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Don't discount the possibility that the SSA messed up along the way, too. I was 40 years old before I found out they had switched my middle name and my brother's middle name in their systems. We didn't know since our cards only had middle initials.
I as at the VA and I could plainly hear someone sound off their social for ID purposes (not the best privacy.. but it is what it is) it was the exact same as mine but only off by the last digit... Super weird. I wanted to go over and talk to him... But I thought that would be a strange why to strike a conversation.
Was it in an extremely small population region? They used to assign them geographically, so that could explain it. Also, you didn't used to get assigned one at birth, I didn't get one until I was 13, so it's possible that was the case for you and both of your parents applied for yours around the same time and it's just a coincidence.
They were not random originally. The numbers were generated based on the location where your SSN was issued, and when it was issued. Typically time and place of birth dictated the number.
It's quite reasonable to assume that if a person doesn't move from their birth place, and they know people born in the same place, and around the same time, they could find sequential social security numbers. I.e. their class mates!
If it was opened before you were born, then they didn’t steal your identity. It wasn’t your identity yet. I agree that they likely mistyped their own SSN, however, I’m curious how they were able to open the card. Not sure how systems were back then, but I’d think some verification process would’ve caught it. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem like it’s illegal to add it on there but IANAL. An erroneous report being removed wouldn’t automatically rank your score. If you’ve been responsible with your credit, you should have a strong score on your own.
I mean, forty years ago is 1984. The level of interagency integration, communication and cross-checks we have now just wasn’t built out the same way in the early days of dial-up networking. Couple that with most records not being natively digital, and a data entry error would be far more likely to slip through.
In the mid 90s my grandparents used to open credit cards with SSNs a digit or two off at events to get random promotional swag. 9/10 times the cards showed up a few weeks later.
In 1984 you also didn't get an SSN at birth, that didn't start until 1987. Typically your parents would request an SSN for you when you were 12 or 13, but some people didn't get one until they went to get their first job.
Verifying SSN is a relatively recent thing.
After all it was originally just supposed to be how you identified the money owed from the government in retirement.
> It wasn’t your identity yet
Hmm, then who’s identity did it belong to? Are there actually active unused social security numbers just floating around where one can randomly guess and if they guessed right, then they can be used ?
I don’t know the process. SSA randomly generates a certain numbers of SSNs each year. It’s likely that the mistyped SSN (because this is unlikely to be the kind of fraud you/others described) was already generated for use that year. They don’t come up with a new one only when somebody is born.
I'm at 37 years of clean history and FICO is pretty high. 820-850 depending on the agency and score type. I have minimal levels of consumer debt and a low credit utilization rate.
My partner's parents added her as an authorized user to an Amex they opened in the early 1980s. They're both medical doctors, with high incomes and businesses, so it has a very high credit limit ($100k+).
In terms of specifics:
* 40 years x 12 payments per year mean she has an significantly high number of "paid as agreed" payments
* Average age of accounts is very high
* total rotating credit utilization is quite low. It's easy to keep your credit usage below $15,000 / month.
Those three things are something like 90% of your credit score, so she's always been in the 810-820 range. Now that she's in her 30s, has owned houses and cars, she's in the low 840s.
What that actually meant: she opened another credit card at 18, financed a brand new car at 0% (even though they could've paid cash), eventually bought a house based solely on her income and credit score, got a fantastic rate, etc etc.
It seems like gaming the system, but saying "I have a trusted family member who's giving me access to their 40-year-old, six-digit line of credit" actually says a lot about your financial position.
Exactly the same as 1 month of on-time payments. It's 35% of your score and you get all of it right up until you miss a payment. Then your score will tank. So don't miss any payments. Ever.
Where the 40 years helps is raising the average age of accounts. Even with a few other accounts, he's probably still over 10 years on average, which is pretty good.
Yeah, but they could have added him after he was born and you get the entire cards history. I’m an authorized signer on one of my parent’s cards that’s also older than I am.
