Weston

Dear Liz: I am in my third marriage. My first two marriages each lasted 10 years.

My spouses worked in jobs requiring them to pay into Social Security. I am currently retired (since 1999) and worked for a city government my entire career.

I currently receive a pension from the city.

Am I entitled to receive anything from Social Security for the time I was married to my previous spouses? It seems only fair since I had to pay each of them spousal support.

Answer: That’s a novel argument. Alas, the Social Security system doesn’t care about the details of your divorce decrees.

You can call Social Security and ask if you’re eligible for a benefit, but don’t get your hopes up if your pension comes from a job that didn’t pay into Social Security.

A provision known as the government pension offset probably would wipe out any divorced spousal or divorced survivor benefit you might receive.

Dear Liz: Our 23-year-old daughter has a low-limit credit card from her bank, primarily to build her credit history.

For the same purpose, we also added her as an authorized user on one of our credit cards (yes, we can trust her).

When she checked her credit reports recently at annualcreditreport.com, one of the agencies produced a report but another claimed they couldn’t find her. Is that normal for a relatively new credit user?

Could it possibly be because she has a hyphenated middle name? Should we worry?

Answer: It can take 30 days or more for information to be updated at the credit bureaus, so she should try again and also check the third credit bureau.

If two bureaus can’t find her after 30 days, then it’s possible that both credit cards report to only one bureau. In that case, she should consider getting a credit-builder loan from a credit union that reports to all three bureaus.

Otherwise, the problem is likely the credit bureau’s, and she should try ordering the missing credit report via the U.S. mail. The bureau that couldn’t find her will have instructions for requesting a report that way on its site.