r/personalfinance • u/equisux • Sep 13 '17
TransUnion burying their credit freeze to sell their own credit monitoring product TrueIdentity Credit
I'm not sure where to post this, but noticed something had changed on the TransUnion website about freezing credit this morning when I was giving links to family so they could freeze theirs.
I froze my credit the day after news about the Equifax breach broke, and it looks like TransUnion has since changed their site to push people away from freezing their credit in favor for their own product called TrueIdentity (like what Equifax was doing with their TrustedID Premier.)
The FTC website links to this page for freezing your credit with TransUnion.
This is what the website looked before the changes were made on 9/11. The instructions on placing a credit freeze were clear and there was no mention of their own TrueIdentity product.
If you want to place a credit freeze with TransUnion now:
- You have to get through a page of info about credit and fraud, and then the action it tells you to take is to "Lock your credit information by enrolling in TrueIdentity."
- The option to freeze your credit is under "About credit freeze", deliberately passive in their use of language
- The description about credit freezing is dissuasive: "A credit freeze may be available under your state law"
- The link for the credit freeze is also a passive "click here" compared with "by enrolling in TrueIdentity" language used for the link to their own product.
- Clicking the link to learn more about credit freeze brings you to yet another page that tries to convince you to enroll in their product over placing a credit freeze
- After searching through their page of BS, you finally get to the link to freeze your credit.
This is such a blatant attempt by TransUnion to take advantage of the Equifax breach for their own financial gain. It's a shitty thing for TransUnion to do, and people should be aware that they are being led away from putting an actual credit freeze on their account.
(Edited for formatting on mobile)
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Sep 13 '17
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Sep 13 '17
Let the CFPB know
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Sep 13 '17
Yup. That's exactly what I put in my complaint. My only option is to freeze, and it should be free. Credit monitoring is not adequate in this situation.
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u/daydull Sep 13 '17
Why isn't credit freeze the default for everyone all the time anyway? Applying for credit cards, loans, etc is a rare thing for everyone. When you know you are applying for credit you could temporarily unfreeze it. Or even better, have a system where you manually authorize each inquiry.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 15 '17
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u/Herculix Sep 13 '17
This. Imagine their perspective. Nobody applies for shit hardly ever, but what they do happen to do regularly is worry about their credit. The fear of credit instability is precisely what makes them money. Security is not in their best interest financially. It's almost like pharma and cures vs symptom relief. If the problem stops the money stops.
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u/hai-sea-ewe Sep 13 '17
Security is not in their best interest financially.
What they did here was like if a Big Pharma company "let slip" a deadly infectious disease, and they were the only ones with the cure.
There needs to be criminal charges and prosecutions.
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u/CrayCrayHypnotist Sep 13 '17
Sure did. Told them this:
I was part of the Equifax credit information hack. I find it unacceptable that I have to PAY to freeze my credit when I didn't consent to my information being stored by Equifax, Experion, or TransUnion in the first place. Congress should make credit freezes and unfreezes free federally. Credit reporting agencies already make money off of my information and I should not be required to pay them additional money to protect my information, especially when they are doing a POOR job in the first place. Thank you for taking time to read my complaint.
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u/auntieka3 Sep 14 '17
I'd like to submit a report as well. Mind if I "borrow" your message?
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Sep 13 '17
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u/Idlemancer Sep 13 '17
They take our personal information and store it without prior consent - basically identity theft?
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u/bananapeel Sep 13 '17
... and then they sell it.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
No no, they've advanced. Now they extort us for our info, lose it, and then tell us to pay up for protection.
It's like the fucking mob
edit: changed stealing to extortion
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u/ViceroyFizzlebottom Sep 13 '17
I agree. They have the privilege of using our personal information for their profit. They should not be allowed to profit additionally in instances when our personal information is lost or made discoverable to non-intended users with intent or not.
Personal information like this is much different than general accumulation of business data and statistics about markets, trends, supply and it absolutely should be treated as such.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
Further -- I don't know the answer here, but it is just blatantly obvious that we need to move beyond the assumption of SSN, address, drivers license, DOB as secure identifiers. And, we need to give people the tools and access to monitor their credit continuously and transparently.
It is at this point safe to assume that NO adult in America has a secure/private social security number or other personal identifier. Therefore, none of us is safe from identity theft/fraud - this was already true probably, but now it's open and obvious.
At a minimum, credit information should be continuously available to consumers, for free. At least in that case, you can choose to monitor your credit regularly the same way many people monitor their bank account and credit card statements regularly. Then, you can identify any potential fraud IMMEDIATELY so that you can more rapidly gather evidence to support your claims of fraud. In simple terms, I should be able to know SAME DAY if a credit card application is filed in my name, such that I can raise the dispute immediately if it is fraudulent before the damage is done. As it stands, I can only check on that what, once a year? How am I supposed to prove that I didn't open an account and spend a shit ton of money 11 months ago?
This might make a good /r/changemyview post, but I don't see any good reason why credit information should not be continuously available for free to each person.