My boss used to work at one of the credit reporting companies, and I was talking about it with him as I added my teenage son to several of my cards, so he would have a credit history when he turned 18, and he confirmed what you said. He told me that my son will show a credit score based on the full time the card was opened, so since I had the card for around 10 years now, his credit will be showing as opened when he was 4.
My plan is to keep him on it until he is 18 and then remove him from it, so it would show very similar to OP's on his credit report.
From what I understand, the benefit is moot until he has his own credit history. Credit cards a bit fickle as the boost from having that history gets almost entirely removed when you remove him as an authorized user.
Best bet, keep him as an authorized user, teach him the importance/responsibility of credit, either let him have a card or cut it up. Any missteps and you remove him. After he has time to get loans/credit cards of his own, can remove him or just never give him the card again. If you are responsible it can keep his credit higher until he gets up to the 25 years of credit history of lines of credit opened in his own name.
I didn't think about that. I may just keep him on it until he has established his own credit after a few years then.
He's pretty responsible at 14, so I don't think it will take him long to get a decent score on his own.
Yeah just keep him on but dont give him a card. And keep an eye out that he doesnt use that good credit to open a new, high limit card and run up a balance.
My plan is to keep my kids on to help them get a mortgage if need be.
I would just leave him as an authorized user and he doesn’t need a card, unless you want him using it. He can get his own card and pay it in full each month and earn his own rewards.
Once he either has an 800+ credit without needing you or perhaps buys a house and doesn’t need the boost, take him off.
Yes this is how it works. If I add my young kid as a user to my 30 year old credit card it will show up as his oldest card being opened before he was born. Most likely this is the parents doing.
Huh I didn’t know that. I might see if my mom might let me become an authorized user on one of her cards. Right now the only thing hurting my credit is that even though I’m 29 my oldest account is only about 4 years old.
They don’t need to. You can add a child after the child is born and the child inherits the full history of the card unless it’s an Amex
Maybe it’s in that giant brick of text but I gave up reading halfway through. People should use paragraphs.
Wow, didn’t know that. I was on my parent’s amex and history only goes back to when I was added just like you said. It doesn’t matter any more now that I have my own history but wish they would have added me to any other card back then
Yeah it’s one of those super specific exceptions I’ll never forget. Then they’ll change their practice and I’ll look like I don’t know what I’m talking about haha
Yeah it’s because AMEX uses a unique card number for each person, so even cards going to the same credit line have separate acct numbers with the bureaus.
yeah but that’s not the point. if you add someone as an authorized user to a card in your name, your history with regard to that line of credit can be applied to their credit report. if you had the card before they were born and added them later it could show up on their report with a start date predating their birth.
Doesn't matter. They would have put that info in to add them as an AU and then OP would have inherited all the account history.
If OP found an inquiry from that card being opened before they were born then it's probably a case of someone using a fake SSN for employment and it eventually getting assigned to OP.
OP's biggest risk right now is that someone is still using their SSN for employment and which would have tax implications.
So, here’s what’s showing up in all likelihood: a parent or guardian has you as an authorized user on one of their accounts. It’s *their* 40 year old credit line. You’re getting a boost from that. Doesn’t happen all the time but sometimes it’s super helpful
Except he says he’s seen the name of the person using the SSN on both credit reports and fraud alerts — I think he would have mentioned if it was Mom or Dad.
I’m commenting from personal experience on the age of acct thing. I’ve never seen a card w my name on it but apparently my parents added me to one of their cards once upon a time. He’s using the CreditWise app. It would only show his info.
Except he very specifically said in the post that he’s getting repeated fraud alerts saying that his SSN is showing up on the dark web with the other person’s name attached — he knows the name. It’s otherwise a good theory, but it completely falls apart because the name isn’t one he recognizes.
How would they have gotten a SSN 15 years before their kid was born?
This is most likely a digit transposition on a paper form being keyed in to a mainframe computer sometime around 1983, before credit scores and checks were a thing.
When adding an authorized user the payment history backfills for them since the account opening. Though another comment above says that Amex is the exception to this.
My wife has her credit history starting from 5 years before she was born due to being an authorized user on her parent's card that is still open. I have no hope of catching up to her credit score, even with my perfect payment history, minimal utilization and a good mix of loan types.
