07.01
In the US, you’re entitled to request a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus every year. The US government made them set up a website/process for it. Decided to do that a couple weeks ago so I carefully filled out the required form (Didn’t want to do it online) and sent it off with fingers crossed.
Got back a letter from one of them ( we won’t name names so they won’t slash my credit rating – which they’ve been accused of in the past ) today saying they didn’t have enough info to know who I am and wanted more. Not sure how much more they need since I gave them the info required by law on the form you’re supposed to fill out. SSN, last address, etc. And I’ve lived in the same place for 6+ years.
So, looking them up on Google, this seems to be normal behavior for this one agency. You have to give them the exact info in the exact format they want or they don’t give you anything back. So, if your address doesn’t match what they have for you, down to the punctuation, – no report. Not impressed.
I get the impression that they ONLY give you a comprehensive credit report if you pay them. And from reports I assume that the yearly credit report request uses one of the electronic request methods that causes search failures for the above reason.
And, they then use this failure to try to sell a subscription to their monthly credit reporting service. Which seems to be verging on a scam if all the complaints are valid. Impossible to cancel. Like some magazine subscriptions. And they’ve been sued by the FTC in the past for such behavior but keep doing it. Certainly doesn’t inspire confidence in the accuracy of their reports. And the complaints against them? Makes one wonder how they are allowed to do business in the US.
We’ll see what the other two say once they get back to me. The other two seem to do better in a Google search.