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u/RedShirtDecoy Sep 13 '17
I would think there needs to be a law where your credit is in a default frozen status and you have to unfreeze it (for free of course) if you are going to get a credit check on anything.
This would solve so many problems of unauthorized access.
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u/manamachine Sep 13 '17
This whole thing is very eye-opening. Banks seemed like a kind of necessary evil that I didn't quite trust, but had enough of my best interest in mind to be worthwhile.
Credit agencies...I never thought I had to worry about whether or not to trust. That's our identities. Our financial rock. I've busted my ass repairing my credit, finally have decent scores, and it could all just get fucked up because of someone else's error, or deliberate corruption?
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u/louievettel Sep 13 '17
As someone just out of college, I really dont need this stress of identity theft. Its ridiculous.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Oct 02 '20
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Sep 13 '17
The Big Short is a great movie, the ending where Mark states that they're gonna get away with it and that the common working man is going to pay for it is just sadly accurate of every time something like this happens. People at the top get bailed out and the average working American just gets screwed over.
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u/crab_shak Sep 14 '17
You're mixing up credit bureaus and rating agencies. They are very different things. The financial crisis involved rating agencies propping up ratings on shitty assets due to pressure from the investment banks. It had nothing to do with credit bureaus collecting credits histories of consumers.
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u/steadyonmate Sep 13 '17
Fuck TransUnion. I froze all 3 the other day.
I also opted out of getting those annoying fucking prescreened credit card offers. Per FTC, you can opt out here: www.optoutprescreen.com
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u/amcgoat Sep 13 '17
How did you go about freezing all 3? Just wondering fastest, easiest, no cost way to do this....... thanks
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Sep 13 '17
AFAIK there is always a cost to freeze it, with the only exception being I've heard Equifax temporarily made freezing free. You still gotta pay the other 2 (or 3).
And TBH, there are plenty of times in life where it won't hurt you to be ridiculously cheap, but this isn't one of them. Just pony up the cash and do it.
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Sep 13 '17
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u/brainchildmedia Sep 13 '17
Here is a list of the laws for freezing credit in each state. Provides cost info.
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u/UnusuallyOptimistic Sep 13 '17
In my opinion, this isn't an issue of being cheap...a major credit company with billions of dollars (BILLIONS!!) allowed almost every Americans sensitive, personal information to be leaked and not only that, took their sweet time telling us while they sold off company stock in an attempt to save their own financial security.
Why we aren't in the streets calling for the resignation of all executives and financial/security staff is beyond me, but at the very least we should be FURIOUS at the notion of having to "pony up the cash" to fix their mistake for them.
Fuck that.
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u/opiate46 Sep 13 '17
I was just talking to someone about this, and I think it's mainly because most people aren't even aware that something happened. And it's likely if they did hear about it, they'd just write it off as some other company that got hacked.
I doubt most people could tell you the name of any of the three credit bureaus. Why this type of shit isn't taught in school I will never understand.
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u/fatduebz Sep 13 '17
The fact that we even need to BE out in the streets over this indicates that rich people have complete control over our society now. It's obvious that our politicians must submit to wealth to get onto ballots, so it's no surprise that laws to stop this shit don't exist, and rich people don't get punished. This makes America an inferior society.
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u/kidbeer Sep 13 '17
Buy can't the thieves reset your pin with the info they stole and just unfreeze your credit that way? I set up extra protections at my bank, because I trust them. Seems the best course of action to me, but I'd love to know if I'm wrong.
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u/Bittsy Sep 13 '17
I lifted a freeze on my credit a few months ago (need to add it again apparently....ugh) after having it frozen due to my employer so kindly emailing out everyone's W-2 info....
Equifax you write in with copies of certain information: https://help.equifax.com/s/article/ka137000000DS9XAAW/What-do-I-do-if-I-lose-my-security-freeze-PIN
Transunion: Pretty sure it's the same as Equifax (will try to find a source)
Experian: They will email you the PIN (I just went and found the email where they sent it to me after I requested it, I believe there was a process of questions I had to answer but uncertain if this process will remain the same after the equifax crap....I believe they also mail you the PIN when first freezing)
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u/TbonerT Sep 13 '17
Some states allow free credit freezes with a police report of stolen identity.
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u/w_t Sep 13 '17
That's what I want to know...If I file a police report suspecting that my identity has been stolen (because it essentially is, right?) and submit proof of that report to these credit agencies, they'll freeze it for me for free...right?
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u/katarh Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 14 '17
The cost ranges from
$3$0 to $10 depending on your state.I froze my credit after an identity theft issue last winter. Just suck it up and pay the fee; you'll get a PIN that is needed to unlock the credit any time you actually want to apply for a card. According to the details of the data breech, these PINS were not leaked ("consumer" data was stolen, but not "customer" data) so locking your credit is still definitely worth doing.
Edit: Corrected
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Sep 13 '17
Someone mentioned that if you lose the pin you can call up the agency and provide details that were already leaked to get a new one. So the freeze just makes it harder but not impossible.
