Bad news: I couldn't log into my Social Security account and the remedy I chose was for them to mail me something (within 4-10 days). It never came.
So yesterday I called SSA to ask for assistance since the mail never arrived. She offered to get the process started over the phone for me, plus email me a temporary password so I could access my account. She asked me all kinds of questions to verify my identity. All was going well, it seemed. Then...
More Bad news: She asked me if she could contact a 3rd party for address verification (they mail me stuff, so I didn't quite understand why they needed to verify my address, but sure, I said yes.) They could not verify my address. So she could not email me a temporary password and could not do anything else except make me an appointment to go in person the my local SS Office. The process she started was suspended until I could prove who I said I was in person in the SS Office. No appointment was available for over a month! While I'm in Hawaii, so two months until I could get an appointment!
I asked why they couldn't verify my address when they mail me stuff and also email me stuff. But, she wouldn't say (probably policy, or she was just uncaring). So I looked on one of the many SSA web pages I had open and found that they verify addresses via Equifax. So I felt compelled to find out if Equifax had an error on my credit report that would explain the failure to verify my address. Lo and behold, one mere tiny little error in my address (probably a transcription error as it was correct in another section of the report.) So then I attempted to file a dispute, which cannot be done online for that type of error. I had to call and talk to a human being. Okay, I often prefer to talk to a human being when these types of complexities exist and maybe she could answer a question as to how the SSA accesses my credit report or verifies my address.
Bad news again: The human being I spoke with was very hard to understand. Even my closed captioning telephone translator could not decipher some of her words. I had to ask her to repeat herself more slowly and succinctly because not only could I not hear her clearly, I couldn't read the words she was saying either! And she asked me even more questions to verify my identity (it seemed like thousands of questions - thank god I don't have dementia!) THEN she argued that I was wrong, my address in the credit report is not in error that it is correct. I am LOOKING at it right this very second. I just downloaded it from the Equafax website; it is here on THIS page in THIS section and this is what it says. It IS wrong. Back and forth, she kept insisting it was not wrong, that nothing was missing from what I could see with my own eyes (my eyesight isn't perfect, but with reading glasses and large enough print, I can read just fine) was missing from my address. So I ask can I send you a screen shot of what I see, because this is WRONG.
So then she starts telling me what she sees and reads it to me. Well, I had to ask her to repeat herself slowly so I could see it on my phone's read-out. She read me the address with the error. Clearly she was reading what I was seeing and she was missing the fact that this was WRONG. So I stopped her and pointed out what was wrong there and FINALLY.
Good news: She finally agreed that it was Wrong and that she would fix it. While on the phone with her she corrected the error and it took effect immediately. Thankfully, but what a frustrating transaction!
More Good News: Now the SSA can verify my address again! Within an hour I was back online and connected to my SSA account and was able to complete the application all on my own in the comfort of my own home and don't have to go into the SSA Office in August. And I didn't have to make any more phone calls about it either. IT IS DONE!
And all this was because of one missing character in my address in my credit report!!!
Can you believe it?
