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If 22% of TV purchasers defaulted, leaving Wells Fargo to pay the bill, you bet your ass Wells Fargo would stop paying for TVs.

If that were what the article said, it'd imply that Wells Fargo should stop issuing lines of credit in excess of what people can repay. Whether the money was spent on Dogecoin or Home Shopping Network kitch, it's spent. The limit is there precisely so that the consumer doesn't spend more than he can repay (even if it is a long way down the road to paying it off).

Instead, what the study referenced in the article actually said was that 22% of those who purchased cryptocurrency on credit are still carrying a balance. Only 11% of those people carrying a balance said they wouldn't even sell their stake in crypto to pay the balance, which is greater (by 50%) than the average rate of default, but that's only considering this self-selected group of people willing to take extraordinary financial risk (and, we can presume, are not a typical cross-section of cardholders).

So, roughly the same number of people are being irresponsible with money as usual, but because they're being irresponsible in a new and different way, it's time to sound the alarm!

The security freeze prevents anyone, even you, from opening a credit account or getting a loan in your name, including yourself, until you lift the freeze.

You never know about a identity theft until after the fact and weird bills start coming in. Basically you agree to a PIN number. No new loans can take place in your name unless the applicant knows the number.

It's close to free but there may be a few $10 fees depending on where you do it: https://www.transunion.com/cre...

The credit reputation agencies don't offer it by default because their business model is to sell you fraud alert monitoring services. Logically, if there's a freeze, there's nothing for them to monitor. This is the cheapest and best solution.

Second, stop giving Equifax your money.
Third, class action suit.

PS: Krebs on Security has a great piece that's now a few years old but shows why credit freezes are good and the other crap sold by Equifax and their peers are more or less useless in comparison: Transition and Experien promote have little value: https://krebsonsecurity.com/20...

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

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

Actually they all have web forms available:

Experian

Equifax

TransUnion

...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.

The reporting agencies directly:

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

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.

No.

TransUnion works with them, and since TransUnion is the one selling your info (which they get from credit apps), it's not like you're providing any information they couldn't already get.

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

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.

On first glance, this site looks awefully phoney. However, it is linked to from TransUnion's site here so that gives it a little more credibility. Make sure to add the "s" to make your link secure: like this.

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?

From a Canadian perspective...

Having had my identity stolen (social insurance number, etc.), the first thing to do is to contact one of the credit agencies. In Canada you need to contact Equifax and Transunion. (I believe that Equifax also operates in the US; don't get me started about the PATRIOT Act ramifications for Canadians because of this) They will flag your account so that any company that receives a request for new credit cards, etc. must phone you for confirmation.

Next, file a report with Phonebusters. They will add your info to a database (and nothing else... they do NOT investigate anything). File the same report with the RCMP's Report Economic Crimes OnLine. The RECOL file is more likely to be acted on since it will actually appear on some officer's desk, but don't count on it. Next, file an identical report with your local police. My experience with local cops is that they don't give a shit and in some cases will refuse to take a statement; force them to take your statement because it's essential to the next step and it is your right to do so. Get a copy of this report (one officer refused to give it to me; again, it's your right to have it. In the worst case you'll need to write to the police archive department for it) and head down to your local HRDC branch to get yourself a new Social Insurance Number. You need to bring a copy of the local police report with you. After that comes the fun part about updating your social insurance number with your bank, employer, credit bureau, etc.

Also, if any company phones you to verify whether you've made an online purchase (that you didn't make), play dumb and get as much info about the delivery location as possible before confirming that it was a fraudulant purchase. Dell's fraud department refused to give me this information after I confirmed that such a fraudulant transaction had been made, citing issues of "privacy". The police refuse to do anything because the fraud wasn't valuable enough. Don't assume for a minute that the cops or businesses involved are going to help you out... you will need to gather as much information about the scammer as possible in order to protect yourself from future scams.

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 think your phone numbers are mainly their offer opt-out numbers. Better credit report numbers:
Experian : 866-200-6020
Equifax (also listed Maine as being able to get a free report): 800-685-5873
Trans Union : 800-888-4213

You are also entitled to a free report if you are unemployed.

Actually, you can get order and receive online from here

Transunion Click the order button -there's no charge if you're from one of the "free states" or unemployed and you haven't done this within the last twelve months

• Experian
• Equifax
• Trans Union

Well, I said "can", not "will". It's certainly possible to live without good credit, but it can make life very difficult, and if you're already in a position where you need the credit rating, a bad rating can certainly ruin you - for various values of ruin, of course. Some people may not consider having to move out of your house and give up the majority of your amenities to be ruined, others may.

I'm still not sure I agree. If you in a position where you need the credit rating, you probably shouldn't be using credit in the first place. If you have to move out of your house and give up the majority of your amenities, it's not the credit reporting agencies fault, it's your own. Either you started missing payments, or you chose a balloon loan.

Let me clarify my point about the difference between Equifax and E-Bay - I can, indeed call them up and say that, but my saying it won't be reflected in the report, it won't adveresly affect the person who gave me the bad rating, and, since the confirmation process in non-transparent, there's no way of me affecting it if the company simply says "Yes, so and so didn't pay us".

It most certainly will be reflected in the report. There will be a note next to the item that says that it is in dispute. Of course, eBay has this as well.

I'm sure some people have had excellent success removing false or misleading entries from thier credit report, but I've never heard of them.

Well, I've had false entries removed from my report, but none of them were actual disputes, just mistakes (such as someone else using my SSN). But the point is that there are a whole lot of federal regulations regarding what credit reporting agencies are allowed to report, and what they are not allowed to report. There are federal laws about who is allowed to access the report, and who must be notified. There are laws about what things have to be removed, and there are laws against making false statements to a credit reporting agency (yes there's also libel laws for eBay but try suing scamman35 in small claims court - there are laws forcing credit reporting agencies to give you the contact information of anyone who makes a report, no such laws for eBay, hell eBay doesn't even have to follow any sort of know your customer laws).

One of the other things that annoys me is how difficult they make it to view your own credit rating - yes, I know anyone who does a check on you has to provide you with a copy of it, but companies consistently make it difficult to actually obtain that.

I mostly agree with you, but TransUnion is a shining exception in that regard. You can check your report online for free if you qualify under the laws of the U.S. or your state. For the rest you have to call or write, which isn't particularly difficult, but it is a pain since they offer it for a fee online.

As for the dividing line, I understand your position, I just can't agree with it. Regulate both, or regulate neither, but don't regulate just one. Then again, maybe I only feel that way because I'm one of the lucky ones with an excellent credit rating (and a 0 eBay rating, 2+ and 2- I think).

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.

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

There are several things you can do to slow down the flood of snail-mail spam:

1. Go to the Post Office and request the form that allows you to stop route-based junk mail.
2. Contact the big 3 credit bureaus and remove your profile from their mailing lists.
3. Contact the Direct Marketing Association and add yourself to their Opt-Out list.

Here is a link to get you started: Opting Out

Good Luck!