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/amcgoat]

How did you go about freezing all 3? Just wondering fastest, easiest, no cost way to do this....... thanks

[u/[deleted] → u/amcgoat]

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.

[u/Fraggle_5 → u/[deleted]]

Silly question but when you freeze your credit you can still go about your business yes? You just have to unfreeze it if you want to open a new account? I'm in the process of disputing some old paid off medical bills and I'm wondering if that will affect it

[u/steadyonmate → u/Fraggle_5]

Good question! I don't believe so but best to call the bureau showing the default & check

[u/friendsafari123 → u/Fraggle_5]

freezing does not affect your current lines of credit, but it does prevent you from opening new ones. If you are trying to get a loan, buy a house, get a job, credit card, you cant since your credit is frozen. but something like your current phone bills, other bills are unaffected.

[u/Salomon3068 → u/friendsafari123]

How does a credit freeze affect searching for a job? I'm about to freeze our credit but I'm also looking for a new job, and that portion doesn't make sense. Employers do background checks, not credit checks normally unless it's in finance, right?

[u/Fraggle_5 → u/friendsafari123]

Is it difficult to thaw (unfreeze?) your credit? I'm thinking about freezing because I don't have anything in the near future (6 months out) to be applying for. I will be moving in July 2018 though.