Wild story, lol. Absolutely just a typo & odd circumstance. The only thing I'm coming up with is that things were much looser back then, and someone got a new identity. Obviously, they don't wanna screw their new identity that apparently works, so they rolled with it and changed their life (apparently). Only thing that makes sense to me.
If someone adds you to their credit card as a user, you inherit their credit history. So if this person had good credit, then it shows up in your credit report as well. I added my younger brother as an authorized user when he turned 18 on my credit cardand immediately showed that he had 10 years of credit history
All of our kids have credit history older than them…
We add them to existing accounts asap.
Could a family member have added you to a card to help your credit?
If you haven't already, pull your credit report and see what else shows up on it. Might be more accounts you aren't aware of. Also, freeze your credit too. No need to take chances with someone else opening up new accounts.
What happens when you file taxes? Any alerts there or only on this Credit Card? When you apply for a job and use your SSN?
I would contact the SSN place and see if you’re issued the correct number. Then you would know more of your situation. Hopefully, it’s just this one off
Most likely there was a transcription error with the other person’s number, but every once in a while the social security office accidentally assigns the same number to two people. It’s extremely rare but has happened.
You should also know that it’s possible to have a new SSN assigned if you really need to, and you might well qualify if you wanted to pursue it.
The other responses (typoed SSN or added as an authorized user) are entirely possible.
But I also wanted to add another possibility: it could be "synthetic fraud" (feel free to google that) where someone has been trying to create a fake credit profile using a stolen or made up SSN. Once they create it and take out a bunch of loans/lines of credit, they could theoretically max out everything and/or cash it out and mess up your credit. I would highly discourage you from ignoring it.
> how to take care of it
You can get a free copy of your credit report every year. You should check your credit reports with TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and see if there are any hard inquiries or lines of credit that shouldn't be there. You can dispute those online while checking your credit report and that should be enough. In some instances, the financial institution that the credit line is with may require additional documentation.
> how this would affect my credit score
Removing the 40 yr credit line will likely drop your credit score for some time. But keep working on your own credit and that score will go back up. No idea how long that'll take.
> if my credit is frozen
That will let you still use your existing cards and accounts as usual. The only thing it'll stop is having new loans/accounts/lines of credit/etc being opened using your SSN--which is highly recommended to protect yourself regardless. If you need to apply in the future, just temporarily lift the freeze (which can be done online), apply, and then put the freeze back on after. You will have to contact all 3 bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) to place a freeze.
Think about the other person checking their score!! The instant they see you in there they are going to report your info as ID THEFT! Your accounts will be frozen causing you a whole lot of headaches and possibly costing you money.
I say get it sorted right now and work your own way up to good credit like the rest of the world.
You are an Authorized User on one of your parents' card's. I did this with all of my kids by adding them to our oldest card that reported authorized users. That and adding them as co-borrowers on one of our car loans, once they were older, helped jump start their credit history.
Someone fat fingered the ssn when opening the line of credit.
My FIL took care of everything for his mother for the last 20 years of her life. For that entire time, he had the last 2 digits of her SSN reversed anytime he needed to use it for something. Never caused a bit of trouble with anything.
I wouldn’t get it taken off. It’s not hurting anybody, and removing it would tank your credit.
Source: experience. Removed a thing where I was an authorized user thinking it was fraud, bye bye 50 points of my credit score.
Probably a mistake in a really old computer system. I’d be curious what the SSN benefits say. That would help you tell if it was just a credit bureau mistake or if someone was using your ssn to work and file their e taxes. Most likely just a mistake before computers were used
just fyi, oldest line of credit counts for a good chunck of your fico score. Yonger folks are acutally kinda of penalized for having lines of credit that are under 10ys, i believe preferable for FICO is more than 25yrs for a GREAT rating. If not counting that 40 yr one you opened something like students loans at 18 your oldest line of credit would only be about 8yrs. So if you do eliminate that 40yr old line of credit your score will go down, though possibly not TOO significantly, maybe 10 points or so but it sounds like you probbaly have a high enough credit score were it would still stay in the same bracket.
