Posted on 10/08/2017 6:43:15 AM PDT by ptsal
The emails have landed in my inbox, one every other day or so since Equifax revealed that cyberthieves had helped themselves to the Social Security numbers and dates of birth of more than 140 million Americans in the company’s files.
**snip**I want out of Equifax’s system. That company no longer has permission to make money off my personal data. I want them to delete my file and never start a new one.
**snip**So, can you dump Equifax? And if not, shouldn’t you be able to?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So let’s say you no longer trust Equifax to store your data in the wake of its breach. Sure, you could approach all of those providers and try to persuade them not to send data about you to Equifax each month. But it would be far easier to simply ask Equifax to erase your file and not make a new one.
Man, I can just imagine the three big credit-info companies being told by congress that they have to delete private personal info...it’ll destroy their entire business. But it’ll rip out the guts to banks and the way you get car loans or home loans. You’d have to go back to personal reviews by some bank audit guy like it was done in the 1960s.
Weird huh? They’re more like dementocrats than we realize. In a heartbeat they can turn your life upside down. Right or wrong info. Then trying to straighten it out and get them to accept responsibility.................. Yeah, good luck with that.
I was watching CNBC the other day and Lizzy Warren was on, discussing the Equifax situation. This is probably the only time I’ve ever agreed with her, BTW.
She pointed out that these credit bureaus are completely out of control—they sell your information to all comers for advertising, and you have no say in it. You could put a hold on your credit, but as things are currently set up, you have to go to each of the four or five bureaus individually. One of her suggestions was that the default should be that your credit information is frozen, unless you are specifically requesting credit. So, for example, if you were looking for a loan, the lender would tell you which bureau they were using, and you would OK a search at that bureau for that purpose, and then your credit info would automatically be re-frozen.
It would be tough on the credit bureaus, but the existing situation, where your SS # and a few bits of personal info are enough to allow impersonation, is completely intolerable.
Can you fire the NSA for keeping track of you?
“”One of her suggestions was that the default should be that your credit information is frozen, unless you are specifically requesting credit””
That makes a lot of sense tho’ I hate to credit her with the idea.
The articles from Clark Howard I printed are still on my table and I still haven’t decided to freeze our credit.
I wonder how many FReepers have done so. The last thread I saw on the subject, some were still pretty wary..
It's mind boggling. We're supposed to give the company that didn't protect our information information so that they can't divulge it to others. Shouldn't the freezes go through a third party that we can hopefully trust?
My temptation is to put my meager life savings into local bank CDs so it can't be withdrawn and to shift all the banking I can to a local bank and keep my end of the banking off line.
I had this frozen deal done with Equifax for several years. This year, I went for loan. So i thought fine...no problem...just log on and do the security deal and turn it off for a couple of days to complete this. Equifax said no....you need to pay up to turn it off, and pay up to turn it on. That was not the deal five years ago when they offered the service.
The system is broke, but I’m not sure I really want the Senators to invent some six-step process that ends up costing me $25 every time I deal with the idiots.
“it’ll destroy their entire business.”
As a consumer, I’ve always hated dealing with them. HUGE PITA.
Oddly, LifeLock has a special deal with the outfit, so folks have to pay them to protect themselves from the bad boy.
Does that sound like perpetual motion?
Of course, Trusted ID is available for a fee from Equifax. /s
It is true that our legislators can often make a bad situation worse. But, the current credit information situation is so bad now, that almost anything would be an improvement.
>
It is true that our legislators can often make a bad situation worse. But, the current credit information situation is so bad now, that almost anything would be an improvement.
>
Right, I mean, who’d a THUNK that a beast, created by govt, would run amok?! Talk about the ODDS.
Yet, to even ATTEMPT to ‘fix’ the problem, the whole house of cards would come crashing down..
When you sign a credit agreement with a credit grantor, somewhere in the fine print that no one ever bothers to read is authorization for the credit grantor to share information with a credit reporting agency. So, you did give permission to the credit grantor to share information with the bureaus. Take a look at the credit application you signed.
What the bureaus do is compile the information and store it in a time series of snapshots of an individual’s credit behavior. Number of trade lines (individual credit accounts) open, number of current, 30, 60, 90 days past due trade lines, total credit limits, percentage of credit limits utilized, etc., etc., etc., are stored. Public record information is augmented (bankruptcy filings, court judgments, etc.) to that data. Credit grantors who are deciding whether or not to loan you the money for your new car or home, or to issue you a credit card, use that information - most often in the form of a score (e.g., FICO) built on that data - to predict risk and make an optimal decision (accept, reject, accept with limit conditions, etc.)
Having that information available reduces risk, and lowers the cost of credit.
There are three major bureaus (Trans Union, Equifax and Experian.) There are regular attempts to create a fourth bureau or to create other predictive databases, but they have not succeeded.
I’m not defending Equifax in this data breach issue. Their site indicates that I am likely among the 145.5 million who were accessed in the breach. Not too pleased by that, but unwilling to accept their arbitration-limited set of remedies. I’ll wait and see and preserve my right to participate in class action settlements.
That said, credit bureaus perform a clearinghouse function that systematically reduces the cost of credit. If you could throw a switch and make them disappear tomorrow, lacking that information, credit grantors would have to raise the cost of credit to cover the increased risk.
Just like corporations do with our medical records, the companies have created overseas subsidiaries that do NOT comply with US laws and security regulations.
Closing the barn doors after the cows have escaped.
I found that credit unions, especially if you have a large savings account or other investments, offer credit monitoring for free.
Great cartoon. Very apt.
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