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Does anyone know what I can do as an US citizen abroad to protect myself now? I tried to get a free copy of my credit report but it required a us address to process. I tried to set up an account to freeze my credit but those require a us address as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Important not-a-lawyer advice: recording phone calls without the other party's consent is illegal in wide swathes of the U.S., but keeping copies of letters is legal everywhere.
Question: When the party states that "this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes", does that give you reciprocal permission to record the call or do you have to explicitly ask for it? Any lawyers with opinion on this?
Remember, your goal isn't to secretly pull out a recording that proves they're lying while in court. You don't want to go to court at all. To that end, you want them to know you're keeping a paper (or virtual paper) trail. So tell them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Question: When the party states that "this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes", does that give you reciprocal permission to record the call or do you have to explicitly ask for it? Any lawyers with opinion on this?
If I tell someone "my nose may be touched" then I'm allowing them to touch my nose. If I tell someone "this call may be recorded", then surely I'm giving them permission to record the call. Their ability to detect my lies seems to be a reasonable "quality" purpose.
You could argue that "any reasonable person" would have interpreted the "may" in that statement as giving you permission to record the call for training purposes (as opposed to letting you know that your call might be recorded for training purposes), but I wouldn't want to be in you shoes when you try.
Just tell them that you're recording the call too, and sidestep the issue entirely.
Does anyone know what I can do as an US citizen abroad to protect myself now? I tried to get a free copy of my credit report but it required a us address to process. I tried to set up an account to freeze my credit but those require a us address as well.
Read TFA.
It's my understanding that FICO scores are all created using software from FICO. So I don't think the term has become generic as the article implies.
Much of it is the reverse: "credit score" means "FICO score" when you are being assessed, but not when you request a "free credit score".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read TFA.
TFA says to order a free credit report or put freezes on your accounts, which as I just mentioned require usa addresses.
That's the meta-message of TFA.
> Mean words cannot hurt a bank. Threats cannot hurt a bank. Paper trails, though, are terrifying to regulated institutions. Your bank’s customer support representatives are taught to evaluate whether someone looks like they’re competent and collecting a paper trail. If they are, the CS rep is supposed to stop touching the case immediately and instead escalate them to a supervisor or to the legal department. This is…
Important not-a-lawyer advice: recording phone calls without the other party's consent is illegal in wide swathes of the U.S., but keeping copies of letters is legal everywhere.
Btw, does it apply to video recording as well?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if this is a late 201x thing, but over decades of having piss-poor credit and no funds with which to make advanced payments, I never once had a problem getting phone and Internet service. Renting cars? Yes. Needing to provide some extra documentation for landlords? Yes. Opening new checking accounts? Yes. Getting DSL or cable? Not once.
I was surprised too. It was for having zero credit rather than bad credit. Maybe it was just a corner case I fell into. It was in Petaluma CA in 2010 or so.
> Mean words cannot hurt a bank. Threats cannot hurt a bank. Paper trails, though, are terrifying to regulated institutions. Your bank’s customer support representatives are taught to evaluate whether someone looks like they’re competent and collecting a paper trail. If they are, the CS rep is supposed to stop touching the case immediately and instead escalate them to a supervisor or to the legal department. This is…
Important not-a-lawyer advice: recording phone calls without the other party's consent is illegal in wide swathes of the U.S., but keeping copies of letters is legal everywhere.
Another good way to protect yourself is to save money, and avoid needing to rely on banks for a credit lifeline.
Even if you don't have a line of credit, identity theft is a very common occurrence. If you know you don't owe anything, it's still pretty scary to receive a letter saying your debt has been passed onto a debt collection agency. Last year somebody opened a number of phone contracts and ordered TV (to my house...?) in my name. Here in the UK apparently you just need a name, address and date of birth to walk out of a s…