Identity Theft

JLP made a comment about an article regarding identity theft. He was surprised that "not signing your legal name" can cause problems with your credit score. I would have never thought of this myself.

But, I recently came across a real life example of this. One of the properties that I purchased had over a dozen liens attached to it. The problem in this case was that the owner did not have a middle initial. So lots of creditors decided to attach a lien to her home. These people had many different middle initials although their first and last name was the same as the home owner. You can imagine that if you only sign your first and last name to important documents that you will be more easily confused with someone with a similar name - especially if your name is common. My name is quite rare but I can find half a dozen people with the same name in the US and Canada.

Besides lowering your credit score, imagine putting your house at risk by not putting it in your full legal name! That article was right!