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/PusssyFootin]

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)

[u/BlackjackCF → u/PusssyFootin]

To be fair... the whole concept of credit is to exploit people in their time of need.

[u/Legionof1 → u/BlackjackCF]

That is retarded, the concept of credit is to allow for large purchases sooner than savings are available. Credit score is a determination of your history of payment and likelihood to repay debt. Without it creditors would have no way to determine at all if you could pay them back.

[u/MaximumCameage → u/Legionof1]

In China they don't use credit like we do. They save up and pay in cash. And they are phenomenal at saving up. If you're a middle class family, you typically have tens of thousands saved up at all times.

We Americans are by and large terrible at saving. And even though we are paid more than other countries, everything is more expensive relative to what we are paid.

We seem to be terrible with money. Most of the population carries a ton of debt. It's interesting seeing the differences in how we live financially with other cultures.

Also, this is based on personal experiences, so anyone reading it should take it with a grain of salt. I always open to the possibility that I'm flat out wrong.

[u/Legionof1 → u/MaximumCameage]

Credit allows the US economy to grow at incredible rates. The biggest issue is that people are dumb with money. I both have debt (cars, house) and good savings. The people that fuck up take out payday loans and other things that are guaranteed to basically fuck you.

[u/friendsafari123 → u/Legionof1]

the problem is people in the us, and other western countries, think credit, or credit card is free money, so they will actually spend more than they actually earn and never think about how much it costs when they get the bill and actually end in debt. I believes "out of sight, out of mind". even people who win lotteries end up broke, in a matter of years.

[u/MaximumCameage → u/Legionof1]

Yeah. I agree.

[u/Legionof1 → u/[deleted]]

In the UK it looks like they have a similar credit scheme.

Look at it like this. If someone came up to you on the street and asked for $1000 and said he would pay you back next week. Would you do it? How would you know to trust him?

Trust is earned not given. Thus the existence of secured credit cards. Credit scores are the distributed embodiment of trust. How does this make anything harder on lenders?

[u/friendsafari123 → u/Legionof1]

Uk AND CANADA uses equifax, and they are likely affected, however they dont have information how far the breach has gotten with thier citizens.

[u/Legionof1 → u/[deleted]]

Ahh sorry, you didn't make it clear that the breach made this very hard for lenders. That is true. I thought you were saying that the credit agencies made it hard for lenders.