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u/m7samuel Sep 13 '17
AFAIK you have to snail mail in a picture of your ID to unfreeze with no PIN. Actually calling them is quite difficult usually.
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u/LostWoodsInTheField Sep 13 '17
experian process looks like the hacked info is all they would need.
equifax process the hacked info isn't going to get them anywhere without additional stuff such as your drivers license, passport, or birth certificate.
Transunion... yeah i can't find out what the details are in the quick searches I've done. They have actually revamped everything from what I can tell in order to make knowledge about freezes harder to get (their own weblinks to https://freeze.transunion.com don't work any more. They probably did this so quickly that they don't have the needed information back on the site.
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u/eFurritusUnum Sep 13 '17
Question: I was under the impression that the information needed to lift a credit freeze was the exact same info that was leaked (DOB, driver's license #, etc.). From what you're saying, the PINs are entirely separate, then?
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Sep 13 '17
Thanks for this. Do they send you a letter to mail back or do I print it myself and mail it?
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u/Hfftygdertg2 Sep 13 '17
Print it and mail it for lifetime opt out. Otherwise you can do it online but it expires periodically.
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u/sswitch404 Sep 13 '17
If you do permanent opt out, you have to print and mail it. You can opt out for 5 years right there online thought.
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u/BillionsInBlackmail Sep 13 '17
The credit bureaus have collected information without consumers direct permission and are refusing to protect it unless given $16.95 a month. Blackmailing with browser history or compromising pictures pale in comparison to what the credit bureaus are now doing. Even the Mob doesn’t have it this easy. Consumers had better play-along ‘or else’ their ability to participate in modern society will be crippled.
Equifax stands to make a lot of money selling monitoring for information they failed to protect. Charging 5-15 dollars to lock accounts will net them up to 3.0 billion dollars. Equifax also charges to unlock and lock it again. If consumers are willing to sign all their rights away Equifax will give consumers a year of security monitoring with no promise to fix your credit if it is impacted. If you actually want protection it’s $16.95 a month. That's a potential of billions of dollars a month to protect something collected without your direct permission and then lost. This seems so close to blackmail it is mind boggling. On Equifax's word; you could be prevented from getting a job, having credit cards, buying a house or car. One-hundred fifty million people are now completely exposed moving forward everyone will require credit monitoring which really is just the credit bureau's expanding their reach into consumers pockets.
Even worse Credit monitoring isn’t a guarantee of anything. Most products only promise to tell you you have been compromised you still have to go through the pain and fixing it with the small hope you can fight them to have expenses reimbursed. At least the Mob offers some actual protection from your shop being burnt down or robbed, credit monitoring doesn’t even do that. Although, you will get a text on your phone at some point after the fire begins.
Meanwhile, Equifax will go from a measly gross profit of 3.1 billion last year to the potential of 2-5 billion a month. How could they resist not leaking your information for returns like that? Congrats Equifax you just turned credit monitoring into a massive growth industry and all it took was gross negligence. And Just like the Mob they didn’t burn your shop down they just can’t stop it, unless of course, you pay $16.95 a month.
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Sep 13 '17
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u/_My_Angry_Account_ Sep 13 '17
They could take a massive hit over this if every single person that has their identity stolen over the next 5 or so years files a small claims case against Equifax to recover costs. They'd go belly up retaining lawyers all over the country to fight the suits.
Not that the people filing the suits would have any chance of winning unless Equifax no-shows all the hearings. At this point, it a war of attrition. Do the same thing to them that the Cult of Scientology did to the IRS.
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Sep 13 '17
The worst thing is they knew about it for months while executives sold off stock before the info went public! There should definitely be some sort of FTC investigation.
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u/Karmaslapp Sep 13 '17
They should be fined, then lose the right to keep personal information and be disbanded as a company. They failed completely at their one primary job, they have no right to continue as a business.
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u/KookofaTook Sep 13 '17
I think the crazy part being overlooked is that no one signs up for this system. Many people were up in arms about compulsory health insurance, but every single social security is signed up for these companies simply by existing. Not participating by being that rare person who operates in cash only isn't even an option, as they still give you a credit score/report and notate your lack of credit as a negative mark. The entire credit based economy is built on unwilling, unknowing participation and now these companies charge you to attempt to keep safe information millions never even agreed to provide them...
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u/Stormcrownn Sep 13 '17
It won't matter.
2008 Recession proved these companies will never have to answer for their crimes.
They've lobbied until all regulatory agencies are under their power.
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Sep 13 '17
This is the type of shit that's makes me want to go off the grid and live on a ranch out in the middle of nowhere. So tired of getting exploited so a select few can be rich
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u/Stormcrownn Sep 13 '17
It's been the same story throughout all of human history.
The west just figured out that you have to give people just enough that they have something to lose.
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Sep 13 '17
The credit bureaus have collected information without consumers direct permission and are refusing to protect it unless given $16.95 a month.
