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The problems are garbage data, conflation, risk analysis with random failures, entropy, and just ignoring facts-- among so many other problems.

That is where your Facebook and other "Social data" go: They decide whether you are going to have credit or not. If you don't get credit you don't get rich. If you are not rich you don't get credit. Think of an echo chamber on steroids.

Captcha: privacy

Unless you're using Tails and keeping your identities separate, you're trackable. Even if you do, there are still good ways to track you if someone is so inclined.

At my company, a major online retailer, we use EverCookie to redundantly persist user ids on the frontend across the different browsers on your machine, Etag tracking to match sessions on the backend when JavaScript is disabled, device fingerprinting / panopticlick methods to track any users who've successfully blocked all of the above, and Signal TAG to stitch those identities together and exchange them with data partners server-side so that consumer privacy measures can't disrupt our data collection. For the rare cases where all of that fails, partners like Experian Advertising and SimilarWeb get data from the major ISPs on what pages you're actually visiting and fill in the gaps in our advertising dataset.

Projects like Panopticlick are doing a great job at public education about privacy issues and informing the global debate. But, make no mistake about it, we're in a global arms race between ad tech and privacy tech that can't truly be won, given the pace at which these technologies evolve. Disabling JavaScript, installing ad blockers, enabling do-not-track, private browsing, using multiple browsers, etc won't do much more than make you *feel* safer; advertisers and publishers can and will continue collecting and sharing data for profit, regardless of what privacy settings you have on your browser or OS.

The way this battle is won, to everyone's benefit, is through education and public policy / industry standards. Consumers need to understand the limitations of their privacy online, the legitimate cases where advertisers need to track them, and how everyone wins in a world with *some* tracking under specific use-cases; advertisers, publishers and exchanges will continue to track to the greatest extent of their abilities so long at that remains profitable, which means industry standards and/or government policy will need to be put in place to impose costs on the cost-benefit analysis of tracking.

I just want to know if the credit monitoring is going to be through Experian? Also do I get to decide when the credit monitoring starts as I already have a couple of other services monitoring my credit and I don't think I need another concurrent one. It would be nice if these things stacked instead of ran concurrent.

They may only be able to sell it using an opt-in clause. Also, the penalty for not opting-in cannot be significant because it could be seen as coercion by a judge.

Then don't buy their product and go to someone else.. Oh wait, they're doing the same thing too. At the point that it becomes "normal" then it will reflect on you as "what have you to hide?" meaning that it'll take a large legal challenge to get this information gathering and dissemination stopped. This isn't data that they need, this is data that Allstate wants so it can create a market. Just like the big three credit reporting agencies segmenting your buying habits and your ability to buy new things and sell them. https://www.experian.com/busin...

What has to happen is the direct and indirect assaults on our privacy need to be stopped and I'm afraid that'll take a constitutional amendment because nobody in DC has the balls to stop it.

You read a post on Slashdot and you didn't understand it.

The proposal is not that if a person commits a crime and pays X amount for it then if a company commits the same crime they should pay X multiplied by the difference in their income, which is what you're arguing against in your example of speeding tickets.

This is in relation to the kinds of crimes that (generally) companies commit, and is arguing that if a large company commits that crime then it should pay a larger fine than if a smaller company commits the same crime.

It is possible that the scale of the crime has been included in the size of the fee, but if so it's a pretty ridiculous standard to begin with. "Hundreds of thousands of customer records" is pretty vague, but let's assume records for 250,000 people. That means a fine of $100 a person. That's not nothing, but it doesn't really cover the potential damage they may have caused. And furthermore in this case, although we are presuming the employees did not sell the data as part of a corporate directive, the fact that they were able to do so indicates some pretty serious lack of oversight and security, and some portion of the fee ought to be related to that. And _that_ part of the fee ought to reflect the size of the company involved.

$25 million could easily bankrupt a small company, but AT&T will hardly notice it amidst the yearly revenue of $132 billion and net income of over $6 billion. So the fine works out to about 0.4% of their yearly profit. In 2011 the average American household had $12,800 of discretionary income available, about the best equivalent to corporate profit i can think of. In which case if an average American committed the same crime the "expected" fee would be $51.20. That's not even a speeding ticket, that's about a parking ticket level of fine.

