Heard of Innovis? The credit report you don't know about

This article (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20021114a.asp?keyword=) is worth looking at!...For many years, there were three national credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Add a fourth to the list: Innovis Data Solutions.Unlike the Big Three credit bureaus, Innovis doesn't sell consumers' credit histories to lenders, insurers and potential employers. Innovis specializes in helping creditors compile mailing lists. Adverse information on your Innovis credit report, accurate or not, could prevent you from getting favorable credit offers in the mail. Whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

Innovus Website. (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/frames/hyperlink.asp?link_address=http://www.innovis-cbc.com)

Below is the address and Phone number to Innovis. Please be aware they will give you a hard time in trying to get your report. But you must demand it under your rights of the FCRA.

Innovis
PO Box 219297
Houston, TX 77218-9297

800 540 2505

Every few months somebody e-mails me about Innovis, and I have yet to figure out what they do.

I read the article, so mortgage delinquencies are reported to Innovis.

Is ANYONE else reporting to them? Why? You have to remember that reporting is NOT free.

http://www.innovis-cbc.com/fail_new1.htm

"FailSafe:

A national database of consumers with unfavorable current or past credit histories. You can cleanse your pre-approved mailing lists before offers are printed and mailed - significantly reducing your mail program costs, back-end credit bureau polls and potential risk. FailSafe is an FCRA compliant database comprised of public record and accounts receivable data collected from thousands of credit grantors nationally. On average 3-4% of all names surviving credit prescreening are actually delinquent, but not eliminated during the credit bureau prescreen process due to file fragmentation, mismatched records or records lost within the credit bureau master file. One last screening against FailSafe will safely eliminate the undesirable names prior to your mail date

For more information on Innovis products call 1-877-INNOVIS"

and

"An affiliate of:

© 1996-2001, CBC Companies"

An interesting form:

http://www.innovis-cbc.com/cont_info_form2.htm

The validation form:

http://www.innovis-cbc.com/word/contr_val_%20printable.doc

"The high credit, balance, and monthly payment fields have logical values."

That is just totally bizarre. How many furnishers check "no" -- have these morons ever heard of software that does the logical validating?

How about this:

Let's start some more CRAs. What is YOUR limit for ordering credit reports, monitoring and repair services?

I already know you don't mind paying 3 CRAs, let's add Innovis and there's FOUR. How about 5? 10? 50? 100? 200?

At what point will YOU say: That's IT! I'm out.

Forgot to mention, I told TU to delete my file, got a letter asking me to call them.

I'm not willing to spend the time and money it takes to get or keep the reports accurate.

Next time I talk to TU we'll be in court. I'll be asking the court to order TU to delete my file, and I have several very good reasons.

Innovus is not a credit reporting agency and is not regulated by the FCRA for the most part. Information that Innovus gets on your creditworthiness goes into their files and is never disclosed to anyone.

Credit Grantors can contact Innovus and request lists of customers that meet a certain qualifications. For example a company might request the names of 100,000 people who have had their bankruptcy discharged between 3 and 4 years ago and have had no credit problems since. These people would then be mailed solicitation letters that might read "Reestablish Credit After Bankruptcy"

This might worry you if your file was mixed up with another persons and you never filed bankruptcy. You might pull your files from Equifax, Trans Union, and Experían only to find no trace of the bankruptcy mentioned. It is possible that Innovus still has information on you showing that you filed bankruptcy.

Innovus will not sell your name if you have called (888) 5-OPTOUT and requested exclusion.

Innovis states on their site that they can ELIMINATE a certain percentage of mailings to save the solicitors marketing costs. They do that by showing MORE derogs than the bureaus.

Consumers who WOULD be qualified according to their credit reports are ELIMINATED from GOOD offers.

It's really easy to prove damages when you're NOT getting that 10K 0% interest for 6 months balance transfer solicitation while you're paying 20% interest on those 10K.

I could use one of those offers right now. Where is it? Should I look into why I'm not getting those offers?

And, as per their own statements on the Innovis web site, furnishers of data to Innovis ARE subject to the FCRA. Innovis collects information on consumers, I'd say they're subject to the FCRA like any CRA.

I once heard it said that it was illegal to sell anything in the United States.

If you sold it for MORE than your competitors you were price gouging and that was illegal. If you sold it for the same price as your competitors that was price fixing (also illegal). Finally, if you sold it for less that's dumping (also illegal).

In this case we have a number of consumers who hate getting mailed solicitations and consider it a violation of their rights but Christine (and presumably others like her) consider it a violation of their rights NOT to get mailed solicitations.

That's not the point,

The point is that if we are going to get mailed solicitations, at least let them be for the good stuff not the bad stuff due to innaccurate info on our innovis report...

FYI Innovis is governed by the FRCRA. And they do release their reports to you but they give you a hard aSS time.

what problems do they give you?

are they as bad as Lakeside Information Resources?

they will try and teL you that they don't have to give it to you and all sorts of stuFF.

It's not hard to get your credit report from Innovis at all.

Just send your check or money order to:
Innovis Data Solutions
PO Box 219297
Houston, TX 77218

They also want to see your driver's license or recent utility bill showing your current address.

For more information call (800) 540-2505.

If that's not hard, maybe you can pay for all of us :)

Depending on your state laws and circumstances it could be free.

