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How Equifax Became a Private IRS

mattstoller.substack.com

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Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#51

Post by vuln »

coderintherye wrote: post #49
refurb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no free lunch. Limiting credit checks to AGI just means everyone will assumed to have an unknown credit history and will have much higher rates. You ready to get a mortgage at prime plus 5% instead of prime plus 1%? But let me guess, we could create a law about that? Having the government do things doesn’t magically mean market forces don’t apply any more.

The point is not about limiting it to AGI, the point is setting limits on what data is shared so that you as the consumer always control what a requesting company sees. Don't want your data shared? No problem, you can set to deny all requests. Only want to share AGI but not your entire return, just allow that field, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your response also seems to indicate you don't work in financial ser…

People don't understand how credit scores work and you want to give them the power to allow granular permissions?

Just like Facebook gave people granular access to their privacy settings?

If the general population doesn't read EULAs and speed clicks through 99% of dialogs presented. I highly doubt people won't check the _allow all_ box once and be done with it.

Hell Apple gives my significant other the ability to ask apps not to track and they tap to ALLOW the app to track because "I don't mind ads and they'll show me better ads."

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#52

Post by WaxProlix »

kornhole wrote: post #50

Since I can't opt out of this and all the scoundrels can see it anyway, I think I should just post my salary on my Linkedin page. If everybody did that, it would undercut this business and bring to light the inequities to the common people.

They can and always do ask you anwyways. Equifax brings a 3rd party trusted account to the table - you volunteering some info isn't helpful, they don't trust your number.

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#53

Post by fragmede »

refurb wrote: post #40
33955985 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reasonable take if you ignore how this system reinforces existing inequality + the ways this system is used outside its original scope. Also you have to admit it’s kind of fucked up that there’s no total opt out mechanism.

That makes no sense. How does “checking if people are credit worthy” reinforce inequity? If you can’t repay, you shouldn’t be taking on debt. If anything it prevents people from taking on debt they can’t afford, stopping them from further inequity. And you can opt out. Don’t use credit at all. (edit: of course a credit record will still exist, but it won't matter if you don't use credit) This sounds like a bunch of p…

You're assuming the database is 100% accurate, and people never have their identify stolen. Which is demonstrably false.

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#54

Post by sokoloff »

medvezhenok wrote: post #33
BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few credit cards that I no longer use. If I cancel them my score would go down because the average age/length credit history would go down. Not by that much, but it is surprising that leaving these cards open is incentivized whereas the more secure and less risky thing to do would be to close those accounts.

The closed card drops off your account history after ~10 years, so your score shouldn't immediately go down. Technically, I'm not sure that the credit scores can differentiate between you closing a card and the bank closing your card (the latter might be some sort of signal of potential change in creditworthiness) In general, credit scores are optimized for the average consumer - and so behaviors around the edges don…

In general, your score would immediately go down as your credit utilization would go up (outstanding balance over total available credit).

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#55

Post by Retric »

piyh wrote: post #29
Retric wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is the rules include things like lowered scores after paying off a home loan and companies are using these scores for things that have nothing to do with the likelihood of paying back a loan. They don’t even do a very good job of what’s intended as people can literally have an 800 score the week before declaring bankruptcy.

It's a score, not a fortune teller. It's for financial modeling, and only one thing of many that lenders look at.

The entire point of a credit card score is to predict the future.

Being bad at that because of inherent inaccuracies in their methodology is a problem.

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#56

Post by fragmede »

jasonjayr wrote: post #39
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equifax collects data that isn't true and libels its victims by disseminating it to other parties. Having that power enshrined within the government would not be a good thing.

Why? Government answers to it's people. Equifax answers to it's shareholders. IRS already has that info. The people have the power to control and influence how that data is handled, and distributed. We have no power to compel Equifax to do anything.

Government is able to compel Equifax to do things, and is run by we, the people, so it seems like we should be able to something, for sufficiently large and powerful numbers of "we".

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#57

Post by epgui »

corytheboyd wrote: post #27
epgui wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there just needs to be an authority doing this People will tolerate even the harshest laws if they feel like they are applied fairly. But in this case there is no published rule book, and no published methodology for calculating credit scores. There is not even the most basic transparency.

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see the rule book too. Would you trust the rules though? There will always be the mysterious few with the power. I wish we could just have nice things without corruption :/

> Would you trust the rules though?

Rules don't need to be trusted, they need to be written down and available for reading.

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#58

Post by coredog64 »

sokoloff wrote: post #54
medvezhenok wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The closed card drops off your account history after ~10 years, so your score shouldn't immediately go down. Technically, I'm not sure that the credit scores can differentiate between you closing a card and the bank closing your card (the latter might be some sort of signal of potential change in creditworthiness) In general, credit scores are optimized for the average consumer - and so behaviors around the edges don…

In general, your score would immediately go down as your credit utilization would go up (outstanding balance over total available credit).

0/infinity is still zero

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#59

Post by lmm »

xxpor wrote: post #4
nimbius wrote: post #2

A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…

I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.

> If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit.

Unless you're on the Equifax blacklist. Journalists who wrote anti-equifax articles tend to find their way there, as do ex-girlfriends of upper management. And conversely women who do NSA hookups with a VP or above tend to find their way onto a whitelist that boosts your credit score by 150 or so - it's considered an unwritten perk of the job.

(The above is purely speculation, I have no idea whether any of it is actually true, but honestly, why wouldn't it be?)

Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS

#60

Post by [deleted] »

coderintherye wrote: post #49
refurb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no free lunch. Limiting credit checks to AGI just means everyone will assumed to have an unknown credit history and will have much higher rates. You ready to get a mortgage at prime plus 5% instead of prime plus 1%? But let me guess, we could create a law about that? Having the government do things doesn’t magically mean market forces don’t apply any more.

The point is not about limiting it to AGI, the point is setting limits on what data is shared so that you as the consumer always control what a requesting company sees. Don't want your data shared? No problem, you can set to deny all requests. Only want to share AGI but not your entire return, just allow that field, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your response also seems to indicate you don't work in financial ser…

[deleted]
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