How Reliable is the Chex System, Inc?

Chex Systems, Inc is considered the fourth Credit Bureau. We all know of Trans-union, Equifax and Experian. These three credit bureaus give you any and all information on your credit report of people that you may owe money such as loans, credit cards and utility bills. They also show you what your credit score is.

But, there is a fourth Credit Bureau that many people do not know of unless they were denied a bank account. This agency is known as the Chex System, Inc. This system is used basically by banks that verify information on any individual’s who have a history of mishandling of their deposit accounts. This system is implemented to help banks identify potential clients who have a history of mishandling accounts. These people are usually the people whose accounts have been overdrawn and then closed by their bank.

How accurate is the information they provide? Here is a true story. There is a 73 year old women who obviously some one stole her social security number. One Saturday morning she got a call from her bank that the Chex Systems, inc contacted them that she was being reported because they say she opened a Checking Account at Midwest Bank in Joliet, Il. The reason she was being reported was that her social security was used an whoever the person was going through the village of Elgin, Il an writing over $10,000 worth of bad paper.

First, problem I see here with the Chex System is why when the bank ran the social security did they not flag it because she already had a checking account.

Second, why did the bank not notice that the name on the identification did not match the name on the social security on the Chex System. Everyone knows that banks when they open an account for you ask you for identification.

Really there are two people here to blame. The bank for not noticing that name and social security did not match or the Chex system for allowing the account to be open and not flagging that there was another account open for her.

Which bring s me to my point of how accurate Chex System, Inc is. To me it sounds like any one can open a checking account with someone else’s identification.

Chex Systems, Inc has to find a better way to flag this because it just is not working. Innocent people are getting a bad reputation and have to be inconvenienced because of not honest people in the world. Now this poor 73 year old women has to go to Joliet to prove that she is who she is and the person who opened the account is not the owner of her social security number. The time and frustration involved here for a old women who can barely walk.

My suggestion to any one they do suggest that you check your credit report once a year i would suggest that you when you check the credit report also request a check on your Chex system report as well you never know when someone may go into your wallet or purse and take and write down your social security number and just sell it then you may have the same problem as this old women. Do not always rely on what the chex system tells you because obviously they do not match your name to anything that comes in to them.

Reference:

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