It is a start
Transunion, one of the three primary credit reporting agencies has begun offering credit freezes to persons who live in states that do not already provide for this practice in their laws. While this is of limited use, it is a positive first step toward self-regulation. I am bothered by the fact that I have to pay in order to restrict personal data about me, but that is a debate for another day. Paying will be the reality everywhere just as it is in most states that already require the credit agencies to do this upon request. This should do much to limit opportunities for identity theft and related kinds of fraud.
TransUnion First to Announce File Freeze Option in all 50 States, D.C.
September 29th, 2007
In the past few days, I’ve been following the media coverage of this item. Whether due to pressure, or simply planned as result of Transunion’s action, Equifax has also announced a comparable offer for persons whose credit histories are in their collection. If Experian and the Check Free/Choice Point folks opt in, it should reduce the likelihood of identity theft for those of us who are already careful in guarding our information and avoid the allure of impulsive merchant provided financing that relies on easy access to credit histories. It should also, over time, reduce the amount of junk mail solicitations we receive. One retains hope.
October 4th, 2007
The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper has just reported that Experian is joining the others in providing a way out for those whose credit histories are kept and sold for profit. I suspect they fear political change in the wind and that Democrats are more likely to pass legislation forcing them to offer this option to those in the files. I would prefer to not have to pay to protect my privacy and financial data, but such is life in this country where everything is for sale and privacy is nothing more than a word. I will continue to observe this trend with interest.
October 11th, 2007
How about this for a control…
I am allowed to set the price for my information (since it belongs to me to begin with).
The price I’ve set for my data is $1000 per issuance and the credit company wants $5.00 to cover their own costs.
Since it will cost them $1005 dollars for the credit report, the credit card company must charge me $1005.
The credit reporting agency must send me $1000.
If the credit reporting agency wants to send my information to 100 target marketers, fine by me… Just pay me the $100,000 and I will throw away the offers when they come in the mail…
October 12th, 2007
That would be ideal were it not for the impediment that these data collectors will only see themselves as owners rather than the persons who are the subjects of the data. Working within your framework, I rather like your idea. At that rate, I could afford to hire someone to attend my daily shredding.
I recently made my annual request for credit reports and had trouble with the Equifax site so I called them. I inquired about the upcoming freeze option and the fellow turned on me like a rabid top. He insisted I absolutely didn’t want to do that because it is such a cumbersome obligation for me. He mentioned vague hints about PINs that change monthly and how customers can be locked out of their own data. He said it would be much better to pay $70 annually to have them monitor and report to me since that was easy and required much less diligence from me. I let it drop as it occurred to me that a freeze as proposed in legislation pending in the Georgia Legislature would make it just as easy for much less money. When I indicated to him that one of my complaints was the volume of mail I had to shred from companies offering me credit, he quickly offered to put me on a do not contact list. I noted that all three of the big agencies offer this option when you apply for a credit report. Long ago, I contacted MBNA, Citibank, Chase, and a few others indicating that if they ever wanted to do business with me again, they’d stop mailing me unsolicited offers of credit, especially the ones with much of my personal information already printed for my convenience. Remarkably, the incidence of such mail dropped from 3-5 per day to less than that per month.
One thing I find particularly mind boggling about the credit reports is how long dead items remain in your report. I’ve got accounts I closed 10 years ago that are still shown, though most were noted to be closed. At least one of the companies indicated dates when some of these would come off the report and most were years away though I closed most of my credit accounts after my wife died in 1999. Some of the dates go out as far as 2019. That is crazy, especially since I do have a few active credit accounts from which one may derive my creditworthiness.