Earlier quoted context omitted.
15-20 years ago, yes, absolutely. Maybe even 10. Now, it's nearly impossible unless you want a slumlord. Maximum security deposits are set by the state. In my state it's illegal to require more than two months rent as a security deposit. Security deposit is defined by statute, you can't just call it "rent prepayment."
So everyone with bad or no credit is locked out of the rental market? That....doesn't make a lot of sense. Where are they living?
Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
161–170 of 210 posts
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
So everyone with bad or no credit is locked out of the rental market? That....doesn't make a lot of sense. Where are they living?
With friends/family, informal roommate arrangement, or renting substandard housing from slumlords. Either that or they have a cosigner.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not like that at all. When you take out a loan or credit card you sign a legal document agreeing to all of the various terms. You don't sign anything when visiting a website.
I think the important part of the parent post is "It's a stretch to call something opt-in when it's unavoidable in modern life."
Heading off a routine objection to this observation: I've had a family with kids since I was 22, and spent most of the years prior to the Matasano acquisition living, if not paycheck-to-paycheck, at least pretty close to it.
I'll add: I don't know what my credit score is now --- it's probably better than it was, since I've had that dumb car-renting card for 6+ years --- but, knowing that my credit was bad enough that I couldn't get a non-secured card, including from my own bank after the wires for the Matasano acquisition cleared, and knowing that I had at the time a house and a car and all that stuff, and really no trouble ever getting a lease for any place I could afford the rent for, I find myself wondering a lot how much credit scores actually matter. If I'd thought that when I was 22, I'd say, "welp, I just don't have enough life experience to know". But I'm 42 now, and I have a bit of a hard time projecting to a point where I can see a clear reason to give a shit what number Equifax generates for me. Like, maybe I'll care a lot when I'm 62? I kind of doubt it, though.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's easy to sign a lease with no credit history. At most they'll just ask for a bigger security deposit.
This is just false. Lots of real estate organizations require a credit pull as part of your application. You aren't renting from the owner/landlord but from the property manager; there's no notion of just "pay a bigger deposit to make up for your lack of credit history". It's also pretty much impossible to get through modern society without a credit card if you want to do anything crazy like, rent a car or reserve a…
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I want a way to legally opt out of other such companies collecting and aggregating private data about me. Compare a desire to legally opt out (after checking a box, agreeing to a privacy policy you never read, having your data from 10 years ago - with a chain of custody/dispersal that's probably untenable, if not impossible, to map by now - synthesized by a third party) to GDPR's concept of consent: "The key point…
Equifax tracking is opt-in. It's a term on any loan or credit card you take out.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its somewhat of an unsolved problem, there's all sorts of these kind of sites that are legitimate but look really suspicious, like they could be phishing sites. Examples: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ You can tell these two are legit because they are listed on official government sites: https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/get-my-free-cred... https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/…
My mortgage company uses similar URLs that I always associate with scams. It's something like PayMyMortgage.com or something along those lines.
They had a virtual keyboard with only 16 choices of chars to type your password in on there at one point.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I want Equifax as a company to be dissolved for incompetency with private data I want the system to be changed such that the burden of proof is on the lender that they actually interacted with the person they claimed they did. That is, if someone who is not you uses your information to get a credit card, then the bank loses their money for not following due diligence.
> That is, if someone who is not you uses your information to get a credit card, then the bank loses their money for not following due diligence. That's pretty much how credit card issuing goes, but the risk is not in someone stealing from a bank under your name, but rather your file now looking so bad that you can't legitimately get credit if you want it. I think what we want here is "the bank has to pay you money i…
Yes, but under the new system, the bank can't just tell a credit reporting agency that a person they never interacted with failed to make a timely payment. If the bank can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they actually entered a contract with you, then they can't affect the actual person's credit rating.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment inspired me to take a look. I compared the SSL certificate and the whois information to equifax.com. The settlement site uses a different company for the certificate. The settlement site uses Starfield Technologies vs DigiCert for equifax.com. The settlement site uses GoDaddy for their DNS vs UltraDNS for equifax.com. It's not impossible that a division in the company or a different law firm uses differe…
Why compare it to Equifax? I'd just assume it's an unrelated malicious opportunist. I'd rather compare it to JND to have evidence towards proving that it's legit. Anyway it is legit since it's mentioned on the FTC site.
Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#169Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
So everyone with bad or no credit is locked out of the rental market? That....doesn't make a lot of sense. Where are they living?
With friends/family, informal roommate arrangement, or renting substandard housing from slumlords. Either that or they have a cosigner.