2. Identification Documents

Hello, and welcome to this module. Identification documents. This is going to be a fairly quick but important module because I want to make sure you add the correct identification documents to each one of your challenge letters. So you may have already done this in the suppression phase, but this is going to be something you’re going to use for all of the challenge letters. And we want to make sure that these identification documents that you’re sending are the correct documents. And when you do send the challenge letters that you don’t put yourself in a position where the bureaus give you a stall tactic. So here’s what we’re going to cover: so the very first thing I’m going to get into is proof of ID and what proof of IDs are acceptable. The next thing we’re going to do is cover proof of addresses or the proof of address, and what’s acceptable there. Proof of social security number, what’s acceptable, and then passing versus failing documents.

I am going to cover this because it’s very, very important. And then creating your one page ID document for your challenge letters that you’re going to include. So let’s go ahead and talk about it. So what is a really good example of a proof of ID? Well, really simply put any state issued valid driver’s license, meaning it can be a driver’s license, but it needs to be valid. It doesn’t need to be expired because what will happen? You’ll send, you’ll send your driver’s license. It may be expired. And then they’re going to say, hey , look, this isn’t a valid ID, valid driver’s license. Any state issued valid ID, same as your driver’s license. It needs to be valid. It doesn’t need to be expired, any government ID and then any military ID. So these are going to be acceptable proof of IDs for all three bureaus.

And this is the very first step. So you want to get a copy of this if you don’t already, and this is going to be the first thing you want to have for your proof of ID. The next thing is going to be proof of address. So it could be your ID or driver’s license assuming your address is current. So let’s just say you have your driver’s license and your current address is the same that you’re going to be updating with your personal identifier challenge letter, then it’s fine. But if it’s a different address, which typically is the case, then you can’t use that. You want to use a current utility bill, something like your gas bill, water bill, or electric bill that will be sufficient for your proof of address, so as phone bill is also a good one to use. So that could be a good thing.

So again, what you want to do with these bills is have the address with your name showing on the actual bill. Cable or internet bill, those are typically sufficient. So recent, recent cable or internet bill, bank or credit card statements will be sufficient as well. Again, you want to show your current address that you want to, that you want to keep or update with the bureaus with your name on it. Bank statement or credit card statement, I just said that, and then insurance statements will be sufficient as well. So if you have an insurance card that shows your address there with your name, then that will be perfect as well. But these are the appropriate proof of addresses that the bureaus will accept as well. Now, the next one is proof of social security number. So this is a really, really big one.

This is a biggie. So you want to have a copy of your social security number. This one is ideal. So if you have a copy of your social security card and it doesn’t look humble, then you want to use that. That’s going to be the end all be all. When it comes to identification documents. Now, if for whatever reason, you don’t have a copy of your social security card and you can’t find your social security card. I don’t want you to have to wait and try to go to the social security administration office to try to get social security card. So the next best thing to do would be a W2. So if you have a copy of your W2, your W2 will have your social security number on it. Now your W2 and certain scenarios could serve as your proof of address and social security number as well.

Assuming the proof of address on the W2 is your current proof of address. If I were you, I would just have a copy of the W2 and a separate proof of address just to eliminate failure is an option. You can also use a 1099. So if you receive a 1099 as an independent contractor, typically your 1099s are going to include your social security number. And then if you are in the military or have any type of military association, assuming your military ID has your social security number and is visible, you can use this as well. Now, in my opinion, again, this would eliminate failure is an option and still have a copy of your military ID, assuming you’re in the military with your social security number on one of the above documents. So that would be my suggestion. So that way, you can eliminate failure is an option, and you don’t have to worry about the bureau saying, Hey, look, we don’t, we can’t, we can’t verify your identity.

So these are the things. Now I wanted to do this because this trips up people, and we want to be thorough and accurate when we’re creating our challenge letter. So the next thing I want to go cover is passing versus failing documents. So I have this right here for us to see. So give me one second. I’m going to show you guys what a passing document looks like and what a failing document looks like. I know it’s obvious, but I just want to show you. So when we’re creating our challenge documents, I want you to see what a copy of a passing social security card or a number looks like. So again, notice the picture is corner to corner. It has good lighting, and you can see the full social security card versus a failing document. I want to loop it up the weeds, but again, you could see an example of a failing document, it’s dark, the finger is in the picture.

You know, we don’t want this to be a social security document that we upload. You want it to be corner to corner with good lighting and a good image, because this is what you’re going to use to insert on the documents. Then here’s a copy of a proof of address and also another social security, like a W2. So again, notice, it’s corner to corner, right? Corner to corner. It’s not blurry. It doesn’t look weird. It’s not hard to read, because again, if it’s hard for you to read, it’s going to be hard for the e-Oscar system to read and if the Oscar system can’t read it, then you’re going to get a letter back from TransUnion, Experian, or Equifax saying, Hey, look, we need you to verify the identification documents you sent are unverifiable, right? So don’t skimp on this corner to corner. Now, driver’s license or any type of state ID, same exact thing, guys. Corner to corner, very, very clear, good lighting with the information showing like this.

So this is a sample driver’s license. And again, we don’t want to have keys in the documents. We don’t want to have fingers in the documents. We don’t want to have blurry in the documents. We want the document to specifically show itself, right? So you’d be surprised. I’ve seen documents that have keys in them, that have bottles of water in them, they have fingers in them. They have jeans in them. They have all kinds of stuff. So I get it. If you’re taking a picture of your social security card and you have it on your jeans, I mean, you’re taking a picture from your phone. I mean, I get it, but my suggestion is don’t do that. Just take the time, get a white sheet, get a blank sheet of paper, take a picture, put your document, put your driver’s license and or your social security card on that white sheet of paper.

Take a picture, right? Ideally, take a picture where you’re not showing a shadow and it’s corner to corner, just like what I’m showing. So that way you can eliminate failure is an option. So I want to stress the importance of making sure you do this correctly. Now, once you do that, once you’ve taken those pictures, the next thing you want to do is create a one-page ID document. So I’m going to include this Google document as a cheat sheet for you to basically duplicate. But this is an example of a one-page ID document. So you can see the social security card. I mean, you can see the state ID is right here and literally all you would do is insert the image of your current driver’s license. And then you would insert the image of your current social security card, right? Now, your proof of address, you wouldn’t necessarily need to include on this.

You would just couple this with your proof of address, but this is an example of what a really, really good ID document would look like because we’re going to attach this to the end of our challenge letters. Okay? So I will include this specific Google link for you to make a copy and show you how you can insert your images here to make it really, really simple. Then save it as a PDF in the cheat sheet below. All right? But this wraps up this module. It’s very, very important that you don’t skip this and say, Oh, you know, I don’t need to look at this. No, no, no. Follow this format. It will save you a lot of time. And a lot of frustration later on down the road, because we don’t want to send letters to the champ. We don’t want to send a challenge letters and it wastes around because they rejected our challenge letters because we didn’t do the, we didn’t do our due diligence on the front end by giving them proper, clearly legible, easy to read identification documents. I’m not going to even say them, the e-Oscar system that you understand. Okay. So I will see you in the next module. Peace.