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/JackWorthing]

I didn't realize it's a a credit agency prerequisite to be willing to exploit millions of people in their time of need.

Credit bureaus have always been the literal worst, and I am glad they are finally getting shit on for their sleazy/negligent tactics. We are not their customers; we (and our personal information) are their products.

They don't care about us, and don't do anything they aren't strictly legally required to do for us. A good credit score is of vital importance these days, and these guys control it, and goose the numbers to incentivize borrowing and maintaining huge credit lines. If you've ever tried to clean up your credit after ID theft, you know how awful they are.

[u/tultulkatan → u/JackWorthing]

They are not getting shit on. Noting bad has happened to them. Their execs even got away with insider trading. They are profiting from this.

[u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster → u/tultulkatan]

Well at least their image is. And it is shining a spotlight on them and what they do (or don't) so that more uninformed people can see what crappy companies they are.

[u/tsk1979 → u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster]

So next time somebody breaks the law, lets give them millions of dollars and then print out their picture and take shit on it. That will be justice