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The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#51

Post by marcosdumay »

ourmandave wrote: post #29
kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

So how does a real ID work? Here, places verify you over the phone by the last 4 digits of your social security number, so you have to keep it secret. If I'm evil and know your ID what can I get away with without a card? And what can I do with a decent fake card?

You need your card to do anything. You don't use it to authenticate over the phone, but lesser levels of authentication are available by other means.

You can impersonate somebody with a decent fake card, but just having one is enough to go to jail.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#52

Post by toast0 »

wongarsu wrote: post #20
bluedino wrote: post #4

The credit reporting system probably wouldn't work if you had to have the account holder's 'permission' to add events to it - you have to do it in this automated way. Although it can be a pain, the responsibility of if your credit report is accurate falls on you, the consumer. You should many of the free services to check your credit and then dispute any events that aren't correct. Most people don't have issues but y…

I don't think the fact that the process is automated is a problem (and I don't see anyone saying so). The problem is that existing algorithms are bad (like in the article where an algorithm decided two people are the same based on name and year of birth alone, when all other factors speak against it) and that complaints are not handled properly,

[from the article] > the defendant, unsurprisingly, had the same legal first name, last name and middle initial. We were also both born in 1987. But our similarities end there: He has half a dozen convictions. He’s black. He’s currently incarcerated. And an arrest warrant indicated that he was homeless

> when all other factors speak against it

Given that the agency thinks they're the same person, the number of convictions is irrelevant. A credit agency has no knowledge of skin color. I'm not sure that a credit agency would know if someone was incarcerated -- their accounts could still be active and paid for by someone else. Credit agencies keep track of residence addresses, but would likely assume that he was at his last know address.

I think the root of the problem is getting a criminal background check and a credit report from the same place. The quality of information is quite a bit different, but the expectation is different.

For a criminal background check, I would expect false matches because the lookup is realistically based n name and date of birth only. As a result, I'd want to know additional information, such as mug shots, and current status (incarcerated, on parole, etc) to confirm if the person with the record was the person in front of me.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#53

Post by xanderstrike »

codegeek wrote: post #17

Some steps to monitor your credit (USA): 1. Signup for https://www.creditkarma.com . Yes, you can argue about giving your credentials to a 3rd party company and they show you ads but credit karma sends me real time activity on my credit report FOR FREE. I get offers etc but I am happy since I can keep an eye on my credit report from all agencies. (except Experian who want you to pay them for report). 2. Get a free cr…

Minor correction -- there's no fee to check your credit score with Citi cards.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#54

Post by ourmandave »

loeg wrote: post #26
edoceo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#2 doesn't work. That site is super buggy and the Experian connection hasn't worked for 4+ years.

I have also never had much luck with the annual report site.

Last time I tried I couldn't get past the question with the list, "Which of these phone numbers have you had in the past? (check all that apply)"

I've had a lot of numbers in the past because my daughter's phone was in my name, or I changed carriers and my number wouldn't transfer.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#55

Post by [deleted] »

ourmandave wrote: post #29
kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

So how does a real ID work? Here, places verify you over the phone by the last 4 digits of your social security number, so you have to keep it secret. If I'm evil and know your ID what can I get away with without a card? And what can I do with a decent fake card?

[deleted]

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#57

Post by blakeyrat »

kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

Every State in the US has ID cards, but citizens aren't required to obtain one at any point. (Although a heck of a lot of basic things-- driving a car on a public road, boarding an airplane, buying alcohol-- are gated by them.) What we don't have is a Federal ID card.

The TSA tried to impose one, but a lot of States are pushing back against it. (Washington State called the TSA's bluff and obtained a 2-year "extension" of our horrible awful non-TSA-approved satancards.) Even if the Feds succeed at requiring all State cards to feed into the same database, they have no power to require that every citizen obtain one.

The SSN was never intended to be ID, it's an account number. Anybody using it for ID is doing it wrong, but unfortunately, that's a heck of a lot of people.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#58

Post by sokoloff »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #38
dhimes wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although it can be a pain, the responsibility of if your credit report is accurate falls on you, the consumer. I can only be responsible for the things I do. If some shithead wants to give third-party information about me it better be accurate, and if its inaccuracy causes me harm it should be actionable.

Exactly. If I spread false information about someone to their detriment, that is slander. How do credit reporting agencies get away with it?

Generally, (in the US) statements made in good faith and with reasonable belief that they are true are not going to be found slanderous.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#59

Post by xanderstrike »

waterphone wrote: post #12
MichaelBurge wrote: post #2

'And 5 percent had errors that could be devastating, potentially denying lines of credit to them and making things like auto insurance prohibitively expensive. “To have that error level, it’s akin to 5 percent of automobiles spontaneously accelerating and having an accident, or 5 percent of planes falling from the sky,” Wu says. “We wouldn’t accept that error rate in other areas.”' This is a dishonest statement. Havi…

Multiple government systems rely on Experian for identity verification. If you don't have credit, you don't exist in the system according to the government. I've run into this personally with healthcare.gov and state medicaid applications, as well as commercial uses like Amazon Payments.

Same. I complained about the rates I was given by my auto insurance company and they said it was because I had no credit. I told them I could easily pay 12 months up front, didn't matter. I told them I could prove my income was more than enough, didn't matter. They told me I should get a credit card.

In order to get a service I'm required to have by the government, I had to have my name in a system run by private, for profit companies.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#60

Post by nicole_express »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #19
halviti wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this makes perfect sense and works great in the rest of the world, ID numbers in the US have been talked about, but have faced resistance from two groups.. those that think that this is somehow an invasion of privacy, and those that think that this somehow correlates with the 'mark of the beast' and signals the end of humanity according to the bible. (not joking)

Individual states already issue identification cards, and people use that all the time for this purpose. In a system like the US, I think it's better for the states to handle identification cards, not the federal government. There's a lot of details that go into identifying someone, and your local state is best equipped to handle that. To give a few examples: What's the procedure for changing your name? A lot of peop…

> What's the procedure for changing your name? A lot of people change their name after marriage or divorce. Those are usually handled by the states, so adding a federal government in there raises the net complexity.

To be clear, the federal government is already involved with name changes-- in fact, though my name change was issued by a state court, I had to get it changed with Social Security before I could get a new driver's license.

Similarly, passports do have a sex listed, so that's already something with federal jurisdiction. The passport system is also handled through post offices, solving the problem of needing more offices.

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