Given that I used Model S batteries, 'greater range vehicles' would account for it rather easily.

Recreating my work:
60 kwh (Smaller Model S battery)
29.7 kwh/day from 10,837 kwh/year

If you assume a 60 kwh battery will be retired to grid storage when it hits 70%, then recycled when it reaches ~40%, then assuming 50% average life remaining gives you ~30kwh to cover that ~29.7 kwh.

actual figures can vary wildly, of course. It might be 'worth it' to keep the pack even when it's only at 20% capacity. You might replace them when they reach 80%. But I figure that 30% degradation during EV use would be about the same time period as 30% degradation during fixed use, making battery durability not a significant factor so long as you're not losing batteries completely to failures too often.

Given the average of 2.28 vehicles per household..., you have enough for 1 day of homes if half of vehicles are electric, if 2 are(leaving ~12% of vehicles as something else) that should be enough to cover the commercial side as well, given that 37% of current electricity production is used by households, 34% commercial, 26% industrial. Some would be made up by batteries from pure commercial vehicles that don't belong to any household. Of course, if 88% of vehicles are electric that would significantly change electricity usage - my estimate was that the 2.28 vehicles would increase the average use of electricity by 50% going by averages for vehicles per household, miles driven per vehicle, miles per kwh, etc...

But I figure step 1 of any storage scheme would be to not charge EVs during a power shortage...

One note that I'm sure you'll love is that in a scenario where most of this electricity is generated with solar panels you'd logically want to charge all these EVs during the day as well. Would make for an interesting mechanic if it became a 'standard' benefit to provide charge for your employee's cars. I'm picturing solar car ports and shades...

> But a consumer has many time-consuming and often expensive hoops to jump through to get that back off their record. In many ways it's still guilty-until-proven-innocent.

I have a debt from well over 10 years ago which I refused to pay out of principle. I told the debt-holder to come sue me and we'll let a court decide if I was in the wrong. Of course they didn't, they just sent it to collections where it bounced from one debt collector to another over the years.

Anyway... my point is that after 7 years stuff like that is supposed to expire off your credit report by law. But mine is over 10 years and still listed. I am rich, I don't need credit (or a job) so I don't give a shit other than to note how fucked up it is for people who are not as lucky as me.

Sorry, but you are wrong. The AC mentioned Experian, so I guess this is a quick example: http://www.experian.com/screening-services/tenant-credit-check.html Only name and address needed (and annual income if you want them to make a decision for you, but not for the credit check). But you could also ask the hordes of people who are surprised when they find out their car dealer ran their credit with only their name and address (hint: if they never gave permission they can pursue the FCRA violation).

How many commercial companies would have this much customer data at risk?

Well.. I can name at least three: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Ah, since you mentioned the verbal part I thought it was essential to your dispute. Something else has been nagging me, though, and it's your statement, "The 'bad debt' from 1991 was still on my credit report last I looked. It's 'active' and renewed for another 7 years every time it's sold from one collection agency to another."

That looked so rotten that I had a hard time believing it was legal, and a preliminary search shows it isn't:

"[..] Federal law requires the lender to report the original delinquency date of the account that led to charge off and any subsequent collection efforts. The original delinquency date is the date from which the seven year period is measured.

The original account and any subsequent collection accounts are deleted seven years from the original delinquency date. Because each account must include the original delinquency date, none should return to your credit history. [..]"

Actually they all have web forms available:

Experian

Equifax

TransUnion

You can setup alerts with equifax and experian here:
equifax
experian

...Freeze your credit reports.

EQUIFAX Online Help: How to place a security freeze

Experian Online Help: Security Freeze

TransUnion Personal: Security Freeze

Problem solved, and you're not paying $9.95 a month for a service you can easily perform yourself that is far more effective then what any of these supposed "Identity protection" companies offer.

no matter how many types of fraud alerts you put

Better than a fraud alert is the security freeze. They won't open a new account if they can't see your credit report. The security freeze shouldn't even be a major inconvenience, unless you are one of the champs that applies for every new credit and store card under the sun.

