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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

#411
Let me share this real quick. A friend referred me to this genius who's an expert in credit repair, I contacted this dude and he told me he could get rid of my student loan, remove all negative items on my credit and also increase my score and that it would only cost me. At first I didn't believe this but I decided to give it a short since I really need this. To my greatest surprise he was able to get rid of the student loan, all bad items on my credit and also improved my score to 800s. With this I was able to get my first house and also do things I have wanted to do. You can get to them on globaltechnologies46 at G m ail dot co m. You can tell them I referred you.

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

#412
A friend referred me to this genius who's an expert in credit repair, I contacted this dude and he told me he could get rid of my student loan, remove all negative items on my credit and also increase my score and that it would only cost me. At first I didn't believe this but I decided to give it a short since I really need this. To my greatest surprise he was able to get rid of the student loan, all bad items on my credit and also improved my score to 800s. With this I was able to get my first house and also do things I have wanted to do. You can get to them on globaltechnologies46 at G m ail dot co m. You can tell them I referred you.

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

#413
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Why feed into it? This is the mentality that kills me. Why double down and try to make something that is already being gamed? The very definition of insanity is doing The same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There is no right to operate a business that exposes everyone to risk they have no choice in whether to accept or not. Centralizing excessive amounts of data with obtuse and dubio…

It wouldn’t put anyone at risk if we held lenders to a legal standard of proof that YOU signed a contract asking for money. It might be inconvenient but not compared to being stuck with debts you never agreed to.

The problem with that, is the story doesn't stop at "You" when another person can get enough information to act as you in a legal sense.

To me, this entire industry reeks of people engaging in risky behavior, but trying to externalize the costs/risks of said risky behavior, and consequemces be damned. Furthermore, they want the agency that gets externalized to "make money", something which encourages the minimum amount of investment humanly possible in making sure they are actually solving the problem in a way that doesn't merely create new ones.

Furthermore, it seems to me that the financial sector is eating the bloody world; as the metrics they gather are being gleefully used as discriminators in far more than just loan granting.

The system is either so critical to the way the economy works, that we should be willing to "sink" money in the interests of making the system as effective as possible (I.e. no dark pattern B.S., easy to use controls, easy to manage all interactions with, and maintained to the highest degree of security), or it isn't, and a discussion needs to be had whether having such valuable pots of exploitable data is something we should even tolerate as an acceptable exercise.

To be quite honest, I've seen more harm than good come out of the system given the ubiquity of the Credit history "bootstrap" problem, and now the compromise of a huge portion of the American population's personal data.

Trying to couch this as merely a case of "oh, we just need more contracts" without addressing the central problem of your identity essentially being hijacked by a bunch of for profit involuntary surveillance companies operating under an incentive structure pushing minimum viable effort in protecting your data, ensuring it's correctness, and restricting access to only appropriate reasons.

Throw in the failure of the FTC to clearly levy a strong enough penalty leaves me feeling this industry is a social liability in it's current form.

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

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a moment to re-read what I said. Give it some thought. It will make more sense when you step back and think broader, and pay less attention to conventional wisdom

Are you saying that you should be able to borrow someone else's money, even when they deem you risky? Credit score is a proxy for a lender to determine your credit worthiness. You don't need one if you don't plan to take on credit.

I'm saying there is a difference between lending/borrowing money and a perversion of the Surveillance State.

They current "credit tracking" systen has massive over-reach. So much so that if there's a breach/hack thousands if not millions are subjected to those mistakes. __And__ we have no choice but to say "Thank you sir. Can I have another?" We have __zero__ alternatives. Normalized or not, that's unacceptable.

There is a differnce between evaluating my credit worthiness and mitigating your risk, and imposing a monopolistic over-reach program that controls the fate of so many.

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

#415
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equifax and their brother businesses give us low rates in exchange for exposing us to fraud risks whose monetary value is probably literally incalculable. The thing is, we don’t get to choose whether we’re exposed to those risks. It happens whether we like it or not. So let’s say I start a company that offers better TCO: my rates are a bit higher but this is more than made up for by a much lower fraud risk. Do I win…

There are underwriting systems that don't pull credit reports. The loan rates are around 20% and go down as you develop a history with them. People have choices.

They don’t really. Let’s say I choose to avoid the traditional credit system and go with one of these other things. Then some fraudster opens an account in my name with my info and suddenly I’m in Equifax anyway. Then Equifax gets breached and even more fraudsters use that info. I’m stuck trying to prove my innocence to creditors despite having supposedly chosen not to participate in that system.

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

#416
I now have monitoring from multiple source who have managed to leak my information. Redundant monitoring neither makes me feel more secure, nor reimburses me for inconvenience, stress, and extra activity required on my part due to their incompetence. I prefer a cash settlement on principles, and expenses and restitution should the compromised information be used to harm me financially.

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, in a word, extortion.

Saying "I'm not going to loan you money if I can't be sure you'll pay it back" is not extortion.

They are saying “nobody is going to loan you money if you don’t play our games”. There is no other party you can go to if you don’t like their behavior.

A loan is shared risk. If it wasn’t there should be no interest payments above inflation and labor.

Where is the line for invasiveness? I mean, if I knew a couple was having issues and they were in counseling, but they didn’t start until eight years in, that’s a bad sign and any therapist will probably tell you so. If a bank is allowed to know everything about you they will say no to a loan, probably killing the relationship once and for all. Similarly if they know he has a doctor appointment to look at the lump on his testicle. Predicting people’s lives are about to get very difficult and then forcing it to happen by rejecting or calling a loan is movie villain cruel.

If I were their friend and knew about the marital strife, and they wanted to borrow money from me to do something expensive, my reaction would be no. It was always going to be no because I don’t loan money to friends unless I don’t want that friend. But what I’m going to say is, “besides, those two aren’t gonna be together in three years so how would I get my money back?”

You want banks in your bedroom? Because by their logic this is useful information and if it’s available it would increase their profit margins...

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

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

#419
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

A car dealership or mortgage lender is not going to write you a loan with no information on your creditworthiness, or no deterrent to nonpayment. If they do, it will be at a rate that reflects the enormously elevated risk. Information about creditworthiness is essential to credit’s wide availability.

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

#420
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case they make they money with people that forget about it, or do it late and pay huge premiums. I don't want to encourage this business model, that's why I don't do it.

No, they offer the credit to incentivize you to make the purchase right now, don't think about how to pay it now, because ... you can just pay it over a year. And it's perfectly okay for example if you just bought a new flat and you're broke as fuck, because you spent all your cash on must-repair stuff, like getting the plumbing in order, but you also fancy a new bed, because you have none, so interest free bed it is…

But why do the banks do it if they don't get any interest? It seems they are just loosing money here.
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