September 11th, 2009 
admin 
georgie asked:
If you buy something and make payments on it, but after the first payment you find it to be defective and they won’t take it back and you stop paying for it, can they report you to the credit bureau with just your name and address??
Lois
If you buy something and make payments on it, but after the first payment you find it to be defective and they won’t take it back and you stop paying for it, can they report you to the credit bureau with just your name and address??
Lois
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Ricardo
no they need your SSI because two people with the same name can live at the same address, its called jr and sr!
Katherine
Often times the seller of an item has nothing to do with the payment arrangement you made to purchase it.
Payments are made to third party finance companies.
So stopping payment isn’t “hurting” the company you bought the item from. You are hurting yourself and your credit rating.
Yes, you can be reported to a credit bureau without an SSN.
Go through your state’s consumer protection division – often part of the state attorney general’s office and file a grievence. But until the problem is resolved you should continue making payments to the third party.
Tim
Yes they can. The credit bureaus like to have a SSN but it is NOT necessary. Your name and complete home address identify you virtually as uniquely as your SSN does. The likelihood of 2 people with the exact same name and address (including apartment number) would be extremely remote. (And you’d know about it if there was another person with the same name living in your home.)
However, if you buy something on credit and it turns out to be defective you can refuse to make any more payments on it until the issue is resolved. This is explained in the contract that you signed and is a mandatory part of every credit contract in the US. If you stop paying for the item the original amount will be charged back to the seller of the goods. If it is reported to the credit bureaus you can (and should) contest it.