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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

#311

Post by beefield »

svennek wrote: post #303
beefield wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I am not that confident about that. I live in Europe, and to my knowledge we do not have that kind of credit score companies (there are databases about people who have defaulted their debts, though), and to my knowledge it is banks themselves that do the credit evaluation.[1] And credit for middle class is to my standards pretty cheap enough here as well. [1] More than happy to be corrected here with sources,…

Of course they do (exist in Europe). Most companies giving you a credit of some sort (banks, phone contracts, ...) are required to do vetting of you. To help them do that, they use credit rating bureaus. In Europe, you as a private person just don't know it and don't have access to your own rating. But you are likely to be rated anyways.. Here is one danish example (at least three exists) https://translate.google.com…

I'd like to get some further sources. Below is what Wikipedia has to say about Danish credit scoring[1] (emphasis mine) I know there are databases the store your information if you have defaulted your loans, but that is (to me) very different thing to actual credit scoring, which obviously any entity in credit business is and should be doing. I would be very keen to know (some of) the companies that sell actual credit scores of individual people in (mainland) Europe, and possibly shoot a GDPR request at them.

The Wikipedia snippet:

The credit scoring is widely used in Denmark by the banks and a number of private companies within telco and others. The credit scoring is split in two:

    Private: The probability of defaulting
    Businesses: The probability of bankruptcy
For privates, the credit scoring is always made by the creditor. For businesses it is either made by the creditor or by a third party.

There are a few companies who have specialized in developing credit scorecards in Denmark:

    Experian (generic rating for business)
    Bisnode (generic rating for business)
The credit scorecards in Denmark are mainly based on information provided by the applicant and publicly available data. It is very restricted by legislation compared to its neighbouring countries.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score#Denmark

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

#312

Post by Sacho »

seandougall wrote: post #289
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.

> Then don't ask for a loan. Translation: Don't participate in the economy unless you're independently wealthy. Conveniently left out: Don't ever apply to rent a house or an apartment. Instead, buy a home. In cash, of course, because you're independently wealthy. Oh, and also: Don't apply for a job. Because, you know, independently wealthy and all that. The idea that non-participation in the credit racket is anything…

Er... this is exactly how it works in developing / third-world countries.

My parents managed to obtain a loan for their first apartment thanks to my grandparents offering their house as colllateral. This is how pretty much everyone from my parents' generation got their first apartment.

Credit pretty much didn't exist in my parents' generation - loans were generally reserved for houses and cars, because of the strict conditions. Everyone saved up lump sums and paid cash. It's ineffficient, but far from "not participating in the economy".

It may be possible to negotiate different conditions on receiving credit, but I don't know if you can demand a modern economy without any drawbacks.

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

#313

Post by scruple »

paulgb wrote: post #108
ma2rten wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably they assumed that most people don't have credit monitoring yet and only a few people would go for the $125 option.

My guess is they start asking people who already signed up for the $125 for the proof of their credit monitoring. The settlement agreement and the terms we agreed to when accepting the $125 allowed them to do this, and they would probably see the number of claims go down.

I have credit monitoring through Chase through my Saphire Reserve card. They gave it to me for "free" and I never asked for it. I have to wonder how many others are out there, like me, who are just getting it as a matter of course as an add-on to one of their accounts.

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

#314

Post by beefield »

tallanvor wrote: post #309
beefield wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I am not that confident about that. I live in Europe, and to my knowledge we do not have that kind of credit score companies (there are databases about people who have defaulted their debts, though), and to my knowledge it is banks themselves that do the credit evaluation.[1] And credit for middle class is to my standards pretty cheap enough here as well. [1] More than happy to be corrected here with sources,…

Banks in Norway use Experian to check your risk. Anytime you apply for a loan you'll get a letter in the mail from Experian a few days later letting you know who made the request and what their response was.

Does Experian response with an actual credit score as opposed to information whether you have defaulted some of your loans recently or not?

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

#315

Post by tremon »

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.

But did you have the option to remove these onerous parts from the credit agreement? If not, you did not "opt in", you were coerced.

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

#316

Post by donaltroddyn »

svennek wrote: post #303
beefield wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I am not that confident about that. I live in Europe, and to my knowledge we do not have that kind of credit score companies (there are databases about people who have defaulted their debts, though), and to my knowledge it is banks themselves that do the credit evaluation.[1] And credit for middle class is to my standards pretty cheap enough here as well. [1] More than happy to be corrected here with sources,…

Of course they do (exist in Europe). Most companies giving you a credit of some sort (banks, phone contracts, ...) are required to do vetting of you. To help them do that, they use credit rating bureaus. In Europe, you as a private person just don't know it and don't have access to your own rating. But you are likely to be rated anyways.. Here is one danish example (at least three exists) https://translate.google.com…

> In Europe, you as a private person just don't know it and don't have access to your own rating. But you are likely to be rated anyways..

In the E.U., there are no private organisations who can process your personal data without making it available to you on request.

In Ireland, there's a state-run Central Credit Register, to which lenders must submit any consumer credit agreement above €200, and which they must check by law before issuing credit. Anyone can apply online to get their credit history from the CCR, and make submissions to correct inaccuracies.

There's also the Irish Credit Bureau, a private organisation with a similar purpose. They are also required to reveal data held about you on request, and correct inaccurate data held.

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

#317

Post by raverbashing »

tarsinge wrote: post #306
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.…

In France we don’t have credit scores and credit monitoring companies, but everytime you take a loan you are asked for a ton of proof of solvability, and basically give your full bank statements to the credit lender so that they can check your incomes vs spendings (and see what you spend on btw). Don’t know what’s worse.

The interviews sucks, but do you think those credit bureaus (+ your bank + your credit card operator) don't have that exact same information?

I might add it's one thing to buy a car or house on credit, another, very different is to gouge on credit cards and have them topped up beyond your repayment capacity.

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

#318

Post by elcomet »

frereubu wrote: post #308
tarsinge wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France we don’t have credit scores and credit monitoring companies, but everytime you take a loan you are asked for a ton of proof of solvability, and basically give your full bank statements to the credit lender so that they can check your incomes vs spendings (and see what you spend on btw). Don’t know what’s worse.

This is a great 99% Invisible episode about how credit cards came about, and what it was like beforehand, where you would be interviewed at length by a store before being given credit to buy, for example, a piece of furniture. Credit cards were designed to outsource checking of credit-worthiness, stop intrusive interviews with stores and avoid embarrassment of being rejected in-store. Lax digital storage of informati…

Coming from Europe, it would never occur to me to buy furniture on credit, is this something common in the US ?

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

#320

Post by jdietrich »

elcomet wrote: post #318
frereubu wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great 99% Invisible episode about how credit cards came about, and what it was like beforehand, where you would be interviewed at length by a store before being given credit to buy, for example, a piece of furniture. Credit cards were designed to outsource checking of credit-worthiness, stop intrusive interviews with stores and avoid embarrassment of being rejected in-store. Lax digital storage of informati…

Coming from Europe, it would never occur to me to buy furniture on credit, is this something common in the US ?

I'm also European, but buying furniture on credit is perfectly normal in my country - indeed, it would be quite unusual to buy any big-ticket item and not be offered credit terms, usually with an interest-free option.
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