For example, if you're in California, unemployed, and planning on looking for work in the next 60 days or on public assistance you can receive your report free of charge.

Some states permit you a free copy every year.

Exhaustive information can be found on that phone number.

The bad part is that you can't get a freebie based on a decline, since nobody uses them to decline.

Has anyone tried a dispute to them, not knowing what's on the report?

I've done it quite a bit for the other bureaus, and that works well.

I got my Innovis report last night it had... (drumroll) one tradeline on it! Yes, one whole tradeline. A mortgage that I'd paid off earlier this year.

My wife and I both got our innovis reports a two weeks ago.

mine had two CC's on it and my wife's had one CC on it, that was it.

We disputed all of them via fax and one week later we got letters saying that everything we disputed was deleted.


it was easy to obtain them and easy to dispute them..... didn't even have to pay for them.

:D

My Innovis report had a bankruptcy, an account that was included in the bankruptcy and a 30day late. I disputed all three and they deleted all of them. They of course didn't send me another copy of my report, but since I only had three items, I assume I don't have a report anymore. I will send for it again in a month or two, just to make sure.

How long did it take? it only took a week for mine...

Innovis was a pushover.. :D

Only a week. I don't think they have a verification method in place yet. I would definitely pull your report in a month or two just to verify they did remove the information.

Anyone who thinks good credit is "sexy" has to be a pervert. Can you get ANY lower? Sick people out there ...

Anyway, a terrible article about Innovis, which to my knowledge has NEVER caused a mortgage decline:

http://www.nbc13.com/money/1998756/detail.html

Consumer Complaints Lead To Credit Bureau Investigation
Innovis Becomes Fourth Major Credit Agency

POSTED: 9:22 p.m. CST February 23, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Better Business Bureau is taking aim at a major consumer credit agency that could be keeping track of your financial life. But most consumers have never heard of the company despite the financial information it is keeping about millions of people.

Shayla Roberson is renting an apartment in Birmingham and saving money so she can buy a house. Besides cash in the bank, she also knows her credit rating is just as important for getting a home loan.

"It all plays a role in trying to buy a house because you get points on getting your mortgage loan and the better the credit, the better it is for you," Roberson said.

That's why she is interested in checking her credit rating through the "big three" credit bureaus -- Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.

But Roberson just learned that a fourth major credit company is tracking her finances, along with millions of others.

The company is called Innovis, and it is a new, high-powered broker of private information. The company gathers financial records about you and sells them to creditors who compile mailing lists for things like charge cards.

But the company is doing it quietly according to Kristy Welsh, author of "Good Credit Is Sexy."

"Well, they're kind of moving by stealth in my opinion," Welsh said. "They're not broadcasting that they're around. They're not broadcasting where you can get your credit report -- how you can get you credit report."

That is dangerous according to business experts who say you should always know how to track your own credit history. Besides not knowing Innovis exists, many people who do find out about the company are left asking questions about how to get a credit report.

"I don't see it where I can get it online," Roberson said when visiting the Innovis Web site.

There is no online application for your own personal credit report. A statement on the site says, "Innovis is not involved in providing services that can result in the denial of applications for credit, insurance or employment."

Still trying for her report, Roberson tried calling two phone numbers for the company. One was constantly busy and no one answered the other number despite repeated calls.

"That was like 15 rings," Roberson said.

Roberson gave up -- feeling angry and confused.

"It does bother me... makes me feel like I don't have privacy," Roberson said. "Someone else knows what my credit looks like, my name, my date of birth, my Social. They have a ton of information on me that they shouldn't have unless they're able to benefit me in some way, which they can't and the other three creditors can."

Those kinds of concerns have brought criticism from national consumer groups, and questions from Birmingham's Better Business Bureau about how Innovis deals with customers and what it does with the private information.

"I really frankly don't know until we investigate, but I agree with you. Otherwise, there should be some kind of a mission statement," said Don Boomershine, of the Better Business Bureau. "I don't know exactly all that they do, and we're going to investigate that particular organization."

Innovis declined an on-camera interview with NBC13's Scott Mauldin. Instead, they sent the same written disclaimer on their Web site -- that their service is not used for credit applications.

Roberson says that is what raised her questions about why Innovis collects private information and she is left asking how to easily get her own credit report.

"It's not easy to get from the Web site we looked at. Also, the phone number was not beneficial at all because I couldn't get through," she said.

The Better Business Bureau says there is little consumers can do other than be persistent with Innovis and remember that the "big three" creditor bureaus are now the "big four."

Copyright 2003 by NBC13.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I had no problem ordering a report from Innovis. I sent a certified letter with $9.00 check included in the request. I received the report much quicker than the other three CRA's. they included dispute instructions. Only a few creditors had reported - all but one was reported correctly. The acct had been closed several months back. I would never consider calling any of these agencies - a certified letter is best for me. And YES, I've spent a ton of money trying to get things corrected .... but at least I have everything in writing and can prove their responses.

Unless one has had a bk in the recent past or other troubling issues hanging over their heads - there would be no reason to worry about Innovis. I understand that the Feds were requiring FannieMae to report late mortgage payments to Innovis - not sure if banks use Innovis or not.

"I had no problem ordering a report from Innovis. I sent a certified letter with $9.00 check included in the request."

Great! My PayPal address is christine@bayhouse.com - you don't even have to go to the post-office! Just send me your extra cash ... :)