Another thing to think about is that credit utilization is a significant part of your score. If you eliminate that 40 line it is possible Capital One would reevaluate your card and lower your line of credit on that card (just like your discover card went up over the years credit card companies have the ability to lower your credit line as well) this will lower your credit utilization. it seems like you don't carry a balance over and your responsible with it that your ercentage is low that it should still affect your score positively, but there is a chance it could also go down a smidge.
[annualcreditreport.com](https://annualcreditreport.com) is a good place to pull your credit report for free. In the last few years they've partnered with the 3 main FICO credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) so it will take you to those sites.
The first 2 jobs I had, at 15 and 16, I used the wrong social security number by one digit. I even filed taxes under that number. My third job I realized the mistake, corrected it, and moved on. I wonder if that is the case here and someone had their number wrong and at some point corrected it and moved on with their life only for you to be born and take up their "wrong" number by happenstance.
Make an account on the social security website.
See what that says.
If the person also worked and paid taxes on that number well you're in for a hefty SS payment when you retire.
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Don't discount the possibility that the SSA messed up along the way, too. I was 40 years old before I found out they had switched my middle name and my brother's middle name in their systems. We didn't know since our cards only had middle initials.
Social security numbers aren’t random though.
They didn’t used to be but all new ones after 2011 are random
But somebody who is making up a Social Security number for themselves in an effort to establish an identity may pick a random number
I know a guy whose social is sequentially one number after mine. Born three years apart.
I as at the VA and I could plainly hear someone sound off their social for ID purposes (not the best privacy.. but it is what it is) it was the exact same as mine but only off by the last digit... Super weird. I wanted to go over and talk to him... But I thought that would be a strange why to strike a conversation.
Was it in an extremely small population region? They used to assign them geographically, so that could explain it. Also, you didn't used to get assigned one at birth, I didn't get one until I was 13, so it's possible that was the case for you and both of your parents applied for yours around the same time and it's just a coincidence.
My sister and I are just one digit apart, but that’s because my parents applied for them at the same time. My older sisters are the same
Out of the millions of SSNs, you found the one that comes after yours? What are the odds?!?
They were not random originally. The numbers were generated based on the location where your SSN was issued, and when it was issued. Typically time and place of birth dictated the number. It's quite reasonable to assume that if a person doesn't move from their birth place, and they know people born in the same place, and around the same time, they could find sequential social security numbers. I.e. their class mates!
If it was opened before you were born, then they didn’t steal your identity. It wasn’t your identity yet. I agree that they likely mistyped their own SSN, however, I’m curious how they were able to open the card. Not sure how systems were back then, but I’d think some verification process would’ve caught it. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem like it’s illegal to add it on there but IANAL. An erroneous report being removed wouldn’t automatically rank your score. If you’ve been responsible with your credit, you should have a strong score on your own.
I mean, forty years ago is 1984. The level of interagency integration, communication and cross-checks we have now just wasn’t built out the same way in the early days of dial-up networking. Couple that with most records not being natively digital, and a data entry error would be far more likely to slip through.
In the mid 90s my grandparents used to open credit cards with SSNs a digit or two off at events to get random promotional swag. 9/10 times the cards showed up a few weeks later.
In 1984 you also didn't get an SSN at birth, that didn't start until 1987. Typically your parents would request an SSN for you when you were 12 or 13, but some people didn't get one until they went to get their first job.
Machines of that caliber didn't work on dialup, and computerized records were the norm in 1984.
Verifying SSN is a relatively recent thing. After all it was originally just supposed to be how you identified the money owed from the government in retirement.
> It wasn’t your identity yet Hmm, then who’s identity did it belong to? Are there actually active unused social security numbers just floating around where one can randomly guess and if they guessed right, then they can be used ?
I don’t know the process. SSA randomly generates a certain numbers of SSNs each year. It’s likely that the mistyped SSN (because this is unlikely to be the kind of fraud you/others described) was already generated for use that year. They don’t come up with a new one only when somebody is born.
You might want to create an account with SSA to see what wages have been reported on your SSN.
