What is the best way for the American public to start to "escalate" this to the government? It's clearly not even worth getting frustrated trying to deal with Equifax directly, they obviously aren't required to have any accountability to anyone.
Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
41–50 of 125 posts
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#42TL;DR: Equifax phone lines unhelpful for anything. Suggestion, from https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6yv4gb/off... If you do nothing else, place an initial 90 day fraud alert on your file. This is free and will require lenders to contact you if someone (including yourself) tries to apply for credit. Government info. You only have to do this with one bureau in order for the alert to be placed on all t…
Yeah, I just tried to add this via the Equifax link, entered all of my info, and got an instant "the system is down" error. Edit: Experian displays a grey screen that says "Loading" Edit: TransUnion requires I set up an account.
Experian ultimately directs you to this form, which you have to print out, fill in, and snail mail: https://www.experian.com/fraud/form-extended-fraud-victim-al...
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#43I really really really wish we would do away with the SSN as the default ID for people. It's just such a really bad system.
It was never designed to be an ID Number and now that's how it is used. We should really go to a different system. I am not a security expert, but I think voting, paying taxes and credit scores would all be much easier than they are now.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
So ... what happens if I list myself as Active Duty? They also have a 7 year extended plan. http://www.equifax.com/credit/fraud-alerts/& 3 Main Types of Alerts and Length of Effectiveness: Initial Fraud Alert: 90 days Active Duty Alert: 1 year Extended Fraud Alert: 7 years Extended Fraud Alert Request Form To place an extended fraud alert on your credit file please send to Equifax – via Fax or US Mail - a valid polic…
Active Duty means Active Duty in the military, so I'm assuming they'd require some documentation.
I doubt it.
On the other hand, the US Military does not take lightly misrepresentation of serving...
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#45TL;DR: Equifax phone lines unhelpful for anything. Suggestion, from https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6yv4gb/off... If you do nothing else, place an initial 90 day fraud alert on your file. This is free and will require lenders to contact you if someone (including yourself) tries to apply for credit. Government info. You only have to do this with one bureau in order for the alert to be placed on all t…
So ... what happens if I list myself as Active Duty? They also have a 7 year extended plan. http://www.equifax.com/credit/fraud-alerts/& 3 Main Types of Alerts and Length of Effectiveness: Initial Fraud Alert: 90 days Active Duty Alert: 1 year Extended Fraud Alert: 7 years Extended Fraud Alert Request Form To place an extended fraud alert on your credit file please send to Equifax – via Fax or US Mail - a valid polic…
Extended alert seems to apply only in cases of mail theft. Completely different from a massive on-line data breach, of course.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#46Why is this hard? Using Twilio, I can make a better voice prompt system in like 20 minutes than a multibillion dollar company has. I don't understand the point of having so many phone numbers.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#47> I could set up a 90-day fraud alert that would force creditors to call me — at a number of my choosing — before agreeing to open any new accounts in my name. This should be the default, for everyone, for free. If banks don't want to do the bare minimum to verify your identity, the liability for identity theft should be on them and not you.
What stops the hackers to do this first and give their own telephone number? They have all your details.
Exactly why the whole system is broken.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#48TL;DR: Equifax phone lines unhelpful for anything. Suggestion, from https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6yv4gb/off... If you do nothing else, place an initial 90 day fraud alert on your file. This is free and will require lenders to contact you if someone (including yourself) tries to apply for credit. Government info. You only have to do this with one bureau in order for the alert to be placed on all t…
None of the 3 links work for me. How difficult to save data from a form? I'm appalled by the technical capabilities of these crucial service providers..
They very clearly don't want these forms to work. All three fail for me too. Equifax fails with "Additional Information Required" and gives me a PDF form to mail in that has the exact same fields that I've already provided. Experian is stuck on a loading screen. And Transunion says it's unable to process my request based on the information provided.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#49I am tempted to say I am appalled by the utter disregard these credit reporting agencies have for consumers, but I am not really surprised. Coming from a country with a tradition of public institutions, it is amazing to see private credit reporting agencies in US, because this should be a public service from the Government.
The reason they have such contempt for you is that you're NOT THEIR CUSTOMER. Their customers are lenders looking for dirt on you. The only reason they talk to you, with overt disdain and reluctance, is the government says they have to.
> The only reason they talk to you, with overt disdain and reluctance, is the government says they have to.
They are trying to fix that.
Re: Reported difficulties getting help on Equifax's phone lines
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just 90 days? I'd rather freeze my credit. I already bought a house and a car. I'm done with needing credit for the foreseeable future. Freezing all 4 accounts (including Innovis, which actually seems like the most competent of the bunch) is the ticket for me. https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freeze https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo... https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/land…
They did say "if nothing else". Implying that you should do more. I got the 90 alert, it takes literally 2 minutes so it's a great first step.
Now we just need a service like letsencrypt and a cron job that just resubmits that form every 60 days.