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.
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.
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My temptation is to put my meager life savings into local bank CDs so it can't be withdrawn and to shift all the banking I can to a local bank and keep my end of the banking off line.
“it’ll destroy their entire business.”
As a consumer, I’ve always hated dealing with them. HUGE PITA.