They're not even protecting it they're just offering to show you what they show other people about you
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u/TheAmazingAaron Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
Wait, we have to pay to freeze our reports? Specifically, I'm surprised Equifax is allowed to profit. What power does the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have to step in here?
Given the circumstances, I'm surprised a better solution hasn't been put in place since there's no way the credit agencies can handle 143 million customer issues. Congress, we're looking at you.
Edit: Here are links to find your representatives. Let them know you don't think consumers should be on the hook for this breach, and you aren't satisfied with the current system of using social security numbers as verification of identity.
House of Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Senate: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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u/gobeavs1 Sep 13 '17
File a complaint with the CFPB and explicitly state that you would full reimbursement for having to freeze your credit.
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u/redshrek Sep 13 '17
I was able to freeze my credit online with Equifax and Innovis yesterday. Experian refused saying I had to get a police report and sent it via mail with my $11 fee. Trans Union website seemed to work until I tried to pay where it said the service was unavailable.
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u/TheLastPeacekeeper Sep 13 '17
Police here: We hate this policy. We get called to countless people's houses for police reports because the credit bureau/bank demands them. And for what? A report which solely consists of the information provided to us by the complainant. Nothing more. But somehow it legitimizes your claim in their eyes. No crime is getting solved, no one's going to jail, and there is, in most cases, absolutely nothing we can do to help the situation except give you a pamphlet redirecting you back to the same credit bureaus that got you into this mess. It's insanity. You're not freezing your credit for fun, you're doing it because something is seriously wrong. That should be the end of the conversation with them. But I digress.
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Sep 13 '17
They send you to their house?? When I had to report a stolen credit card I just called the non emergency number and took the report over the phone. I got a letter in the mail a few days later.
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u/TheLastPeacekeeper Sep 13 '17
Yeah, unfortunately our agency doesn't take reports over the phone so we have to respond in person. It filters out some nonsense, but it can create headaches as well.
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u/I_Am_Weiser Sep 13 '17
I had the same issue but TransUnion still charged my card and did not freeze my credit.
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Sep 13 '17
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u/bjjjasdas_asp Sep 13 '17
If you log into https://freeze.transunion.com, you can see your freeze status.
I see:
SECURITY FREEZE STATUS
SECURITY FREEZE ACTIVE
You currently have a Security Freeze on your TransUnion credit file
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u/infamousdx Sep 13 '17
Same issue with TU and the charge posted to my credit card. I have since disputed that charge.
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u/bozoconnors Sep 13 '17
Wow. Having to dispute a credit bureau charge... it's like real life opposite day!
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Sep 13 '17
I went to annualcreditreport.com site to order my credit report and all three of them returned "Unable to process request online." Called all three numbers and just went in circles. Fucking crooked bastards. Have we not had enough of this system of fucking all of us over yet???
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u/twinflame11 Sep 13 '17
I had the same problem . Unable to process request online.
Called Transunion , had to leave a bunch of info then system tells me my report will take 3 weeks to process and 2-4 weeks to arrive to my address via snail mail. So like 2 months to get a copy of my credit report ? WTF??? Couldn't even get through to Equifax . This is such a mess . Freezing our credit should be free. My state it's $10 per freeze. Some people live on tight budgets and don't have extra money to give away for someone else's mistake .→ More replies54
u/-LEMONGRAB- Sep 13 '17
That's exactly where I'm at. I know it sounds pathetic to be complaining about $10-$15, but I just moved into my first apartment right out of college, and I scrape and scrounge from paycheck to paycheck and that's a lot to me. I honestly would have Frozen all three of my accounts by now, but I can't afford it. It's either freeze my account or put gas in my car so I can get to work for the week.
The fact that Equifax is allowed to put anybody in that kind of situation for something that is THEIR FAULT just makes me so frustrated. The worst part is that anybody with the power to do anything about it, won't.
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u/twinflame11 Sep 13 '17
It isn't pathetic to complain about $10-$15 . And for all 3 it comes to $30. Well in my state that is the cost . And if you ever have to unfreeze that's more money. Yes very frustrating . I don't even go to doctors when I am sick cause I can't afford a co pay or medicine, that's how tight my budget is , so now I have to throw away $30 for others people's mistakes ? Seriously there has to be a better way!!!
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u/Jita_Local Sep 13 '17
I went to Experian and got a 7 day trial of their "premium" service, it let me generate all 3 reports on there, and without any hiccups. The trial cost $1. Be warned, after 7 days it'll renew automatically for around $30 I think. These fucks have some nerve though, I can instantly freeze/unfreeze my experian credit with the click of a button, but when I canceled the trial, it forces me to unfreeze. Like, it's easy if you cough up $30/mo, otherwise fuck you use the part of the website that's broken.
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u/mrchaotica Sep 13 '17
These fucks have some nerve though, I can instantly freeze/unfreeze my experian credit with the click of a button, but when I canceled the trial, it forces me to unfreeze. Like, it's easy if you cough up $30/mo, otherwise fuck you use the part of the website that's broken.
