The old white men will not stand for that.
So it looks like the link from last night was a fake. At this point we don’t know if our Equifax PINs were exposed or not. Still best to change them.
Free freezing/unfreezing should have been the case forever, since the Fair Credit Reporting Act at least (which BTW would’ve gotten killed by lobbyists and bought-and-paid-for Senators nowadays).
On my way to my parent’s tomorrow to lock them down. Retirees with a pension, no debt, good savings, own their home outright, presumably good credit. And a complete ignorance of what this all means.
I am embarrassed that I didn’t even know that freezing your credit was a thing until I read about it here from stusser. Thanks, man.
I imagine most of us didn’t know about it.
I mean, the whole system is a bullshit scam. Checking your credit lowers your credit? Bullshit.
Paying off my student loan debt lowered my credit score. It’s definitely a scam. For consumers. The credit score is for creditors - they want to know that you will both go in debt and that you will pay it off, so they can make a profit off the interest payment. Not getting debt, not paying interest on debts… being responsible in general… those are black marks on your credit history.
I would rather see the whole industry go up in flames; but instead I payed twenty bucks to freeze my credit. I feel gross.
Woke up early this morning to bite the bullet and hand over a total of $10 to freeze everyone after running a check yesterday and having no new hard inquiries from anyone. Equifax gave a 500 error the first time but was actually the least overall hassle to get done since they didn’t even bother to ask security questions.
Rather ironic that signing up for an identity theft protection program may have resulted in those customers having their identifying information stolen. Equifax Canada refuses to say anything at this point.
I also caught this;
So everyone is doing this credit report freeze now. I’ve found (well, my wife found) that just calling the numbers makes it a 10-minute iteration for the three main agencies, which I did for my parents today.
2 of the 4 sites were completely dead at 8 am Sunday, east coast. But these phone numbers were smooth sailing. 2 of them gave no PIN, but promised a letter in the mail with it.
I’m thinking 2, 3, maybe 4 years from now, as a significant number of the millions who have done this inevitably forget or lose their PINs, they will need credit. These companies are going to have to accommodate them somehow… it will be interesting to see how they manage it … ironically, I figure it’ll be via U.S. Mail to people’s address of record.
I was writing off the U.S. mail as irrelevant 5 years ago. Long live the U.S. Mail !
Stuff like this breach make me hate the Internet.
I still can’t get my credit frozen on Trans Union. I called an 1-800 number. The lady told me gave me 2 more phone numbers to call, and a web site to try. The web site just re-directs to their broken True Identity one.
One of the phone numbers, which I did not realize at the time, was the same 1-800 I had called her on in the first place.
The second was a phone version allowing you to freeze your credit. After I put in all my info, it says there is a problem and then sticks me on hold forever, and then after a while disconnects me.
This is really frustrating.
I got through to Transunion on the phone just now to add a freeze. It’s all automated and there is a $10 fee.
Here is the number: (888) 909-8872
I had a hassle setting up an account but it’s not clear to me that I even needed the account to use the phone. I’m going to lock my wife and kids a little later on and I’ll report back on how that goes.
Are they going to send your PIN in the US Mail (and did you get a confirmation number for the transaction just in case)?
Yes, I had to make up a six digit PIN number, and, yes, they’re going to send me something in the mail. It’s not clear to me if the number I made up is the PIN or if I’m getting that in the mail.
Off topic, but @wumpus, sometimes I reply to someone and want to make sure they know I responded, but then I forget which button I pressed (direct reply to a message or reply to a thread) and Discourse doesn’t always show an indication that I replied directly (sometimes I’ll see a ^, and sometimes I won’t), unless I edit and then I can see my avatar, a curved arrow, and the person I’m responding too. Is there a reason for not putting this info on the page, prior to edit?
Single replies directly under suppress this metadata.
I had tried that number before. After entering my information and pin number, it would tell me there was a problem and that it would put me in a que to talk to someone. I gave up after one disconnect and then an 1/2 hour wait the second time.
However, the gods must be smiling on me. I just tried their true identity lock ONE MORE TIME and it worked.
I wonder if freezing my credit score might affect my job search. I am under the impression that it’s not likely, but some employers might run a credit check.
Interesting question. Of course these days the point of running a credit check on a job applicant might be to weed out the ones dumb enough to not freeze their credit.