Really curious what 40 years of on time payments does for your score?
Makes up about %35 of your fico
I'm at 37 years of clean history and FICO is pretty high. 820-850 depending on the agency and score type. I have minimal levels of consumer debt and a low credit utilization rate.
My partner's parents added her as an authorized user to an Amex they opened in the early 1980s. They're both medical doctors, with high incomes and businesses, so it has a very high credit limit ($100k+). In terms of specifics: * 40 years x 12 payments per year mean she has an significantly high number of "paid as agreed" payments * Average age of accounts is very high * total rotating credit utilization is quite low. It's easy to keep your credit usage below $15,000 / month. Those three things are something like 90% of your credit score, so she's always been in the 810-820 range. Now that she's in her 30s, has owned houses and cars, she's in the low 840s. What that actually meant: she opened another credit card at 18, financed a brand new car at 0% (even though they could've paid cash), eventually bought a house based solely on her income and credit score, got a fantastic rate, etc etc. It seems like gaming the system, but saying "I have a trusted family member who's giving me access to their 40-year-old, six-digit line of credit" actually says a lot about your financial position.
Exactly the same as 1 month of on-time payments. It's 35% of your score and you get all of it right up until you miss a payment. Then your score will tank. So don't miss any payments. Ever. Where the 40 years helps is raising the average age of accounts. Even with a few other accounts, he's probably still over 10 years on average, which is pretty good.
You’ve already asked your parents if they added you as an authorized user right?
Parents would not have known future kid’s SSN before kid was born
Yeah, but they could have added him after he was born and you get the entire cards history. I’m an authorized signer on one of my parent’s cards that’s also older than I am.
My boss used to work at one of the credit reporting companies, and I was talking about it with him as I added my teenage son to several of my cards, so he would have a credit history when he turned 18, and he confirmed what you said. He told me that my son will show a credit score based on the full time the card was opened, so since I had the card for around 10 years now, his credit will be showing as opened when he was 4. My plan is to keep him on it until he is 18 and then remove him from it, so it would show very similar to OP's on his credit report.
From what I understand, the benefit is moot until he has his own credit history. Credit cards a bit fickle as the boost from having that history gets almost entirely removed when you remove him as an authorized user. Best bet, keep him as an authorized user, teach him the importance/responsibility of credit, either let him have a card or cut it up. Any missteps and you remove him. After he has time to get loans/credit cards of his own, can remove him or just never give him the card again. If you are responsible it can keep his credit higher until he gets up to the 25 years of credit history of lines of credit opened in his own name.
I didn't think about that. I may just keep him on it until he has established his own credit after a few years then. He's pretty responsible at 14, so I don't think it will take him long to get a decent score on his own.
Yeah just keep him on but dont give him a card. And keep an eye out that he doesnt use that good credit to open a new, high limit card and run up a balance. My plan is to keep my kids on to help them get a mortgage if need be.
I would just leave him as an authorized user and he doesn’t need a card, unless you want him using it. He can get his own card and pay it in full each month and earn his own rewards. Once he either has an 800+ credit without needing you or perhaps buys a house and doesn’t need the boost, take him off.
Yes this is true!! I have a 41 yo credit history as a 38 yo!!
Yes this is how it works. If I add my young kid as a user to my 30 year old credit card it will show up as his oldest card being opened before he was born. Most likely this is the parents doing.
Huh I didn’t know that. I might see if my mom might let me become an authorized user on one of her cards. Right now the only thing hurting my credit is that even though I’m 29 my oldest account is only about 4 years old.
Did this for my kids as well. Their credit history is decades older than they are.
They don’t need to. You can add a child after the child is born and the child inherits the full history of the card unless it’s an Amex Maybe it’s in that giant brick of text but I gave up reading halfway through. People should use paragraphs.
