| operations | | 0. | | 0. | comment |
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| 1. | | parent_author | "" |
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| parent_permlink | life |
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| author | violacasey |
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| permlink | adventures-in-locking-credit-reports |
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| title | "Adventures in locking credit reports" |
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| body | "It's been, what, five days now since the news of the Equifax hack broke. And still, it's a topic of national news!
My first reaction (like millions of others, apparently) was to immediately follow Equifax's instruction to go to their own brand new website (https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/) to ask them to check (really?!?) if your account had been hacked.
As you all know, if you have EVER borrowed money to buy ANYTHING, these credit reporting entities have the scoop on you. You had no say in the matter. Your credit history is available to anyone who asks for it, unless YOU have taken precautions to limit the access.
So, after I went sheeplike to their new website, I got a weird reply, that is, "Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information may have been impacted by this incident."
Come, on, people! Is this a contest to see how many words you could use to say "we think your vital PRIVILEGED information was taken, and is out there in cyberspace, in the hands of who-knows-who, who might try to open a line of credit in YOUR NAME??
I immediately clicked the button to sign up for their 'free for one year' credit monitoring service.
The response was, basically, we'll send you and email on Thursday. Huh?? We need to resolve this NOW!
The next day, a brilliant article came out in the New York Times.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/identity-theft/equifaxs-instructions-are-confusing-heres-what-to-do-now.html?_r=0&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com
Ah, the voice of reason. Put a freeze on all FOUR credit monitoring companies (there are FOUR?).
The article has links to the sites, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion & Innovis.
And so, I got to work.
I remembered that I already had login info for Equifax. And...got this drivel. "We apologize for any inconvenience, however, we are unable to log you into our system at this time. Please contact our Customer Care department at Equifax Customer Care or 1-866-640-CARE (1-866-640-2273), 7 days a week between the hours of 8:00am - 3:00am Eastern Time Zone and we will assist you with resetting your sign-in information."
Of course, says I to myself, they're gonna be slammed the hardest, as they started this mess. On to Experian.
Experian's site was tops. I didn't have to create a login, they simply asked me some personal questions to verify my identity (you've seen it before, "which of these 4 addresses is your former home" "which of these cars do you now or have you ever owned") they have my file already, as I mentioned before.
They then offered me their version of credit protection, for a fee, AND (the golden key) the choice to FREEZE my credit report. That means no one can access it until I choose to unfreeze it. There's a small fee ($7.50 in my case) based on what state you live in.
This is perfect for me, as I'm not going to be applying for credit any time soon. They immediately sent me an email with the PIN and specific info on how to unfreeze the account, when I chose to do so. Brilliant. I was encouraged. On to TransUnion.
TransUnion. Back to stonewall city. "...experiencing technical difficulties..."and a toll free # (888-909-8872). I'm wearing down at this point. Didn't that NYT article say this whole thing could be over and done with in 15 minutes??
Innovis was the easiest of all. No questions, no muss no fuss, or so I thought. They never sent me a confirmation email. Hmm...something's rotten in denmark...
That was yesterday, an hour of my life I'll never get back again.
Today I'll try again, but it occurred to me my Steemit friends might benefit from my (mis)adventures...
Happy Freezing,
Karen" |
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| json_metadata | {"tags":["life","news","story","money"],"links":["https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/","https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/identity-theft/equifaxs-instructions-are-confusing-heres-what-to-do-now.html?_r=0&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com"],"app":"steemit/0.1","format":"markdown"} |
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