Their continued existence is pernicious and a policy failure. We should be able to replace them with a competitive privacy preserving scheme that wipes those businesses out.
Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
31–40 of 108 posts
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#32It is mind-blowing to me how incompetent the credit agencies are. I just tried to check my credit was frozen everywhere and I couldn't log into Experian. Tried "forgot my password"... oops, "can't find your username". Tried entering my email, "please verify with your phone number"... oops, "doesn't match our records". Tried "verify another way" and it asked for my phone number and last 4 of my SSN. Hey, that worked!…
I think it's the opposite of Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to stupidity/incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice/evil-intent.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#33Quit complaining. If your personal data is leaked, and your credit and financial life is ruined, at least you get a year of free credit monitoring. Sheesh. /s
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#34Banks and data companies are moving to biometrics for proof of identity and you may have hit this. At least 3 credit card companies I use are signed up/using a biometrics/information provider. (they wouldn’t tell me who, despite federal disclosure requirements — I only knew they were using someone because my current accurate info was replaced by info from 7 years ago) There are companies trying very hard to find out…
You’re forgetting about the KYC/AML laws that lets these companies do that. They can deny bank loans, auto loans, etc based on comment history and then hide behind KYC/AML laws. Under those laws, they don’t have to provide any reason whatsoever for the rejection and can operate without impunity. They are the judge, jury, executioner and the government gave them that power.
I mean if you're not willing to sue somebody then they're always the judge/jury/executioner.
It's a bit akin to all those people who complain it's impossible to know why Google closed your account despite evidence [1] to the contrary.
[1]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-google-bothered-to-ap_b_2...
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#35Credit reports are a racket. I've barely had any luck obtaining one of my reports from the site in the past few years. I'm at the point where I think I will freeze my credit.
I applied for a credit card recently and got denied, which was weird since I have a good credit score. Applied for a different one, they eventually emailed and asked if I still wanted the card. When I said I did, they told me they needed me to unfreeze one of my credit reports. I had forgotten I did it years ago. Oops. I eventually got a snail mail from the first credit card company telling me that was why it was denied and to unfreeze it if I still wanted the card.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#36The problem is, as you articulated, they are required by law to provide credit reporting information about you to you. They have no incentive to do this because they make their money by collecting and selling data about us. They have every reason to use this reporting requirement to collect more information about you. They have every reason to conflate credit freeze with credit hold , and confuse consumers in order t…
100% agree on the incentives
Similar to why cookie accept/deny interfaces are atrocious. They're intended to be!
I think a solution will require more creativity than "have the government do it", but the current system is clearly broken.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#37> confirmed identity by asking knowledge based questions I'm not sure I feel good about this either. Isn't your mother's maiden name, the street you grew up on, your first concert, or your pet's name all information that is pretty much well known by now. Primarily by you (royal) for taking those stupid social media quizzes.
I actually prefer this over the other currently available options (Install our app on your phone so you can click "Accept" ... and give us access to scrape everything off of your smartphone!). I just select random questions from their list, and use the same answer for each of the questions. If they don't accept the same answer for each question, then I conclude I don't need whatever it is they're offering as badly as…
> ... and give us access to scrape everything off of your smartphone!
Deny them the access? Phones are way more restricted than home computers here. App stores also reject apps that insist on permissions that are out of their scope.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#38The problem is, as you articulated, they are required by law to provide credit reporting information about you to you. They have no incentive to do this because they make their money by collecting and selling data about us. They have every reason to use this reporting requirement to collect more information about you. They have every reason to conflate credit freeze with credit hold , and confuse consumers in order t…
100% agree on the incentives Similar to why cookie accept/deny interfaces are atrocious. They're intended to be! I think a solution will require more creativity than "have the government do it", but the current system is clearly broken.
I don’t think government should do it at all. That would be same broken thing.
I just don’t want a selected (not by me) set of companies collect information about me without my consent.
I would rather have an opt-in system where I can select a vendor to make a report on me to provide to lender. Only when I want it.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#39It is mind-blowing to me how incompetent the credit agencies are. I just tried to check my credit was frozen everywhere and I couldn't log into Experian. Tried "forgot my password"... oops, "can't find your username". Tried entering my email, "please verify with your phone number"... oops, "doesn't match our records". Tried "verify another way" and it asked for my phone number and last 4 of my SSN. Hey, that worked!…
Just wait until you have to deal with someone else's credit information showing up in your report because of vaguely-similar names. It's very difficult to deal with without paying for a proxy to deal with it for you.
Re: Tell HN: Equifax free credit report dark patterns
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re forgetting about the KYC/AML laws that lets these companies do that. They can deny bank loans, auto loans, etc based on comment history and then hide behind KYC/AML laws. Under those laws, they don’t have to provide any reason whatsoever for the rejection and can operate without impunity. They are the judge, jury, executioner and the government gave them that power.
I mean if you're not willing to sue somebody then they're always the judge/jury/executioner. It's a bit akin to all those people who complain it's impossible to know why Google closed your account despite evidence [1] to the contrary. [1]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-google-bothered-to-ap_b_2...
You do realize most of these payment processors or even financial institutions have arbitration clauses right? And as a business, they have the legal right to refuse for any reason not disability related. Hell, they could deny a disabled person a loan based on the unlikelihood they would pay it back and then hide behind KYC/AML laws. Oh we're not denying you based on disability, it's just some flags have popped up in our system and we can't tell you why. Google doesn't have KYC/AML laws to hide behind.
The funniest part is that HSBC already revealed to criminal organizations on how to evade KYC/AML tripwires. When you outlaw freedom, only the outlaws have freedom.