Deadnames on credit reports can hurt people’s ability to buy or rent a house or get a job. The legislation would require credit reporting agencies to use only a person’s current name.
  •  Firebirdie713   ( @Firebirdie713@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English
    3•11 months ago

    As someone struggling with this issue, thank goodness someone is working on this!

    I had a previous landlord illegally sell a settled debt to collections under my deadname, which wasn’t even my legal name at the time I had ended the lease at the apartment. They were aware of my legal name, as they had been accepting my checks with my new name for more than a year.

    Because of this one item on my credit history, I have been unable to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards, or get loans because no one can verify my identity through the bureaus. I have sent several rounds of letters from myself and my lawyers to the credit bureaus and the collection agency providing the evidence that the debt was settled and demanding that they removed the item from my report, but they have refused to do anything to correct it.

    Meanwhile, I know people who have changed their names several times due to marriages and divorces, and they have never had any issues verifying their information for financial situations. I am lucky to be in a relationship with someone who isn’t using my situation as a way to exercise control over me, but I know other trans people who have been forced to stay on contact with abusers simply because their abuser has financial power over them. Whether it be loaning them money when normal loan avenues fail them, listing them as an authorized user on a credit card and then threatening to remove them so they can’t buy anything, or providing them housing through special agreements because no one will rent to them without passing a credit check, there are so many ways that stuff like this makes life more dangerous for trans and nb people.

    Stuff like this is intentional, unnecessary, and incredibly harmful for those of us who are just trying to live our lives.