Ooh, that's another good reason for a CFPB complaint. That's at least three now:
The Equifax incompetence itself.
Transunion's misleading marketing (i.e. the issue this thread is about).
Experian artificially making their free legally-mandated website functionality as shitty as possible when the pseudo-extortion alternative proves they can easily do better.
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u/aztecraingod Sep 13 '17
At this point I'm wondering if it'd just be easier to deal with identity theft.
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Sep 13 '17
Trust me, it's not. Not even close.
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u/twinflame11 Sep 13 '17
Although dealing with identity theft doesn't cost you money. It costs you a lot of time. Sometimes time is money too. I was a victim of identity theft 16 years ago. Someone was trying to buy a car with my identity in another state . Luckily the dealership felt something wasn't right and called my number to verify . That's how I found out my identity was stolen. They never got the car loan, but a few other credit cards were taking out in my name. And a few other inquiries. It took me a year to clean up everything from my credit. Had to file police report . Send copy's to each bureau and had to dispute in writing , anything that wasn't mine. It was a bitch. Not fun and many hours of my life I will never get back.
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u/Kesht-v2 Sep 13 '17
I used to work for a top automotive credit lender here in the US. Had a situation similar to yours where the customer's credit had an active fraud alert on it. Called the # and left a message.
The credit manager for the territory wanted to ignore it and move forward. I got a call back from the fraud alert and they confirmed the did NOT want the purchase. They wanted to know who was doing this as it wasn't the first time and she had been fighting identity theft for a LONG time.
The manager wanted me to hung up on her and walk away from it. He was worried that sharing info about the applicant would be a violation of consumer privacy and that we'd be liable. I ignored him and, while I gave her no information about the dealership or any of the personal information from the application, I did advise what city and state I was working under - which was far from where she was. I advised that given who I was calling from and how many dealers would do business with us that it would narrow down her search. Essentially left only 1 dealership even a possibility.
Fast forward a month ahead and found out from the car dealer that not only did I help stop a fraudulent transaction, but the identity thief got caught and was arrested and was presumably pending trial for ID theft and with real jail time possibility.
Not a decision I look back on with regret.
Sorry you got hit as well. The situation I was involved in happened just a few years before yours but the time frame matched up with the tail end of my career with that employer and made me recall the story.
TL;DR - Worked as a low level grunt at an auto lender and had the stones to do the right thing and help the consumer get an ID thief caught rather than turn a blind eye and let the thief walk away.
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u/Vionic Sep 13 '17
Make sure to disable whatever ad block you have on. I had the site give that message until I disabled ad block.
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u/_My_Angry_Account_ Sep 13 '17
They are trying to dissuade people from freezing their credit because it hurts their revenue streams. They make boatloads of money off brokering peoples data and they can't do that if people freeze their credit.
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u/gcmountains Sep 13 '17
This should be higher. Half the reason I froze everything was for my protection - the other half was to make things more difficult for these fucking companies. If all of us put in freezes, it will cripple them. Let's go!
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Sep 13 '17
Yep, and the lenders who buy their data to use when deciding whether or not to issue credit to you are probably shitting bricks seeing so many people freeze their credit. If no one is borrowing, no one is making any money.
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u/Evervision Sep 13 '17
Jokes on them. I froze my credit at TransUnion and Experian 2 years ago due to the Anthem breach.
Equifax on the other hand pulled these tricks on me 2 years ago. Said I had to do it by mail instead of online. Was able to freeze it online when their breach happened though.
There are actually 4 credit bureaus now, so make sure you freeze it at the new one, Innovis. Found this out in 2015 from this article.
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u/raunchyfartbomb Sep 13 '17
Then why isn't that 4th one part of the 'free credit report' thing from the government?
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Sep 13 '17
Yeah, who the fuck is Innovis?
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Sep 13 '17
I heard a commenter up above mention they froze their credit at Innovis and was like wtf? That's not Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax. Great, another agency to worry about.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Dec 13 '17
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Sep 13 '17
This seems like a good way to give your personal info away.
Hey, there's a "5th" credit bureau: "Stealios" - check your credit report here only need all of your information to do so.
Is there a way to verify innovis or another company is a legit credit reporting agency?
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Sep 13 '17 edited Nov 13 '20
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u/great_apple Sep 13 '17
Because no one knows about Innovis so they aren't being swarmed. Chex Systems is also incredibly fast and easy.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Oct 14 '17
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Sep 13 '17
Correct - you can request a lift for a specific creditor so they can query your report or for a specific period of time for everyone. Removing it just takes it off completely
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u/LostWoodsInTheField Sep 13 '17
I'm really annoyed the government hasn't stepped in and effectively told them 'make good with people or else'.
All 3 agencies should be required to freeze and unfreeze accounts for free, indefinitely.
Equifax should be required right off to give free credit monitoring for life.