The reporting agencies directly:

http://www.transunion.com/
http://www.equifax.com/home/en_us
http://www.experian.com/

AFAIK, anyone in the US can put a freeze on their credit report that will keep anyone - yes, even prospective employers - from getting a copy of your report. See here for details.

Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head. Experian eMail Append overlays deliverable email addresses onto your active customer file and contacts customers via email on your behalf to obtain permission to communicate with them online.

By "permission" they mean they send you email until you complain. If they happen to pick an email address that is normally not read by a person, they don't get any complaints. (Not that I opt-out of spam; I block it.)

Further on, they state Retain your customers by keeping your brand top-of-mind through consistent, relevant and interactive email communications. Yeah, good luck with that. I know four companies that have just lost my repeat business.

Thanks to all for an excellent discussion.

Needless to say I called BS on them because I was never provided with a copy of the agreement and they certainly don't have my signature on anything. Unfortunately, consumers have no legal rights when it comes to a credit report. It's not considered liable because credit reports aren't public information. Anyone have an idea of a legal argument I can make that would force them to tell the credit agencies the bill is invalid?

All you have to do is write the credit bureaus, Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. By law they are required to investigate and if you're right remove anything derogatory. If they can't verify your version they have to include your explanation of it in the report.

I've got to warn you thought that Experian has a bad record of verifying claims. I should also recommend people not to use any of those agencies that say they can clean up your credit, all they will do is dispute any bad claims which is explained above. They will also dispute every single bad claim all at once, and the report agencies frown on that. You should dispute only one or two items at a tyme, with 6 months between disputes filed.

Here's the info for all three. This is regulated by the states so it's possible that you might not be able to initiate this from your state. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20030613c2.asp Experian has a handy online form for you to do it. https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=FREEZE

Q: Do inquiries affect a credit score?
A: Inquiries placed on your credit report when you apply for new credit can impact your credit score. However, inquiries have a relatively small impact on your credit score. In a credit scoring model, there are stronger indicators of future payment performance, such as past payment history and use of credit. Inquiries are rarely, if ever, the only reason for poor credit scores. They only become significant if there are other issues already lowering your score, such as late payments or very high debt.

Q: Does every inquiry affect a credit score?
A: Anytime your credit report is pulled - including when you order a copy of your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency - an inquiry is added to your report. Only some of those inquiries appear to creditors and therefore impact your credit score. Inquiries that were made for credit cards or loans for which you applied will be shown to creditors and are counted in a credit score. Inquiries added when you request a copy of your credit report or when an employer checks your credit report do not appear to creditors. We are pulling your credit report on your behalf, so the inquiry on your credit report will not be shown to creditors and will not affect your credit score.

When you request your credit report directly from Experian, it shows you ALL inquiries. This is done so you know who has been looking at your credit. Some inquiries on your report are accompanied by a description of why the report was pulled.

have you checked your credit report since to make sure they didn't report you as late?

This email contains important information that requires your immediate
attention. Please do not reply to this e-mail; instead please use the
telephone number provided below if you wish to contact us.

You previously placed an order with AT&T for DSL-related equipment
through the http://www.sbcdslstore.com/ Website, at which time you
provided certain information including your name, address, e-mail
address, phone number, credit card number and credit card expiration.
(This information did not include your Social Security Number, Driver's
License Number, date of birth, or other identifying information.) AT&T
has learned that a computer containing the information you provided has
been accessed by an unauthorized person, who may have obtained this
information about you.

In addition, AT&T also believes that some customers who purchased
DSL-related equipment from us through this same website may be receiving
e-mails that appear to be from AT&T, but actually are being generated by
an unauthorized third-party (a practice known as "phishing"). These
e-mails refer to your prior order with AT&T and request that you
provide additional personal information such as your Social Security
Number, date of birth, or another credit card number and expiration date.
Please be advised that these e-mails are not being sent by AT&T and are not
legitimate. Do not respond to these e-mails or otherwise provide any of your
personal information in response or at any Website to which the e-mail may
refer you.
We sincerely regret that a third party was able to gain improper access
to your order information and we are working diligently with law enforcement
and major credit card companies to limit your potential exposure. Although
your 3-digit credit card verification number (from the back of your card)
was not stored, and therefore not accessed, we strongly suggest that you
contact your credit card company directly to report this suspected incident
and to protect the credit card you used to purchase this equipment from any
unauthorized activity.