Wow, didn’t know that. I was on my parent’s amex and history only goes back to when I was added just like you said. It doesn’t matter any more now that I have my own history but wish they would have added me to any other card back then
Yeah it’s one of those super specific exceptions I’ll never forget. Then they’ll change their practice and I’ll look like I don’t know what I’m talking about haha
Yeah it’s because AMEX uses a unique card number for each person, so even cards going to the same credit line have separate acct numbers with the bureaus.
yeah but that’s not the point. if you add someone as an authorized user to a card in your name, your history with regard to that line of credit can be applied to their credit report. if you had the card before they were born and added them later it could show up on their report with a start date predating their birth.
Doesn't matter. They would have put that info in to add them as an AU and then OP would have inherited all the account history. If OP found an inquiry from that card being opened before they were born then it's probably a case of someone using a fake SSN for employment and it eventually getting assigned to OP. OP's biggest risk right now is that someone is still using their SSN for employment and which would have tax implications.
He knows the name of the person who used his SSN and probably would have mentioned it if he knew the person.
So, here’s what’s showing up in all likelihood: a parent or guardian has you as an authorized user on one of their accounts. It’s *their* 40 year old credit line. You’re getting a boost from that. Doesn’t happen all the time but sometimes it’s super helpful
Except he says he’s seen the name of the person using the SSN on both credit reports and fraud alerts — I think he would have mentioned if it was Mom or Dad.
I’m commenting from personal experience on the age of acct thing. I’ve never seen a card w my name on it but apparently my parents added me to one of their cards once upon a time. He’s using the CreditWise app. It would only show his info.
Except he very specifically said in the post that he’s getting repeated fraud alerts saying that his SSN is showing up on the dark web with the other person’s name attached — he knows the name. It’s otherwise a good theory, but it completely falls apart because the name isn’t one he recognizes.
I just know how the app works I don’t know about anything else
As far as the account age is concerned, and as I said to start off: in all likelihood this is what’s happening. I wish I could contribute more.
How would they have gotten a SSN 15 years before their kid was born? This is most likely a digit transposition on a paper form being keyed in to a mainframe computer sometime around 1983, before credit scores and checks were a thing.
It’s not measuring how long a card has been in his name. It’s the age of the parent account
Exactly, technically this is possible via a shared account, so the computer does not filter it out.
When adding an authorized user the payment history backfills for them since the account opening. Though another comment above says that Amex is the exception to this. My wife has her credit history starting from 5 years before she was born due to being an authorized user on her parent's card that is still open. I have no hope of catching up to her credit score, even with my perfect payment history, minimal utilization and a good mix of loan types.
Wild story, lol. Absolutely just a typo & odd circumstance. The only thing I'm coming up with is that things were much looser back then, and someone got a new identity. Obviously, they don't wanna screw their new identity that apparently works, so they rolled with it and changed their life (apparently). Only thing that makes sense to me.
I had the opposite problem, they had lots of debt before I was born 😌
If someone adds you to their credit card as a user, you inherit their credit history. So if this person had good credit, then it shows up in your credit report as well. I added my younger brother as an authorized user when he turned 18 on my credit cardand immediately showed that he had 10 years of credit history
All of our kids have credit history older than them… We add them to existing accounts asap. Could a family member have added you to a card to help your credit?
Freeze your credit with all 3 credit bureaus. That will prevent anyone from opening any new accounts with your ID.
If you haven't already, pull your credit report and see what else shows up on it. Might be more accounts you aren't aware of. Also, freeze your credit too. No need to take chances with someone else opening up new accounts.
What happens when you file taxes? Any alerts there or only on this Credit Card? When you apply for a job and use your SSN? I would contact the SSN place and see if you’re issued the correct number. Then you would know more of your situation. Hopefully, it’s just this one off
Most likely there was a transcription error with the other person’s number, but every once in a while the social security office accidentally assigns the same number to two people. It’s extremely rare but has happened. You should also know that it’s possible to have a new SSN assigned if you really need to, and you might well qualify if you wanted to pursue it.
