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Have you ever tried to call a rating agency to deal with an error or have your credit temporarily frozen? Did it look anything like this? (Photo: Screeenshot/Twitter/@SenWarren)
If credit agencies use your personal financial records to make their assessment of your credit-worthiness, why is it so hard to get them to freeze or adjust your credit rating when you are the victim of fraud or when some hacker manages to steal that sensitive information?
Good question.
And one that Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)--who has proposed legislation making it possible for individual consumers to put a hold on their credit without charge--was left asking in desperation after having this experience of trying to call the credit service giant Equifax on Monday:
"Warning," wrote Warren in a Facebook post, "from a painfully boring experience: calling Equifax to freeze your credit takes forever and may not even work. Freezing your credit file should be quick and free - that's why we need to pass the FREE Act."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
If credit agencies use your personal financial records to make their assessment of your credit-worthiness, why is it so hard to get them to freeze or adjust your credit rating when you are the victim of fraud or when some hacker manages to steal that sensitive information?
Good question.
And one that Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)--who has proposed legislation making it possible for individual consumers to put a hold on their credit without charge--was left asking in desperation after having this experience of trying to call the credit service giant Equifax on Monday:
"Warning," wrote Warren in a Facebook post, "from a painfully boring experience: calling Equifax to freeze your credit takes forever and may not even work. Freezing your credit file should be quick and free - that's why we need to pass the FREE Act."
If credit agencies use your personal financial records to make their assessment of your credit-worthiness, why is it so hard to get them to freeze or adjust your credit rating when you are the victim of fraud or when some hacker manages to steal that sensitive information?
Good question.
And one that Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)--who has proposed legislation making it possible for individual consumers to put a hold on their credit without charge--was left asking in desperation after having this experience of trying to call the credit service giant Equifax on Monday:
"Warning," wrote Warren in a Facebook post, "from a painfully boring experience: calling Equifax to freeze your credit takes forever and may not even work. Freezing your credit file should be quick and free - that's why we need to pass the FREE Act."