In addition, we suggest that you contact the fraud departments of any one of
the three major credit-reporting agencies and let them know you may be a
potential victim of identity theft. That agency will notify the other two.
Through that process, a "fraud alert" will automatically be placed in each
of your three credit reports to notify creditors not to issue new credit in
your name without gaining your permission. For your convenience, we have
included contact information for all three credit reporting agencies:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta GA 30374
To report fraud: 1-888-766-0008
Website: http://www.equifax.com/

Experian
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
To Report Fraud: 1-888-397-3742
Website: http://www.experian.com/

TransUnion
Post Office Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
To Report Fraud: 1-800-680-7289
Website: http://www.transunion.com/

Lastly, to provide further security, AT&T is arranging to provide you the
option of enrolling for one year, at no cost to you, in a credit monitoring
service specifically designed to notify you of changes to your credit report
activity in order to detect fraudulent bank or credit card use. The service
will be provided by one of the major credit reporting agencies. We will
provide specific information on this option as part of a letter you will
receive via U.S. Mail in the next few days.

Again, we regret this unauthorized and unlawful access to your order
information and are working with law enforcement to pursue those who
are responsible. We are also reviewing applicable security procedures
in an effort to prevent an incident like this from recurring. Should yo

# Does every inquiry affect a credit score?
# Anytime your credit report is pulled - including when you order a copy of your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency - an inquiry is added to your report. Only some of those inquiries appear to creditors and therefore impact your credit score. Inquiries that were made for credit cards or loans for which you applied will be shown to creditors and are counted in a credit score. Inquiries added when you request a copy of your credit report or when an employer checks your credit report do not appear to creditors. We are pulling your credit report on your behalf, so the inquiry on your credit report will not be shown to creditors and will not affect your credit score.

When you request your credit report directly from Experian, it shows you ALL inquiries. This is done so you know who has been looking at your credit. Some inquiries on your report are accompanied by a description of why the report was pulled.

You can place a fraud alert on your credit report. An initial alert does not require a police report, and lasts for 90 days. During this time, you may end up having to jump through additional hoops to obtain new credit.

The easiest way to put an alert is to use the online form at Experian; alternately, you can call any of the credit reporting agencies to also set up an alert, if you want to do it by phone, instead.

The direct link for the Experian site to do this is:

https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSe ssion.do?code=SECURITYALERT

More advice available here for identity theft victims:

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/con_steps.htm

Hopefully, you will not need it.

-- Terry

Am I the only one who does not like Google collecting surfing habits or using email to decide what ads to send my way.

Yes. You're the only one who has ever had any misgivings over it. I'm so glad you finally said something, because certainly nobody else has ever thought it before.

Seriously - is your tin foil covering your entire body now? Or are you just that much of an egotist?

Will Google one day sell this information to employers?

Not without either violating their privacy policy or significantly changing it. But don't let that get in the way of your paranoia.

Will credit card companies and banks join a data mining company to share collected information?

No that would never happen.

Sorry, I was too lazy to link every single letter to a different data mining company, otherwise I could've included ones that operate predominantly outside of the US (although the big 3 all have non-US operations).

Your concerns on this issue are about 50 years out of date. And, somehow, I doubt that you know that much about the system as a whole either (and yes, I do).

Can people imagine if their bank, ISP, and employer joined forces to paint a complete profile of a person?

A rather large amount of that information, particularly the financial data, is already available. See above. If I pull a report on you from the credit bureaus then I can already tell a great deal about you -- where you live, how badly you are in debt (or if you're not), how much you're paid (roughly), possibly what kind of car you drive.

Can that data, when taken as a whole, be used to predict things like how much a person will cost in health insurance, and that data be used to not hire a person?

Not bloody likely. Even in Right to Work states you'd have a hard time pulling that one off. You might try, but if you were ever found out then you'd lose far, far more in legal bills than you'd ever gain in insurance savings. Not to mention that you'd get your ass sued off for invasion of privacy -- no matter what waivers you had employees (or potential employees) sign.

