Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 313 posts

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#71

Post by tn13 »

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…

USA has prison-weapon-drug-industrial complex coupled with insane amount of money. Any power given to the government is going to screw citizens lot more than small countries like Spain.

See how British cops deal with a mentally unstable person v/s how American cops gladly shoot down an erratic teenager. That is the difference.

If USA has a real ID card and government decides to screw you up the only choice you have is to either sneak into Mexico or just kill yourself. You wont be able to find a job, drive, fly, purchase anything, have a bank account etc.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#72

Post by sethammons »

thechao wrote: post #61
necessity wrote: post #56

More effective than any regulation would be a legal system that actually made it possible for the small guy to sue the big guy for damages.

For instance: Time Warner Cable screwed up my cable package, charging me 220$ (a la carte) rather than 90$ (bundle). I contacted them, they admitted the mistake, and fixed the next month---I still ended up out 65$. I'd really like that money (moral imperative), but there's no legal way for me to seek relief for that small amount. If TWC messes up 1/50 accounts, once a year, for 50$, then they stand to make 500k--1mm$…

I know nothing about law, but I would think a class action lawyer could do a monthly or quarterly (or how ever long it takes for critical mass to be achieved) case on that and make decent recurring income I bet. Provide a site where folks can dispute their charge, and get back 50% of the disputed amount after the case is settled. Every month, the lawyer brings the same case against the "big guy" but with a new list of plaintiffs.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#73

Post by _puk »

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…

Love the fact that I can't use the automated global entry when I visit the states as there exists someone else in the world with my name and a different D.O.B..

I do still try it each time though as it's still quicker to fail and then get a wistful comment from the guy checking my passport about the issue with the system.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#74

Post by ufmace »

Speaking of credit annoyances, I've seen a lot of "dark patterns" appearing on the credit agency websites for ordering your Federally-mandated free annual credit report. Their workflow for getting the credit report is structured to push you towards signing up for some kind of monthly subscription to some monitoring service, to the point where it's very difficult to find the buttons to just get the free credit report. And if you do accidentally sign up for their monthly service, of course you can only cancel over the phone during business hours. Just waiting for them to start understaffing these call centers so that the waits extend past an hour...

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#75

Post by Kluny »

sschueller wrote: post #32
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…

All this to just keep your record clean and not have your bank misplace your money? These are things you should not have to worry about in life. They are expected and in most modern countries are not something you need to worry about. When I tell my friends about this in the US at first they don't believe me. The can't believe that the banks make so many mistakes (such as credit/debit the wrong person for a check) an…

should isn't a useful word when you're deciding what to actually do. If you want to change the status quo, start working to change it. But in the meantime you have to pay attention and look after your properties.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#76

Post by tn13 »

themartorana wrote: post #40
sschueller wrote: post #14

The whole credit reporting system is a money making racket and there is zero interest in keeping the information in it accurate. No one is held responsible for mistakes and the suffering people go thought because of it.

Same goes for every credit rating agency in the country (world?). Remember all those AAA rated swaps? It is disturbing how the entire economic system is set up to make life harder on those it's hardest on. Poor, in debt, barely making ends meet? You're lucky if you can get a credit card for under 30% APR. Mortgage rates historically low? Not for you. Need a loan? Sucks to be you. Finally clawed your way out of debt,…

It makes perfect sense. Loans are borrowing you need to pay back. If you dont pay back then some honest hardworking person loses his savings.

When we ignored the basic laws of economics we had a mortgage crisis and thousands of people lost their savings and jobs.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#77

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

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…

> 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 possible? Doesn't your employer needs it?

I think adopting this framing is what makes it really bad. Your identity cannot be stolen. The whole concept of "identity theft" is bullshit intented to shift blame. It only so happens that some entities are incompetent at verifying people's identity. That shouldn't even be your problem, as you have no influence whatsoever on how others check the identity of people, so you should not in any way be responsible for dealing with the consequences if someone thinks that you owe them something just because they believed someone else's claim that they were you.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#78

Post by wtbob »

superuser2 wrote: post #13
bluedino wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> How much is this connected to not having a real id card? Each state has it's own Drivers License and usually a very similar card that is simply for ID. Many places such as banks or cell phone companies will request your drivers license or ID # in addition to your Social Security # to open an account.

Driver license numbers change when you move, so are not useful for things meant to be long term like credit.

The Congress could use its constitutional authority over weights & measures to prescribe a national system of ID numbers, administered by the states, with assignment at birth.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#79

Post by lreeves »

tn13 wrote: post #66
sschueller wrote: post #14

The whole credit reporting system is a money making racket and there is zero interest in keeping the information in it accurate. No one is held responsible for mistakes and the suffering people go thought because of it.

Most things in this world are about making money. Credit reporting system works pretty well and it is evident by the fact that we have seen mortgage bubble burst (where government forced banks to ignore credit ratings) and student loan bubble building up (ditto as housing loans). The marginal gain in making it more accurate is not very much so I am pretty sure banks will not put efforts in that direction. Also, banks…

Can you elaborate on your point about government force? My understanding was that Moodys and S&P aggregated poorly rated mortgages and then gave arbitrarily high ratings as a whole. This of course created perverse incentives to sell mortgages to people with bad or no credit ratings whatsoever, as long as they could be repackaged and sold upwards.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#80

Post by blakeyrat »

sschueller wrote: post #32
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…

All this to just keep your record clean and not have your bank misplace your money? These are things you should not have to worry about in life. They are expected and in most modern countries are not something you need to worry about. When I tell my friends about this in the US at first they don't believe me. The can't believe that the banks make so many mistakes (such as credit/debit the wrong person for a check) an…

I find it extraordinarily difficult to believe that the US is the only "modern" (however you define that) country on Earth that has credit scores.
Post reply on HN