7 ms·
I think I would have preferred the company be removed of their ability to collect credit information than any other penalty.
by rhacker 6y ago
I think I would have preferred the company be removed of their ability to collect credit information than any other penalty.
- Andrex 6y agoI suppose "the company be dissolved, its records thoroughly purged, and its ability to legally operate revoked" is a bit too much... though it shouldn't be.
- pmiller2 6y agoWhy is it a bit much? I think the "corporate death penalty" is appropriate when you fail to protect the financial history of 147 million people.
- redis_mlc 6y agoThat was done for one of the US accounting companies, Arthur Andersen, related to Enron financials. Noody, including the govt., was happy with the final result. So although it should be on the table, in reality, it probably won't come from the govt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen
- pmiller2 6y agoHow could the result have been any different or better? I don't see where anyone's claiming the government was unhappy with the final result. Rotten firms like this need to die.
- Traster 6y agoThe thing is that when the reasonable solution is "Stop the company doing its core competency" you need to realise that almost everything else the company does is going to be "exploit whatever it has left". So forcibly shutting down the company is far more reasonable than just stopping it from collecting credit information.
- cgb223 6y agoHow could consumers force this outcome? Is there anything we can (collectively) do?
- flattone 6y agohttp://i.dawn.com/primary/2015/11/564303181a339.jpg http://i.dawn.com/primary/2015/11/564303181a339.jpg
- vkou 6y agoVote. Vote in the primaries. Vote in local elections. Vote in federal elections. Vote for people who will make their business model, in the manner they practice it, illegal. If you don't want to vote, you can get even better ROI if you convince other people to vote instead. As a consumer you can't do anything. You are not their customer. They are not accountable to you. As a citizen, you have power. They require your permission to operate.
- smnrchrds 6y agoEveryone has to stop using services from financial institutions who use Equifax (i.e. almost all of them) until they cut ties with Equifax. If millions of people cancel close their BoA account in a single day, I imagine BoA would dump Equifax. Of course, like most vote with your wallet schemes, this would never work in the real world. Anything that requires collective action of millions or billions of individuals, will either die with a whimper or make its way to history books as a once-in-a-century event. We cannot solve climate change by boycotting polluting companies; there is no way enough people join the boycott to make a difference. This is the same. Like climate change, the only realistic path of success is political pressure. Equifax will remain as is as long as the legislature leaves them alone. If you want this to change, get involved in politics, write to your politicians, run for office.
- spicymaki 6y agoYes, it is called activism. Here is the formula: 0. Start up a nonprofit with the sole intention of eliminating nontransparent consumer credit reporting and data collection. 1. Come up with a charter for the organization. 2. Promote the organization (distribute pamphlets, have public meetings, speak at colleges, lecture halls, churches, newspaper op-eds, etc). 3. Attract like minded people. 4. Raise funds. 5. Promote and support politicians with similar objectives or convince existing politicians through lobbying. 6. Change local state laws change to ban the practice. 7. Change state laws for a majority of states in the US to ban the practice. 8. Change federal laws to ban the practice. 9. Block and impede efforts by greedy companies to reverse the new regulation.
- xfitm3 6y agoThe US credit system is a bunch of bullshit anyway. > "Good credit is for poor people" - words of a wealthy friend.
- winrid 6y agoI don't get it. It seems like keeping good credit is easy. Why can't you have good credit and be wealthy?
- 7thaccount 6y agoI imagine extremely wealthy people buy everything cash.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoI assumed it meant wealthy people continually get a clean slate when they mess up. So there is no concept of maintaining credit when allotted unlimited "redo's".
- mistrial9 6y ago.. at least in the US, this is not true.. some wealthy people have serious marks on their credit scores and it does follow you
- flexer2 6y agoExtremely wealthy people (i.e. 9-digit+ net worth) have teams of lawyers and accountants that figure out the optimal way to allocate the client's cash to achieve their goals. That may or may not include incurring debt, etc. Rich people borrow money too (not because they need to, but because it ultimately can make more financial sense to do so). (there are of course exceptions to this, there are rich people bad with money or who want to look like they're richer than they actually are, but in general rich people stay rich by being smart about their money)
- pyuser583 6y ago
- SilasX 6y agoIs there a reason the triopoly (with Experian and Transunion) persists? I know the bond raters have some government granted status. If it’s the same situation for Experian, maybe they could lose that status to some other company?
- ummonk 6y agoI recall reading that Plaid (now acquired by Visa) was working on creating its own credit scoring service.
- Wohlf 6y agoInertia, I assume. You can't get any kind of serious loan without a report from all three, and other things like background checks and rentals usually have one or two they prefer.
- paulie_a 6y agoOpting out should be available And a corporate death penalty should exist. Destroy the company completely.