NO, NO, NO, it's

In Soviet Russia you buy your own information.

Equifax
Transunion
Experian

Unless you consider once a year access acceptable. Your credit report free. But that's only once a year.

Who's information is it anyway?

Gotta ask;

Isn't this a violation of privacy rights?
Not the loss of the backup tape, but the fact UPS is handing over personal information to another company.

If I want to use UPS as a reference for rating my credit, then I'll offer that information on my own accord when applying to companies who are seeking payment history.

This story however, clearly shows that UPS is regularily handing over private information to Experian.
http://www.experian.com/consumer/index.html

IMO that act should be illegal, let alone the negligence of loosing said information.

No surprise - the credit agencies are offering this now (for a fee) when you get your free credit report.

Experian, for example, offers "unlimited access to your credit report and score" and "email notifications of key changes to your credit report" for $10 a month. I'm sure the others are offering similar services.

Hi, you've reached 555-1234. If you're calling about a request for credit, please listen to this entire message. If you're calling to leave a message, press # (or whatever skips to the end of your outgoing message). I have recently had my personal information stolen and attempts may be made to obtain credit in my name. If you are calling to verify that a request for credit is legitimate, please note that I am a white female with dark brown curly hair, standing 5-5. I usually have a blue coat with a red diagonal stripe and a small black pocketbook. If the person who is requesting credit does not meet this description, please call the police

Also, call all your current credit card companies and tell them your identity was stolen, and that requests for change of address must be made in writing, with verification sent to your home address before the request is granted.

Finally, opt-out of pre-approved credit offers. This is so that the thief won't start receiving these offers in your name.

None of these are guaranteed, but they're good ideas anyway.

the best thing you can do, in my opinion, is place a "Security Alert" on your credit report/history/whatever. what this basically does is places a note on your credit report stating that your identity may have been comprimised, advising whoever is looking up your credit history to more thuroughly verify your identity. you can alert one of the three credit bureaus to place this "Security Alert" and that one will alert the other two. you can do this online here, plus you get a very basic rundown of your credit report (free). Note that this "security alert" is good for only 90 days, afterwhich the notice is removed from your credit record.

this information hasn't been posted here yet:

in addition to requesting your report over the phone as mandated by law, if you live in one of the required free report states (not the new credit act western states, but CO, GA, MD, MA, NJ, VT), you can view yours instantly online:

http:/www.experian.com/freestate link

The Big Three do not distinguish between you asking for your credit report and anyone else asking for it

Bzzt. Wrong. The credit agencies distinguish between a credit report pulled from the consumer versus a creditor. Futhermore, creditors that pull your report for 'promotional' reasons such as determining eligibility for 'pre-approved' credit cards don't count either.

Let me quote from Experian site: http://www.experian.com/credit_score_basics/credit _scores.html
'Certain types of inquiries (requests for your credit report). The score does not count "consumer disclosure inquiry" requests you have made for your credit report in order to check it. It also does not count "promotional inquiry" requests made by lenders in order to make a "pre-approved" credit offer - or "account review inquiry" requests made by lenders to review your account with them. Finally, inquiries for employment purposes are not counted.'

Trans Union contact information
Equifax contact information
Experian has the same info that I had to google for, it was not in the main "Contact Us" area.

You make a valid point, however.

OK, sue these guys

experian
Equifax
Trans Union

I visited the Experian website to try to find out how to do this for my credit report, and it looks like they only do this if you actually have been a victim of identity fraud. But I (like many people!) would rather do this as a way of preventing fraud.

My best guess is that they're trying to limit the availability of this service, which is obviously a good idea, because it would cost them a huge amount of money for the extra labor required to make a phone call or two to verify somebody's identity every time a credit check is made.

Has any non-victim had any luck with setting up fraud alerts? I'd like to know if this is possible. Do the credit reporting agencies ask for "proof of fraud" before they will flag any further credit checks with SSN?