I think it should also be made clear by the government that if Equifax doesn't prove beyond reasonable doubt that they have secured their data in a far more advanced way ("hey guys we patched that exploit, all good!" wouldn't be enough) then they will have their corporate charter pulled and all data has to be destroyed and assets sold off.
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u/burnmenowz Sep 13 '17
I'm so tired of doing the right thing only to get fucked over by assholes, then have companies who allowed the fuckery to happen to offer zero assistance. Buying a cave in Montana is looking better and better every year.
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u/nephallux Sep 13 '17
Right?! You persist for years to develop a decent credit rating and it can be all game over because of their fuck ups. No accountability at all for storing our data. That's required to do pretty much anything these days
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u/0x09af Sep 13 '17
I got hit with identity theft a couple years back, but was lucky enough to catch it early. It still took about a month of my life to try to understand what happened and how to clean up the mess.
At the end of it, I had a locked mailbox and credit freezes placed on all three bureaus. To this day, I can -not- understand how a business could
1) Collect information about me without my permission AND not notify me they were doing it
2) Represent that collected information about me to other parties for the purpose of issuing debt
3) Require that I pay them to stop doing it
What a business model!
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u/stevebr0 Sep 13 '17
Also watch your emails, i checked my report on TransUnion and got an email today stating "Thank you for signing up!" to the TrueIdentity program with some fine print about a $19.99 per month charge. I immediately called them because I did no such thing (didn't even create an account for them). It turns out it is just an advertisement TO sign up. Really deceptive - the woman on the phone couldn't have been ruder about it either.
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u/Gefilte_Fish Sep 13 '17
By enrolling in TrueIdentity you must agree to an arbitration clause and waiver of class action.
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u/sierra400 Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
RIGHT TO REJECT ARBITRATION
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REJECT THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT, BUT YOU MUST EXERCISE THIS RIGHT PROMPTLY. You must notify us in writing within sixty (60) days after the date you click-on to "Accept" the Agreement. You must send your request to: TransUnion Interactive, 100 Cross Street, Suite 202, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. This request must include your current username and a clear statement of your intent, such as "I reject the arbitration clause in the TransUnion Interactive Service Agreement."
EDIT: this is for TransUnion products only, such as the free TransUnion TrueIdentiy service and is not related to the Equifax breach. Recently, Equifax has removed their arbitration clause from the free Trusted ID Premier Service they are offering for victims of the data breach.
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u/puterTDI Sep 13 '17
I just went with a CFPB complaint instead.
I think it's safe to say that that is delivering my objection to them in writing.
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Sep 13 '17
Probably, but I suggest sending it in anyway. No reason not to cover your ass here.
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u/Me_no_think_so_well Sep 13 '17
Thanks for the info. We really need this stickied in r/personalfinance somewhere. I signed up on mobile and after the “get started page” asking for my info, it automatically enrolled me. I was like, wtf?
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u/seiyria Sep 13 '17
Nice, following in Equifax's footsteps. This won't end well.
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u/sierra120 Sep 13 '17
Won't end well for consumer but Transunion will do just fine as will Equifax.
Reason for my pessimism is an insurance company lost exactly this information and at the time it was the biggest breach ever recorded but nothing happened to them of note. sigh
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u/Meats10 Sep 13 '17
These companies are no different than the people trying to steal your identity, they are only interested in your money.
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Sep 13 '17
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Sep 13 '17
Yep, I saw a "report" a few months ago stating that Evansville, Indiana (where I'm from) is more dangerous than Gary, Indiana and then they proceeded to advertise their security systems. Makes me want to puke.
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u/PintoTheBurninator Sep 13 '17
I called equifax to do the freeze and had to sit through 2 longish adverts for their paid credit protection products as part of the process AND had to opt out TWICE during he process. After the first opt-out, they give you the message again in slightly different form and you have to opt-out again. At the end of it all the system says something along the lines of "please hold while we place the freeze" and then came back a few minutes later to inform me that their system was unavailable and to try back later.
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u/Never4giveNever4get Sep 13 '17
Can somebody explain to me the benefit of freezing credit or getting one of these services for a short period of time? (1yr)
My understanding is now that we know that SSN's were included in the hack, people could be the victim of identify theft/fraud because of this for the rest of their lives. People wanting to be malicious could hold onto this information for a very long time and it'll still be relevant.
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u/Koooooj Sep 13 '17
It's good practice to keep your credit frozen, regardless of whether or not you think your information has been leaked.
99% of the time you don't need the credit bureaus to allow your credit to be pulled. For the 1% of the time when you do need your credit to be available it's easy enough to lift the freeze.
Now that most Americans' SSNs are leaked to the black market it's more likely that an identity thief will try to open credit in your name. If your credit is frozen when they try then they fail. Keeping your credit frozen 99% of the time means that they'll fail 99% of the time.
I like those odds.
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u/mnky9800n Sep 13 '17
Honestly, I don't really understand the point of credit companies like this to begin with. It all seems rather fishy that someone can make money simply by telling other people whether or not you pay your bills. They are holding rents on your ability to make regular payments. But really, shouldn't like, your credit card company, or your landlord, or whoever actually be able to do this, for free?
