, so it hasn't seemed worth aggressively pursuing.

The "aka" terminology isn't restricted to criminals - it shows up not only on my credit report, but in my will (for the sake of clarity) and as part of my security clearance (where it shows "aka"s for both my first and last names).

Jacqueline aka Jackie :cheesygri

[Anonymouse]

Thanks for the reassurances, both. I thought they were implying that I was falsifying my name on credit applications.