• Experian
• Equifax
• Trans Union

I too will question the very advisability of single sign on. There are good reasons I keep multiple banking, credit card and merchant accounts. I specifically * don't want* one single authority to be tracking my every move. I * don't want* all my finacial and personal assets and records piled up in one location.

Well, fortunately for you, there isn't one single authority tracking your every move.

There's four.

Equifax.
Experian.
Trans Union.
IRS.

Oh, and if you live outside the US, trust me, the same info is available. Just change the last one to the appropriate regional authority, and maybe change one or two of the first three names to someone else.

Obviously others disagree but I think that single access is just plain dumb

Well, oddly, the entities listed above disagree. They very much prefer to track you by a single method of access.

And just how secure do you think that is?

The argument is, of course, that there is less risk with a well protected central account, but that account is an all or nothing sort of deal

As it is with the current system. And the current system has essentially no safe guards. Once I have the magic number I can get every other account number you have. And through the wonders of Automated Clearing House and Electronic Funds Transfer I don't need any other information to get every penny out of the accounts. Nifty, huh?

The only thing protecting you from having this happen is that nobody gives a crap about you. Which is pretty much the same thing that will protect you in any future system.

Back Story: I am the IT administrator for a midwestern dealership that sells German luxury cars. I am the first person at this dealership to be a dedicated IT person, and I've only been here for a few months. Approximately 20% of dealers nationwide have dedicated IT staff, and even then, it's usually the multi-location/multi-franchise operations, with one IT admin spread across an entire metro area. This isn't overly significant, until you realize that the average level of technological competence at the dealer level is just barely above room temperature. A handful of companies, such as ADP, EDS, Reynolds & Reynolds, and UCS, have figured out how to exploit this particular niche market.

Dealer Management Systems are BIG bucks. What you do is you put together a package of desktop systems (originally, green-screen dumb terminals, but more recently, PCs), a server (Usually Unix-based - Reynolds & Reynolds uses Irix on their older systems and Linux on their newer ones), software that does soup to nuts, and a network to tie the whole thing together. They sell this to a dealership, and then lock them into a support and maintenance contract. Changes, updates, etcetera all cost large sums of money (we spent 6 figures with our vendor last year). They'll also sell you preprinted forms and everything that work with their software - checks, service orders, coupons, you name it.

Experian is pushing the ASP model, because it means that a dealer doesn't have to worry about a server in a closet, swapping backup tapes, and so forth. As part of the hook, Experian is promoting its vast mine of data as a major benefit. As one of the Big Three credit bureaus, they have detailed financial, credit, and personal data on jsut about everyone in the country. They also have a database of (according to them) 335 million vehicles. This is great for doing history checks and such, but it can get very scary very quickly.

Picture this. You want to find out who lives within 15 miles of your dealership and makes enough money to afford your luxury automobiles (when it's luxury, it's more than just a car, it's an automobile). "No problem", says Experian, "we've got all that right here!". They can also tell you if they're credit-worthy, what they drive, and which of your competitors they bought their current vehicle from, and what it's worth as a trade-in. It goes downhill from there. None of the other companies operating credit bureaus have a division catering directly to the automotive business like this.

Let's face it, your personal data isn't personal anymore, it's an asset, and it belongs to companies like Experian.

www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcra.htm here's an FTC FAQ on credit reports.
Experian , Transunion and Equifax are the big 3 for reports.

IIRC, it was TRW that changed its name, and it's spelled ExperiAn. The "big three" credit reporting agencies are:

Equifax
Experian
TransUnion

When I read this story, I was floored by the pandering to the behemoth that is Experian. For those who don't know, they're the company that takes about one minute to damage your credit for the next seven years due to a complaint, but several months or years to get the complaint reversed when it was mistakenly done. Obviously they are business and not consumer oriented. I didn't know they were in the e-mail business, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're not correlating their credit info databases versus e-mail to provide us such wonderful services as 27% APR credit cards and the like.

How to deal with this? I will be calling them at 1 888 EXPERIAN (1 888 397 3742). I also found a response form at http://www.experian.com/cgi-bin/mail_page/form?cat egory=o. Voice your displeasure over this travesty of justice and continued trampling of consumer rights!