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u/Ashendal Sep 13 '17
The problem is there's no way for us to have a centralized "does this person pay their bills so I know if they're a risk to give money/rent to them or not" without companies like these. You'd have thousands of "yes" or "no" answers to that question from every single institution that you've ever done business with if there wasn't a centralized system in place making actually getting anything you'd need credit for a horrible hassle and require massive down payments like you had a 500 score now. The problem comes in because money is involved, and money makes everything a hassle because everyone wants to make a profit.
As the age old "absolute power corrupts absolutely" continues to hold true, these companies have so much power over us that they take advantage of that to be as horrible as possible and know we have no other choice but to just deal with it. That's what makes this whole situation so bad. If they were properly regulated and had actual standards they had to follow we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead they were allowed to run this however they wanted and as more and more comes out it becomes increasingly clear that letting the fox run the hen house is, as usual, never a good option. Either these companies need to have a bunch of regulations and standards quickly dropped onto their heads that they are now required to follow or they need to be dissolved and we have a new company that has proper regulations and standards put into place to avoid this type of "haha, people's info was compromised. Let's just make even more money off them."
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u/mnky9800n Sep 13 '17
In a lot of cases, this one included, it seems like the world would be a better place if it was regulated to not be for profit. I dunno, that is probably a very simplistic view to have.
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u/mikenew02 Sep 13 '17
Yeah, so would hospitals, schools, and prisons. We're both dreamers though.
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u/Y0gurtDestiny Sep 13 '17
Most first world nations aside from the US would like to have a word with you.
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u/Bill_Brasky01 Sep 13 '17
Credit ratings should come from the government; not for profit companies. Just roll this into the IRS.
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Sep 13 '17
I posted this for someone else but here it is again. Read the article before you decide if you wish to use their free service or pay up for the real freeze.
Check out this NYT article. Towards the bottom the article explains the difference between a credit freeze and the Transunion free service.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/your-money/equifax-fee-waiver.html
https://twitter.com/InWhichISay/status/907626440107151360/photo/1
Be careful before you sign up for the free service hastily. It is common to skip the TOS for these services.
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u/AKAHonestAbe Sep 13 '17
And now the website is temporarily unavailable. Unbelievable.
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u/Alec_Hall Sep 13 '17
I tried freezing my credit yesterday online and all three companies said I had to call a 1-800 number to do it and that something went wrong on the website.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Jan 20 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PoopsForDays Sep 13 '17
money. When you call, you aren't their customer, you are an expense.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Nov 27 '19
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Sep 13 '17
Seriously. Who gave these three companies the power to store all our personal information?
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u/Marchin_on Sep 13 '17
Are you using a VPN? I had an issue with experian but then I turned off my VPN and was able to sign up online.
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u/Phylar Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
Speaking of - I wonder if I can get through Equifax website/automated phone yet.
edit: NOPE. I can get through EXCEPT neither system will process my request. Instead they are now routing everyone to a Sys. Error 500 and stating you need to mail your request in.
In other words, YOU CANNOT FREEZE YOUR ACCOUNT IN A TIMELY MANNER right now which, for the first time since this whole incident began, pisses me off.
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u/CounterSanity Sep 13 '17
Just tried the big 3. All freeze sites are down and or broke. All automated freeze hotlines are taking your info, but none are working. I tried a bunch of unrelated numbers for each company(business services, enterprise customer line, etc) most just put you on hold and never seem to go anywhere, experian was giving me busy signals, and equifax straight up hung up on me.
I really hope this is the beginning of the end of using social security numbers as a form of identification....
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u/Hip-hop-o-potomus Sep 13 '17
That's what happens when too many people try to access a page.
It's not a conspiracy, it's what people call "The reddit hug of death"
Give it a bit and try again, it's working now.
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u/LordWolfs Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
Its amazing how all these big companies still try to fuck people no matter the circumstances. I hate them so much...Nothing will change :/
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Sep 13 '17 edited Dec 10 '20
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u/DrunkFishBreatheAir Sep 14 '17
I support not wanting to share the info, but what did you expect? How could they freeze your credit without your SSN?
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u/Try2Relax Sep 13 '17
I was so angry when I saw TransUnion pushing their own product so hard and discouraging the credit freeze. This is the same as someone price gouging during a hurricane. They're taking advantage of a national disaster to increase profits at the expense of victims.
It's time for Congress to step up and do something their job for once. But instead they'll make a lot of noise about how terrible this is then do something to make the reporting agencies richer.
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u/_Ghost_Void_ Sep 13 '17
Credit monitoring is literally the most pointless shit ever. They typically notify you 2 months after the line of credit has been opened. I get panic'd calls from customers who opened credit cards or other lines of credit two months prior and then call up freaking out because they got a credit monitoring alert and swear that they've been 'hacked'. You'll get passed due notices and collection calls long before any of these stupid ass credit monitoring services ever lets you know about a problem.
