CBQ Services (formerly Credit Bureau of Quincy, Inc.) is a business-to-business provider of Trans Union credit information and enhancement products. We also perform professional and ethical debt collection services and have recently added Identity Theft Shield. Click on the Identity Theft Shield logo on our home page for more information or to enroll. 

If you're reading this you are likely very pro-active in handling your personal data. You can click on our Identity Theft Shield logo to enroll and protect your good name and credit with this credit monitoring and restoration product.

Free Annual Credit Report:
If you haven't yet ordered your one free annual credit report, you can visit  www.annualcreditreport.com (opens in a new window) and place your order. Beginning March 1, 2005, the residents of 12 mid-western states have the legal right to ask each of the big three credit reporting agencies for a free annual credit report.

About Credit Fraud and Identity Theft:

Before you become the next identity theft victim, click the Identity Theft Shield logo on our home page and enroll in the best identity and credit restoration tool we've seen. Identity Theft Shield GOLD edition monitors all three of your credit reports and notifies you if there is a new inquiry, new account, new address, late payment posted or public record inserted.

Identity theft and credit fraud are hot topics and a serious problem nationwide. If you have been a victim of credit fraud or ID theft, you should notify the “big three” credit reporting agencies. It is also recommended that you file a police report with your local law enforcement agency. Your creditors may require you to give them a copy of a police report before they take your claim of fraud or theft seriously.

If you are already enrolled in Identity Theft Shield, simply call the toll free number on your membership card and a Limited Power of Attorney will be sent to you over-night. Then, the licensed investigators at Kroll's will begin the tedious task of restoring your identity and good name. If you aren't a member of Identity Theft Shield, you'll have to perform the work yourself. The Federal Trade Commission estimated that the average identity theft victim spends 140 hours and $1,200.00 over 2 years to restore their good name and credit. If you aren't an Identity Theft Shield subscriber, see below for more details on how to get started with the restoration process.

The numbers to report fraud only are:

Trans Union – 1-800-680-7289   (www.transunion.com)
Equifax – 1-800-525-6285         (www.equifax.com)
Experian – 1-800-200-6020       (www.experian.com)

Social Security Administration Fraud Line - 1-800-269-0271

Do not expect to talk to a real, live person here. These are automated numbers that allow you to provide the necessary identifying information and you should hear from the credit reporting agencies in a few days.

We'd recommend you notify TransUnion first. We understand that if you notify the TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Division (FVAD), they will notify the other bureaus for you.

To contact the Social Security Administration about issues other than fraud, you can call toll free at 1-800-772-1213 during regular business days from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Or, visit them on the web at www.socialsecurity.gov (opens in a new window)

In addition, most creditors will require you to supply them with a police report.

Fixing Your Credit Report:
Here's some things you should know and some helpful hints about dealing with your creditors and the credit bureaus.

Be educated and be prepared to do the work. This is your credit file. If you are not prepared to put forth the time and effort to ensure that your credit file is correct, nobody is. What's more, because of the large number of privacy laws, your creditors in most cases are prohibited by law from discussing your credit information with anyone but you!

If you know or suspect that something on your credit file is incorrect, get a copy of it. The first course of action is for you to know specifically and exactly what items are there. The credit bureaus can not fix items you "think" or "suspect" are wrong. You having a fresh copy of your credit file in your hands is the first step.

In many cases, you can get your credit file for free. See above about the free annual credit report. If you have been denied credit recently, you are entitled to a free copy of your file from the credit bureau your lender or car dealer used.

After you get your credit file, carefully read it and take time to understand what information it contains. Remember that information is not deleted because you paid it off, filed bankruptcy, got a divorce or disputed it. The content of your credit file is strictly regulated by federal law. The credit bureaus and your creditors don't just make this up as they go along. And, rest assured that they want your information to be as accurate as you do!

Every business that reports information about you has the ability right in their office to provide changes, deletions or updates to the credit bureaus. It may take 10 days to two weeks for the information to get updated but, you should not have to lodge your dispute directly with the credit bureau first.

