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Open question for hacker news denizens: why don't the three main credit bureaus let you register your SSN, and get alerts in an app whenever someone tries to ta

by zellyn 9y ago

Open question for hacker news denizens: why don't the three main credit bureaus let you register your SSN, and get alerts in an app whenever someone tries to take out a loan? I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat. Hit me up with the unintended downsides :-)

toomuchtodo 9y ago
Credit Karma does this for free. https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-monitoring https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-monitoring
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  They sell your data so they can sell you loans and credit cards, though.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    My understanding is they don’t sell your data, but they do use it to recommend you financial products they make a commission from. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
    - theandrewbailey 9y ago
      That's what "selling your data" means anymore.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - namibj 9y ago
        No, as long as they do not give it out to third parties. It is the same way Facebook does not sell your data, yet makes money from it.
        s73v3r_ 9y ago
        It's still selling the data.
- zellyn 9y ago
  It seems hard to believe 75 million people have signed up for Credit Karma: that would be like 1 in 4 for the entire US population. Am I missing something obvious?
s73v3r_ 9y ago
Probably for the same reason they don't give me unfettered access to my credit report without cost to me. They don't care, and it doesn't help them make money.
nathan_long 9y ago
I think we have a broken system as long as I have to care when someone tries to take out a loan in my name. I certainly don't want alerts in real time. If someone takes out a loan from Foo Bank while pretending to be me, the borrower has committed a crime and Foo Bank has foolishly let themselves be robbed. It's got nothing to do with me, and I don't want an unpaid job correcting other people's mistakes. The right solution would be a "innocent until proven guilty" approach to debt. If Foo Bank says I owe them money that I didn't borrow, I should be able to say "nope that wasn't me" and unless they have proof otherwise, that should be the last I hear of it. It shouldn't be my responsibility to prove I didn't borrow the money; it should be theirs to prove I did. Put that into law, and identity theft would no longer exist. Banks could decide whether they want to actually verify identity in a way that stands up in court ("well actually here's video of you standing in our office and stating that you want to borrow this money in your own voice, reading aloud the SHA of the contract you signed and giving us your fingerprints"), or just let their money be stolen. Either way, not my problem.
- zellyn 9y ago
  Right. We all agree on that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E Unfortunately, that appears not to be consistent with the dreary reality we find ourselves in :-(
  - nathan_long 9y ago
    Right. But my point is, if we're going to try to fix something, "let's give consumers earlier notification that their finances are being ruined" isn't a great goal without giving them the power to stop it. "Don't let banks ruin people's finances via incompetence" is a good goal.
eximius 9y ago
They can't figure out how?
mdpopescu 9y ago
Actually, I believe you can do that - you can put a "freeze" on your reports, and any new loan applications need a password to unfreeze them. See [1]. [1] - https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-freeze-your-credit-report-at-each-credit-bureau-960796 https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-freeze-your-credit-report-...
- yebyen 9y ago
  That's really not what parent poster was asking for... "Pay $10 and follow onerous procedures to unfreeze" and "receive a notification on my phone when my file is opened" are really not in the same class of interaction. I would like to be able to alert the company that just issued fraudulent credit account in my name, directly, that they have done a bad job at KYC, to tell them they have just interacted with a person who wasn't me ASAP after the event. The best I can get right now is to check with the credit report provided by my CC issuer once a week, and hope they get the signal, and that I read it on time. A week later on-demand is still not anything like a notification on my phone when the file is opened. If this loop is tight enough, I might even be able to call the company who has been contacted by the phony applicant and get them to stop the process before any loss occurs! By comparison I really have no desire to freeze my credit through the agencies, if it means I'll have to go through an extra hassle and pay a fee (and fwiw to some companies I really consider to be bad actors and not trustworthy at all) every time I move, or sign up for a utility account, or open a credit card. It's not really the job of credit reporting agencies to verify identities, and just like that it's not my job to "own" the credit file. Even though it's ostensibly my personal information, that is actually the fact in question here, and next step in the dispute resolution process is up to the credit issuer to verify the debt (which they won't be able to do properly, if they have done a poor job at KYC.)
  - Jesus_Jones 9y ago
    I think the reason they don't do this is because we, the consumers, are not the paying customer to the credit bureaus. We have to defend against them messing things up for us. They can give out credit in our names that we then have to pay, or spend lots of time and money fighting against. If they were consumer focused, like say a bank, they would make it easier to control. If the credit bureaus had to pay for the fraud, they'd try to control it more intelligently, like banks. If they did that it would hurt their business somewhat, because it would make it harder for people using their services, businesses trying to sell me a car or whatever.
lnanek2 9y ago
I know Experian will list inquiries on their site. They also email with every positive and negative score change. I'm scared to login and see if they have an email on inquiry option, though, since they often scam activate some monthly billing feature I don't want...

