I had to order copies of my credit reports today. I used the toll free numbers given by the three major credit reporting companies and for Experian [(888) 397-3742], and TransUnion (1-800-888-4213) things went pretty smooth with their automated credit report request service but for Equifax (1-800-685-1111) things went quite different.
First of all the speaker was speaking too fast but the major problem was after giving them the requested information the automated service informed me that they could not give me a copy of my credit report and that I would have to write a letter to them requesting a copy of my report and providing them with all sorts of information to prove my I.D.
I thought they already had tons of information on me. They could have put a live person on the line to ask me questions to confirm my identification so that I wouldn’t have to write a letter restating information that they already have or providing them with even more information which I don’t want them to have. Equifax should not make it so difficult to get a copy of a credit report.
I contacted my state’s consumer affairs department in order to file a complaint against Equifax but I don’t know if the law is on my side on this matter.
I feel everyone should be entitled to at least one free credit report from all credit reporting agencies per year.
I think credit reporting agencies should be well regulated especially since stupid potential employers are using individual credit histories more and more to determine if they should give a person a job which is quite asinine.
There are too many credit reporting agencies out there also. Each one of them could have wrong information on you in their files, which could affect your attainment of credit or job potential among other things. A person just cannot track down all the credit history-reporting companies to see if there are errors in their records.
These companies should also be strictly regulated on how they store and give out your credit information also. All that data on a person can be abused and privacy violated.
In my view there should be no more than three credit history (and that is too many) keeping agencies and they should be well regulated in the way they store the information and give the information out.