That means, you do go out and get a copy of your credit report every year, right? (Depending on which state you live, it might be even free.)

Make sure everything inside of it is what you expect. If not, call them up can fix it. Fix possible problems before they become real ones. You will need to do this before you buy a house, or car, so learn now while everything is still okay.

You won't believe what you see: my wife had credit charges from her mother, just because their names are similar (not even the same!). We had to call up and have these removed.

Additionally, you will see lots of bottom-feeding banks pinging your report for "pre-approved" offers. There were literally hundreds of credit checks by people that had no fucking business looking in there. Thankfully, you can call 1-888-5OPTOUT to stop this insanity. Do it now. They will mail you a form which you need to sign, but do it! Watch your "pre-approved" credit card snailmail spam drop to zero.

I used to work for a small consumer finance agency, where I'd review credit applications, look at credit bureau reports, and did telephone collections. Unless things have changed, and they either have for the case of student loans, these kids dont' know all their rights or options.

"They don't threaten you, but they don't have to. How can you prove you didn't owe $100 bucks five years ago, and can you afford to have your loan held up in the meantime? Not me."

You don't have to prove you didn't owe $100 five years ago, they should prove it. At the very least they need to provide a signed piece of paper (promissary note) saying "I owe you $xxx.xx" If they can't produce this, or some other evidence then you don't owe them anything. But in your case you probably don't have much time for all this fighting. All I can suggest is contact your state banking commission and file a complaint.

If you've ever been turned down for credit, you're entitled to a free credit report. Two credit reporting agencies are Equifax and Experian Contact them, and get a copy of your report. Its kind of tricky to read if you've never seen one, but they include instructions and everyone should check their credit report once a year.

If something doesn't look right on your credit report, challenge it. The lending institution has to respond within a certain amount of time (30-45 days?), or it will be wiped out of your credit report. That is, unless the law about this has changed since I've worked in the collections field.

I am about to begin looking to buy a townhouse, and started doing some research, and all of the books point out that you should check your credit reports for mistakes (obviously). I filed to get copies from the 3 major companies (Trans Union Credit, Experian, and Equifax) and discovered that 2 of the 3 had "minor" mistakes on them. One had an old drivers license number, and another had my last name mispelled AND had that I still owed $30 on a student loan (paid off 2 years ago, but the $30 would not have been due for probably another 5+ years) but it still was a mistake. Even these minor problems could possibly cause problems when applying for a mortgage. Anway, people should check their credit reports from ALL 3 of these major credit report agenceies to verify mistakes. I know that Mass residents are entitled to one free copy/year from each, as well as a few other states, but even if you are not, it is probably worth spending the $8/report on all three of these at least one time, and probably keep up every so often as well.

Y'see, *this* is why the EU has been unhappy about data transfers to the US - we have stringent data protection legislation.

In the UK (whose implementation I know best), data holders *must*

1. Be registered to hold and process identifying data and only do so for a proper length of time
2. Obtain data fairly (ie from you with your permission or from a reputable (ie registered)) source
3. Ensure that that data is up to date
4. Ensure that the data is only disclosed to proper persons or bodies
5. Give you the right to view your own data
6. Only use it for proper purposes

Therefore, you can view your credit history as disclosed to financial companies by writing to Equifax or Experian (the 2 big credit reference agencies) with a £2 cheque, and challenge any erroneous info they hold about you.

"Getting you closer Experian is an information solutions company. We help organisations to use information to reach new customers and to develop successful and long lasting customer relationships.

We have built our business on the simple premise that commercial success is about getting close to customers. The more an organisation understands them, the more able it is to respond to their very individual needs and circumstances.

This is the approach that we adopt in our own client relationships. It is also the underlying motivation behind everything we do as a company."

Strike me pink if THAT's not a warm and snuggly statement of porpoise!!

And their clients are happy as clams, too. Over a million Frenchpeople are serviced via the tracking on TF1, which I gather is Tee Vee France One.

Also English Banks, and variousBanks, like that they fight fraud!! See, they fight fraud by having a file on everybody, isn't that great?!

Unauthorized use is way, way down! And don't worry your little heads about AUTHORIZED use. It's AUTHORIZED!