If It’s My Credit Report, Why Can’t I Fix It Or Always Have It For Free?

For all the concerns people have about internet search, privacy and "all that
info Google knows about us," I remain amazed at how much power credit reporting
agencies have to really dick with our lives and publish incorrect information
about us, with us seeming to have little ability to resolve things. And how all
we seem to be are profit centers to them.

Case in point. I was declined when I tried to open a new bank account
recently, because the bank couldn’t verify my identity.
TransUnion, they said, didn’t have a
telephone number listed for me. I’d need to contact "my" credit agency and
update this.

I was kind of annoyed. It’s not "my" agency, I explained to the bank rep –
it’s just some company that chooses to report my credit history without my
consent or cooperation. Nevertheless, if I wanted things resolved, I had to
spend time to follow up on the issue.

It’s been ages since I’ve had to deal with a credit agency, having lived
outside the US for so long. I hit the TransUnion site, found a phone number and
quickly got to a rep to ask what was up.

Oddly, he said TransUnion DID have a number listed for me. OK, what was it.
He couldn’t tell me — that was confidential. Confidential? I mean, to get to
this point, I had to give him my mailing address, my mother’s maiden name, my
name, my date of birth and my social security number. Didn’t he have enough to
know who I was?

Sorry, to see the actual number listed, I’d need to request a copy of my
credit report, and that would be $8. Um, wait — since I’d just been to the
TransUnion site, I remembered seeing something saying I get a free copy of my
credit report once per year. What’s up — how come I can’t do that.

Oh, I could, it turned out. He said I’d have to call a different number. But
now I was really annoyed — why didn’t he tell me from the beginning that I
could have a free report. We went round and round on this, with him eventually
saying — I kid you not — that he wasn’t allowed to tell me that. Hey
TransUnion, if you’re reading this, the call was recorded — so go check it out,
if you don’t believe me.

Not happy, I asked who I talked to if I had a complaint about how things were
handled. There was no one to file complaints with, I was told. Seriously. So I
asked for a supervisor, and at least there was someone like that I could talk
with. The supervisor did tell me my phone number, which was correct, and was
mystified that the bank couldn’t retrieve it. He also started to pitch me on a
monitoring service from them. I declined.

Back to the bank. They reran the report — actually not able to get the full
report because of a security block I guess I setup ages ago on it. But they were
able to pull some basic info and despite what the supervisor said, they still
weren’t getting my number. Advice? Call the credit agency again.

So I did. And again, I was told a number was in place. They also confirmed
that a security block was on my file, but no, they couldn’t tell me what that
said. That was confidential — despite having done the entire "verify who I am"
thing again. And despite being confidential, there was no problem with me having
it removed. Insane — I can remove a block, but I can’t be told what it was?

Back to the bank. No quick recheck this time, so I wait to see if it will go
through. Meanwhile, I went back to TransUnion wondering just how easy, if at
all, it was to change things online.

It turns out that by using the Dispute Item option on the home page (way
below under the much more prominent pitch for a "free trial" to monitor my
credit report), I actually got to see my report online.

What a mess. Look, there’s my UK address mixed with my US address as one of
my previous residences. No idea how that happened. And my phone number? No area
code listed, despite being given then when I was on the phone with them.

Want to update my number? No way to do that. I can delete it by putting in a
dispute resolution, but I can’t just say "hey, this is wrong." Same with
previous addresses.

This is a joke. Why can’t I simply go in and easily ensure basic information
about myself, where I live, where I’ve lived, how to reach me, is updated.

Much more important, by law I should have the ability to see my credit report
whenever I want, not once per week, not as part of a paid credit reporting
service. It’s my information that impacts my life. Let the agencies make money
off the businesses that use their information, not the consumers who actually
own it.