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Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

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Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#241

Post by fuzz4lyfe »

deckard1 wrote: post #49

We're all supposed to take it as just a fact of life now that we need a monitoring service for a service none of us opted in to. And who runs these monitoring services? Why of course, it's the credit reporting companies! Who else would it be. So not only do they know when fraud is happening to you, but they will happily ruin your life while knowing and charge you for the privilege of knowing this is happening to you.…

The best part? The "monitoring service" isn't protecting your money for the most part. You aren't responsible if someone defrauds a bank or credit card company with your information. If my credit card company thinks a service like this is valuable they should pay for it, I'll take whatever cash is on offer.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#242

Post by sokoloff »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #208
harryh wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you want to borrow money, the person loaning you money is generally going to insist that you opt into the system that helps them understand if you are a good credit risk or not. That's not an unfair request on their part. Don't want to participate? Then don't ask for a loan.

> Yes, if you want to borrow money, the person loaning you money is generally going to insist that you opt into the system that helps them understand if you are a good credit risk or not. That's not really what they care about. They don't even get to choose whether you previously borrowed money only from people who agreed not to report anything to Equifax et al. What they really want is to be able to inform on you to…

Existing land owners, home builders, and mortgage lenders are most certainly not better off if people only buy houses with cash.

I also think that whatever the lowest rung on the economic ladder who could plausibly buy property may also be made less well off by shutting them out of the housing ownership market entirely.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#243

Post by koolba »

amluto wrote: post #219
g051051 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not "default opt-in", like having the "Subscribe to our email newsletter" checked on an online order form. The sharing of credit worthiness information is the cornerstone of your ability to get credit. It's not a hidden extra, it's not something you can choose not to get, there's no "opt out". It's a condition of doing business with the credit grantor. It's like opting out of having a driver's license. If you…

> The sharing of credit worthiness information is the cornerstone of your ability to get credit. It's not a hidden extra, it's not something you can choose not to get, there's no "opt out". It's a condition of doing business with the credit grantor. No, this is only true because the law does not meaningfully restrict abusive contracts. Sure, a credit card issuer should [0] be able to ask some agency for information o…

At the individual level nothing stops me from maintaining a list of people I think are trustworthy or noting prior acts for evidence of such.

There’s no opt-in required because you’re not the one providing anything. The customer of the credit agency, the company extending you credit, is opting in to share what they know about you.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#244

Post by murat124 »

ldoughty wrote: post #224
murat124 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no proof Equifax or court can provide that my information was leaked from a source other than Equifax.

If you go after them, yours probably have to prove they are likely the ONLY before that Leaked your information .... You're not the defendant nor do you pay any judges or congressmen off, so you need to climb the hill.

I know. It is definitely much easier for a private citizen to take the $125 or free credit report and shut up. Hopefully it never comes to it but if things go south and I have to climb the hill then so be it. At least I'll know I still have the voice.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#245

Post by dang »

jibanes wrote: post #93
fletchowns wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we have the government keep track of credit history?

haha

Could you please not post unsubstantive comments to HN? We're trying for a bit better than the internet usual here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#246

Post by sokoloff »

lurquer wrote: post #240
lonelappde wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update this post if you ever default on a loan. Otherwise, you are a good credit risk.

He may be a good credit risk. But he's not s profitsble customer (if I'm reading the post correctly.) If you pay credit cards off early each month and don't pay interest, your score will be horrible. Nobody wants to lend to someone why merely pays back the principal... all the profit is made off the interest and late fees. My credit score was precisely 0 for many years. I didn't know until I went to buy a car. There…

> If you pay credit cards off early each month and don't pay interest, your score will be horrible.

I have paid no credit card interest for many, many years. I paid a few dollars once many years back after paying a large income tax bill.

My credit scores are quite good.

The issuing bank is still making money on the fees to merchants. That’s more than enough to cover the cash back they pay me. I’m not the most profitable customer probably, but I am still profitable for them.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#247

Post by [deleted] »

dzmien wrote: post #64
1f60c wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they didn't expect most people to follow up on this?

The amount of money they set aside only allows for 248,000 people to claim the $125 compensation. That is roughly 0.2% of the total 147 million. Seems a bit off to me, but then again I am not familiar with these kinds of things.

[deleted]

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#248

Post by jakelazaroff »

harryh wrote: post #132
mceachen wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a Standard Car Dealership or Mortgage Lender going to support you redlining an agreement, crossing out the sections you don't like (which include oversharing every and all morsel of data they can fetch from you)? No. The salesperson/CSR is going to be confused, and not even know how to proceed. In none of these cases did I opt in. And I decidedly couldn't opt-out.

Yes, if you want to borrow money, the person loaning you money is generally going to insist that you opt into the system that helps them understand if you are a good credit risk or not. That's not an unfair request on their part. Don't want to participate? Then don't ask for a loan.

> Don't want to participate? Then don't ask for a loan.

This is not pragmatic advice. I needed to take out loans to go to college. My phone company did a credit check before they'd let me sign up for a plan. So did my landlord before they offered me a lease. When I buy a car or apply for a mortgage on a house, they'll also check my credit. This system is deeply ingrained in our society; there's not really a way to opt out and still have a relatively normal life.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#249

Post by nkrisc »

greedo wrote: post #53
deckard1 wrote: post #49

We're all supposed to take it as just a fact of life now that we need a monitoring service for a service none of us opted in to. And who runs these monitoring services? Why of course, it's the credit reporting companies! Who else would it be. So not only do they know when fraud is happening to you, but they will happily ruin your life while knowing and charge you for the privilege of knowing this is happening to you.…

Unfortunately, most of us did opt in. If you look at the credit agreements we sign when we buy cars, open credit accounts, enter into a mortgage, we give the lender the privilege to share our data with these credit reporting companies.

There's no much of choice, really. You can opt out by basically choosing to not partake in modern society.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#250

Post by dwd »

deckard1 wrote: post #49

We're all supposed to take it as just a fact of life now that we need a monitoring service for a service none of us opted in to. And who runs these monitoring services? Why of course, it's the credit reporting companies! Who else would it be. So not only do they know when fraud is happening to you, but they will happily ruin your life while knowing and charge you for the privilege of knowing this is happening to you.…

Monitoring services should be baked into any online system that stores personally identifiable information. The GDPR requirements are a good example of what should be required by law.

Any system you are required to provide information to should also allow you to see when your information is accessed and by whom. In most cases you should also have the option to deny access unless specifically granted.

Unfortunately not providing access could result in not getting credit, insurance, or work as no company will take on the risk - but you have the choice to opt-out.

Credit reporting services provided by the likes of Equifax and Experian particularily commercial rather than personal credit are critical to the current speed of the economy. Shutting them down would have a devestating effect on the economy.

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