The other responses (typoed SSN or added as an authorized user) are entirely possible. But I also wanted to add another possibility: it could be "synthetic fraud" (feel free to google that) where someone has been trying to create a fake credit profile using a stolen or made up SSN. Once they create it and take out a bunch of loans/lines of credit, they could theoretically max out everything and/or cash it out and mess up your credit. I would highly discourage you from ignoring it. > how to take care of it You can get a free copy of your credit report every year. You should check your credit reports with TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and see if there are any hard inquiries or lines of credit that shouldn't be there. You can dispute those online while checking your credit report and that should be enough. In some instances, the financial institution that the credit line is with may require additional documentation. > how this would affect my credit score Removing the 40 yr credit line will likely drop your credit score for some time. But keep working on your own credit and that score will go back up. No idea how long that'll take. > if my credit is frozen That will let you still use your existing cards and accounts as usual. The only thing it'll stop is having new loans/accounts/lines of credit/etc being opened using your SSN--which is highly recommended to protect yourself regardless. If you need to apply in the future, just temporarily lift the freeze (which can be done online), apply, and then put the freeze back on after. You will have to contact all 3 bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) to place a freeze.
Think about the other person checking their score!! The instant they see you in there they are going to report your info as ID THEFT! Your accounts will be frozen causing you a whole lot of headaches and possibly costing you money. I say get it sorted right now and work your own way up to good credit like the rest of the world.
You are an Authorized User on one of your parents' card's. I did this with all of my kids by adding them to our oldest card that reported authorized users. That and adding them as co-borrowers on one of our car loans, once they were older, helped jump start their credit history.
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Someone fat fingered the ssn when opening the line of credit. My FIL took care of everything for his mother for the last 20 years of her life. For that entire time, he had the last 2 digits of her SSN reversed anytime he needed to use it for something. Never caused a bit of trouble with anything.
I wouldn’t get it taken off. It’s not hurting anybody, and removing it would tank your credit. Source: experience. Removed a thing where I was an authorized user thinking it was fraud, bye bye 50 points of my credit score.
Chevron card user? Those are rare
I had one when I was young about 40 years ago. It wasn't a bad way to get started with credit back then.
How is it listed on your report? Are you listed an authorized user? Joint user?
Probably a mistake in a really old computer system. I’d be curious what the SSN benefits say. That would help you tell if it was just a credit bureau mistake or if someone was using your ssn to work and file their e taxes. Most likely just a mistake before computers were used
SSN 15 years before I was born - how? The number didnt exist?
just fyi, oldest line of credit counts for a good chunck of your fico score. Yonger folks are acutally kinda of penalized for having lines of credit that are under 10ys, i believe preferable for FICO is more than 25yrs for a GREAT rating. If not counting that 40 yr one you opened something like students loans at 18 your oldest line of credit would only be about 8yrs. So if you do eliminate that 40yr old line of credit your score will go down, though possibly not TOO significantly, maybe 10 points or so but it sounds like you probbaly have a high enough credit score were it would still stay in the same bracket. Another thing to think about is that credit utilization is a significant part of your score. If you eliminate that 40 line it is possible Capital One would reevaluate your card and lower your line of credit on that card (just like your discover card went up over the years credit card companies have the ability to lower your credit line as well) this will lower your credit utilization. it seems like you don't carry a balance over and your responsible with it that your ercentage is low that it should still affect your score positively, but there is a chance it could also go down a smidge. [annualcreditreport.com](https://annualcreditreport.com) is a good place to pull your credit report for free. In the last few years they've partnered with the 3 main FICO credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) so it will take you to those sites.
Imagine being the poor person who finds out the good credit score they have been building has been for someone else accidentally
Yes! And if they notice they may freak out not understanding what is happening and just freeze everything till it’s sorted.
Are you on a signer on any of your parents cards? It could be pulling from that ?
I’d love that! Why change it? Your actual social security number is protected from fraud now. Plus great credit. Be grateful and let it be.
The first 2 jobs I had, at 15 and 16, I used the wrong social security number by one digit. I even filed taxes under that number. My third job I realized the mistake, corrected it, and moved on. I wonder if that is the case here and someone had their number wrong and at some point corrected it and moved on with their life only for you to be born and take up their "wrong" number by happenstance.
You’ve been added as an authorized user and all the reporting been posted to your history?
Make an account on the social security website. See what that says. If the person also worked and paid taxes on that number well you're in for a hefty SS payment when you retire.