If you would rather dispute your information with the credit bureaus, you may do so on line at the web site addresses provided above. If you would rather mail your dispute, the addresses for the credit bureaus are below. If you mail your disputes, send the credit bureaus copies of all paperwork or receipts you have to verify your claim along with your full and complete name, all the addresses you have used for the past five years, and your social security number.

TransUnion
Post Office Box 1000
Chester, PA. 19022
Phone 1-800-888-4213

Equifax
Post Office Box 740241
Atlanta, GA. 30374-0241
Phone 1-800-685-1111

Experian
Post Office Box 1017
Allen, TX. 75013
Phone 1-888-397-3742

About Your Credit Report:
Some of the items that are NOT included in your credit report are:

- Military Service
- Savings Accounts
- Checking Accounts
- CD’s
- Investment Portfolios
- Criminal Records
- Rumors
- Medical History
- Equity Position in Real Estate
- and others

Your credit file can perhaps best be described as the warehouse where information is stored about how you pay your bills. Your creditor (bank, credit union, finance company, etc.) decides whether or not they share the information with any or all of the big three credit reporting agencies.

Some of the items included in your credit file are:

- Name
- Address
- Social Security Number
- Employer
- Phone Number
- Date of Birth
- Spouse’s Name
- Collection Accounts
- Public Records Items (liens, judgments, bankruptcies, etc)
- Trade Lines (car loans, credit cards, etc.)
- Inquiries (who has looked at your credit file)

It is strongly recommended that you look at your credit report at least once every year. If you have not reviewed your credit file recently, we urge you to use the link provided on this site in order to do so. Otherwise, you do not know if someone may be reporting something in error. If you disagree with information on your credit report, you have the right to dispute that information. No responsible credit grantor intentionally misreports any information about any of their customers. However, mistakes do happen and you can rest assured that your creditor would like to have your information correct too.

Please use the "Contact Us" portion of this site and send us an email if you have additional questions, comments or concerns about credit reports. 

What is a debt collector?
Because of the very nature of their work, debt collectors generally are not thought of in glowing terms.

In fact, they perform an invaluable service to both their clients and the general public. If it were not for a professional debt collector’s ability to collect past-due bills for credit-grantors, retail prices would be higher than they already are.

Credit grantors must collect the money owed them in order to stay in business. If credit grantors didn’t use professional debt collectors, they would at least have to raise prices to those who DO pay in order to offset losses.

Why don’t some people pay their bills?
Few people actually intend to “rip-off” a creditor by not paying. Many get into financial difficulty for a variety of reasons including poor planning, a prolonged illness, a job loss or a death in the family.

Many people become so embarrassed by the inability to pay that they fail to keep in touch with their creditors. The best course of action a consumer can take is to explain the problems to the creditor and work out terms that will meet everyone’s needs. The creditor would much rather do this than lose money and a valued customer.

People should not wait until an account is turned over to a debt collector to contact the creditor or complain about the product or services.

Our experience has been that communication is the key to staying off the “collection rolls”.


How do collectors go about collecting past-due bills?
The usual first step used by ethical debt collectors is to notify the consumer (in accordance with the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and perhaps other local and state laws) that the debt has been “placed for collection”. The letter will contain all the legally required notices to identify the original creditor, the amount of the debt and your rights under the FDCPA. If you dispute the debt, you have 30 days to do so in writing. After 30 days, demands can be made by the debt collectors for immediate and full payment.

If there is no response to the requests for payment by mail, the collector may begin attempts to contact the consumer by phone. When contact either by phone or mail is made, the collector’s objective is to motivate the consumer to pay. If the consumer is short of money to make a full payment, the collector will usually work out a payment schedule.

What should I do if I am contacted by a collection agency?
Call or write them at once! For the collection agency, this is nothing “personal”. The debt collectors have no way of knowing your situation if you will not communicate. Silence solves nothing and many times leads the collector to simply begin searching for assets and a reason to secure your creditors position by filing a small claims complaint.