by zellyn 9y ago

toomuchtodo 9y ago

Credit Karma does this for free. https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-monitoring https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-monitoring

s73v3r_ 9y ago
They sell your data so they can sell you loans and credit cards, though.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  My understanding is they don’t sell your data, but they do use it to recommend you financial products they make a commission from. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
  - theandrewbailey 9y ago
    That's what "selling your data" means anymore.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - namibj 9y ago
      No, as long as they do not give it out to third parties. It is the same way Facebook does not sell your data, yet makes money from it.
      - s73v3r_ 9y ago
        It's still selling the data.
zellyn 9y ago
It seems hard to believe 75 million people have signed up for Credit Karma: that would be like 1 in 4 for the entire US population. Am I missing something obvious?

s73v3r_ 9y ago

Probably for the same reason they don't give me unfettered access to my credit report without cost to me. They don't care, and it doesn't help them make money.

nathan_long 9y ago

I think we have a broken system as long as I have to care when someone tries to take out a loan in my name. I certainly don't want alerts in real time. If someone takes out a loan from Foo Bank while pretending to be me, the borrower has committed a crime and Foo Bank has foolishly let themselves be robbed. It's got nothing to do with me, and I don't want an unpaid job correcting other people's mistakes. The right solution would be a "innocent until proven guilty" approach to debt. If Foo Bank says I owe them money that I didn't borrow, I should be able to say "nope that wasn't me" and unless they have proof otherwise, that should be the last I hear of it. It shouldn't be my responsibility to prove I didn't borrow the money; it should be theirs to prove I did. Put that into law, and identity theft would no longer exist. Banks could decide whether they want to actually verify identity in a way that stands up in court ("well actually here's video of you standing in our office and stating that you want to borrow this money in your own voice, reading aloud the SHA of the contract you signed and giving us your fingerprints"), or just let their money be stolen. Either way, not my problem.

zellyn 9y ago
Right. We all agree on that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E Unfortunately, that appears not to be consistent with the dreary reality we find ourselves in :-(
- nathan_long 9y ago
  Right. But my point is, if we're going to try to fix something, "let's give consumers earlier notification that their finances are being ruined" isn't a great goal without giving them the power to stop it. "Don't let banks ruin people's finances via incompetence" is a good goal.

eximius 9y ago

They can't figure out how?

mdpopescu 9y ago

Actually, I believe you can do that - you can put a "freeze" on your reports, and any new loan applications need a password to unfreeze them. See [1]. [1] - https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-freeze-your-credit-report-at-each-credit-bureau-960796 https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-freeze-your-credit-report-...

yebyen 9y ago
That's really not what parent poster was asking for... "Pay $10 and follow onerous procedures to unfreeze" and "receive a notification on my phone when my file is opened" are really not in the same class of interaction. I would like to be able to alert the company that just issued fraudulent credit account in my name, directly, that they have done a bad job at KYC, to tell them they have just interacted with a person who wasn't me ASAP after the event. The best I can get right now is to check with the credit report provided by my CC issuer once a week, and hope they get the signal, and that I read it on time. A week later on-demand is still not anything like a notification on my phone when the file is opened. If this loop is tight enough, I might even be able to call the company who has been contacted by the phony applicant and get them to stop the process before any loss occurs! By comparison I really have no desire to freeze my credit through the agencies, if it means I'll have to go through an extra hassle and pay a fee (and fwiw to some companies I really consider to be bad actors and not trustworthy at all) every time I move, or sign up for a utility account, or open a credit card. It's not really the job of credit reporting agencies to verify identities, and just like that it's not my job to "own" the credit file. Even though it's ostensibly my personal information, that is actually the fact in question here, and next step in the dispute resolution process is up to the credit issuer to verify the debt (which they won't be able to do properly, if they have done a poor job at KYC.)
- Jesus_Jones 9y ago
  I think the reason they don't do this is because we, the consumers, are not the paying customer to the credit bureaus. We have to defend against them messing things up for us. They can give out credit in our names that we then have to pay, or spend lots of time and money fighting against. If they were consumer focused, like say a bank, they would make it easier to control. If the credit bureaus had to pay for the fraud, they'd try to control it more intelligently, like banks. If they did that it would hurt their business somewhat, because it would make it harder for people using their services, businesses trying to sell me a car or whatever.

lnanek2 9y ago

I know Experian will list inquiries on their site. They also email with every positive and negative score change. I'm scared to login and see if they have an email on inquiry option, though, since they often scam activate some monthly billing feature I don't want...