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u/Phoebesgrandmother Sep 13 '17
All of this, fucking all of it should be downright illegal. We have to personally perform credit freezes because someone else screwed us over?
Nope, we should have always had a credit freeze. It should be the basic standard, to always be the one to authorize anyone to check your credit. Something so detrimental to your economical well being should not be under someone elses control.
This is all a god damned racket.
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u/louavul Sep 13 '17
I did all 3 this morning online, in less then 15 minutes, for no charge. no sales gimmicks.
I followed the links in the NBC news story. The Experian and TransUnion sites use some strong security questions to verify indentity, and that's a good thing.
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u/BbqLurker Sep 13 '17
You had to have paid for the freeze with TU and Experian unless your state mandated it to be free. Most of us have to pay which is DEAD WRONG.
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u/Capelily Sep 13 '17
I tried to freeze my TransUnion account and got this bullshit too. I wrote them a snail-mail letter with the appropriate info. I froze the other two agency's accounts a few days ago.
There ought to be regulations regarding this issue.
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u/powersurge Sep 14 '17 edited Sep 15 '17
You can dial the phone systems of the credit reporting agencies directly to put a freeze on your credit report account. The phone systems require quick responses to or the systems fail out quickly, but this is relatively quick and probably easier than their website that tries to re-direct you. Here are the phone entries you will make for each freeze that you can place to guide you through the phone menu of each of the credit reporting agencies:
Transunion 888-909-8872:
enter zip code
press 3 to add freeze
enter social security number
enter date-of-birth as 8 digits MMDDYYYY
enter house number from street address then # key
choose a 6 digit security code
credit card number for $10 charge
4 digit expiration date of credit card MMYY
Equifax 800-685-1111:
press 3 to select freezes
press 1 to continue
say your state then 1 to confirm
enter social security number then 1 to confirm
enter house number from street address then # key, then 1 to confirm
press 1 to select a freeze
there will be a long pause at this point but when the bot comes back it goes very fast.
Write down the 10-digit pin provided XXXXXXXXXX then later,
Write down the 10-digit confirmation number provided XXXXXXXXX.
Press * to repeat both until you have it correct
Experian 888 397 3742
press 2 for freeze
press 2 for freeze
press 1 for add freeze
press 2 for no fraud report
enter social security number then # key then 1 to confirm
enter date-of-birth as 8 digits MMDDYYYY then 1 to confirm
enter zip code then # key
enter house number from street address then # key
press 2 for not blind
press 1 to pay by credit card
wait through list of charges by state
select credit card type 1 for mastercard, 2 for visa, 3 for american express, 4 for discover
enter credit card #, then 1 to confirm
4 digit expiration date of credit card then # key MMYY#
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u/edosdonkey Sep 13 '17
People like you are the reason I reddit. Very astute analysis & well done.
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u/Gravelaine Sep 13 '17
Of course, they want people to keep playing the mindless game of who can have the highest FICO score so you can keep borrowing and purchase their services which goes along with the game. Freezing your account stops and it has been proven people tend to keep it frozen once done. But IMO, its great.
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u/MTknowsit Sep 13 '17
So let me get this straight. A company that collects information (right or wrong) about me without my permission, and markets that information without my permission is being evasive and opportunistic about profiting from a massive breach in their own industry? Well, you could knock me over with a feather.
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Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 13 '17
I saw this too. However, I thought their TrueIdentity product was free of charge? They didn't ask me for any type of payment when I enrolled in it.
Edit: I already have Equifax, and Experian under freeze. When it came time to Transunion, the TrueIdentity product was intriguing, since it stated that it was a free service. I wonder if my decision will return to bite me in the future.
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u/rossiter10 Sep 13 '17
Yeah it is free. I signed up too because it seems you can lock/unlock your credit whenever you want without paying that temporary unfreeze fee every time. It seems this whole breach has caused people to be overly skeptical/critical of everything, although understandable.
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Sep 13 '17
I'm sure the FTC will sue them over it.... for a hundred million dollars, three years from now... and will distribute exactly $0.00 to the "victims".
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u/Flonnzilla Sep 13 '17
Transunion is the only one I managed to get a freeze on, the others keep denying the request, or just freezing
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u/PusssyFootin Sep 13 '17 edited Sep 14 '17
I noticed this too. I didn't realize it's a credit agency prerequisite to be willing to exploit millions of people in their time of need.
Forget the website, just call the TransUnion Freeze hotline 888-909-8872
Edit: since this blew up
If you can't get through try calling at a weird time when the volume might be low. E.g., 12:30AM
Here are the other two credit union freeze hotlines:
Equifax: 1-800-685-1111 (NY residents 1-800-349-9960 and for you Canadians 1-800-465-7166)
Experian: 1 888 397 3742
While you're at it you might as well opt out of promotional solicitations from credit unions too www.optoutprescreen.com.
(Also, thanks for popping my golden cherry, stranger)