Dear Speaking of Credit,
Hello. I am visiting the U.S. and don't have a Social Security number. Once I had to go to the hospital. Now I have a hospital bill and can't pay it. Can they report bad credit against me without an SSN, using only my name? Thanks. – Maggy
Dear Maggy,
Welcome to the U.S.! And welcome to our illustrious credit reporting and health-care billing systems. Along with what may be your first American hospital bill, by now you just may have – or may soon have – an all-American credit report that may be remaining in the U.S. long after you return home. Here’s why.
How your information gets to the credit bureau
Yes, a debt can appear on a credit report in your name and without a Social Security number. While hospitals and doctors’ offices don’t report their bills directly to credit bureaus, they typically transfer bills that go unpaid for a number of months to third-party collection agencies. These companies then report the debts to one, two or all three major U.S. credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
Yours is a good question, as it’s commonly believed that a Social Security number is one of the requirements for a creditor or collection agency to report information to a credit bureau. In fact, to report your hospital bill to a credit bureau, a collection agency only needs to submit the amount you owe, your name and the address you provided when receiving the billed services.
How a credit report is created
As soon as your personal and credit information has been added to the credit bureau database, you essentially have a credit report. Then if additional or updated credit information of yours is reported to them, the credit bureau will match the personally identifying information accompanying that credit information with any similar information they have on file and include it as part of any subsequent requests for your credit report.
How you and others can access your credit file
For a prospective lender, bill collector, landlord or anyone authorized to view your credit report or score, the minimum information they will be required to provide the credit bureau will be your name and address. In the absence of a Social Security number, any additional information, such as previous addresses or date of birth, can be very useful in helping the credit bureau deliver a credit report that includes all pieces of your reported credit history.
To obtain your own personal credit report, your name, address, date of birth and perhaps another piece or two of personally identifiable information for security purposes – but not a Social Security number – will be all the information required by the credit bureau. To obtain a credit report online, however, a Social Security number is required, so without it, plan to provide your request in writing via U.S. mail.