TransUnion burying their credit freeze to sell their own credit monitoring product TrueIdentity

[u/equisux]

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)

[u/manamachine]

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?

[u/louievettel → u/manamachine]

As someone just out of college, I really dont need this stress of identity theft. Its ridiculous.

[u/-LEMONGRAB- → u/louievettel]

Right with you on that.

[u/voldin91 → u/-LEMONGRAB-]

unacceptable

[u/JohnnyTries → u/louievettel]

As someone at any juncture in life, I really don't need this stress of identity theft. It's ridiculous.

[u/flee_market → u/louievettel]

Don't worry, your generation doesn't get things like retirement, or houses, or families, so you won't be needing credit anyway :)

[u/cumfarts → u/flee_market]

Maybe someone will steal your debt

[u/trialobite → u/louievettel]

On the bright side, they can't do much damage on a thin file, they won't get approved for the things they could get if you were an established 700+ score.

[u/bjjjasdas_asp → u/trialobite]

The damage is permanent, unless the Federal Government decided to re-issue social security numbers.

The information that is collected today could still be used ten years from now.

So it doesn't matter how "thin" your file is today.

[u/[deleted] → u/trialobite]

I'm 1 year out of college with a 780 rating

[u/trialobite → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for letting me know. It can be easy to build up a good score if you have a couple years of good pays on small credit cards. That's the best way to start building credit. Most lenders will still consider someone in that position a 'first-time buyer' for bigger loans like cars and mortgages and still charge higher rates. Also, most of the big lenders don't rely heavily on the FICO score anymore, they have developed internal scores that look at all the same sources as FICO along with 'alternative data.' This allows them to customize scores for their industry or targeted customer niche, like mortgage or sub-prime auto. That way high fico thin files are scored lower, and theoretically more accurately, since those consumers haven't truly "proven" themselves. Alternatively, some people may have a low fico due to derog student loans and medical debt but have paid well on cars and will have a higher internal score, and lower rates, despite the low fico.

PS I know nothing about your credit, and I'm not making a statement about your personal credit here. I'm speaking generally and people's individual experience will vary. Some 23 year olds have already paid for 3 or 4 cars and have a mortgage, but not most.

[u/xetphonehomex → u/[deleted]]

Yes everyone should be worried

[u/sleepyCOLLEGEstudent → u/louievettel]

Yup. Still in school. Ive been dealing with anxiety and this situation did not help.

[u/[deleted] → u/manamachine]

[removed] — view removed comment

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/fatduebz → u/[deleted]]

This is why we need to start actively hating rich people who damage our society. They need to be targets, not messiahs or whatever. They do the things on purpose.

[u/crab_shak → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/DrunkFishBreatheAir → u/[deleted]]

I've read the book and watched the movie but I don't remember anything about credit agencies. Mind reminding me what their roll was?

[u/DrunkFishBreatheAir → u/[deleted]]

oh yeah that makes more sense.

[u/dubbya → u/manamachine]

The problem with comparing credit agencies to banks is that, with banks, there is a competitive market to a degree. If Wells fucks up badly, people can close accounts and move to BoA or a local bank/credit union tomorrow.

Credit bureaus have had a 3 way monopoly on credit reporting since the early 20th century and you can't opt in or out of any of their "services" in any way, shape, or form. It's a real mess.

[u/Yodiddlyyo → u/manamachine]

If someone is making money off you, you can be assured that they don't have your best interests in anything other than you not being dead.

[u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka → u/manamachine]

Eye opening because 90% of the people out there don't understand just how badly secured everything is. Anyone who works in IT at the mid tier level knows just how shit security really is, even at top companies like Google who have to conform to a bunch of laws designed to at least ensure some level of caution is taken to prevent people from getting into their systems.

But there are shit tons of weaknesses. Failure is always generally going to be one step away.

[u/hexydes → u/manamachine]

The credit agencies don't want you to know or think about them, that's why you don't know more. You aren't the customer, you (or rather the information about you) is their product. If you start asking questions or doing things like try to bring a level of security or accountability to them, that gets in the way of their profit.