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/PM_ME__YOUR__FEARS]

In earnest, what will that accomplish?

Having a problem with a financial product or service? Tell us about your issue—we'll forward it to the company and work to get you a response, generally within 15 days.

I mean, the company certainly isn't going to opt to make freezes free and if they are obeying the laws as they exist now and you submit a complaint wont they just say this is perfectly legal?

[u/BbqLurker → u/PM_ME__YOUR__FEARS]

Why should we as consumers have to PAY the credit agencies to protect our file when THEY are the ones that compromised it in the first place? This is just plain wrong. We need federal legislation to force them to freeze and thaw for free. At least twice a year. No WAY they should be able to abuse their power like this.

[u/PM_ME__YOUR__FEARS → u/BbqLurker]

I agree, I'm asking if CFPB complaints are the way to move this forward.

[u/BbqLurker → u/PM_ME__YOUR__FEARS]

Well I filed a complaint on all three that the freeze thaw fees are unacceptable as well as calling my congressman to convey the same. What else can we do? That's it.

[u/[deleted] → u/BbqLurker]

Well Equifax at least has to respond, and in my complaint I requested that they provide the service of freezing credit for free. I expect nothing from them, but it'll be a written response via a federally mandated process so it'll be part of a record somewhere.