Credit monitoring/reporting agencies

[pugmom]

Sorry, but RANT ON...
I just had the worst experience with Equifax customer service in my entire life. They REALLY do not want you to be able to get through to a person. I received an Alert from them about a "new account opened in my name with AmEx". Since I just opened my AmEx account 2 months ago, I figured it was related to that, but the last 4 digits of the account number did not match either of our cards. They suggested I reach out to AmEx.

So I called AmEx... they agreed that the account number did not match anything they had on file, but nothing looked suspicious, either. They suggested I call Equifax. This is where the horror began. FWIW I assume that 2 things were going on. Equifax was hacked a few years ago, and they probably realized that they had to tighten up. But I suspect they also realized that they could cut their call center staffing in Mumbai (or wherever) back to zero. After spending 20 minutes on the phone trying to get verified (I think I answered everything correctly), they told me I had to send my request in in writing. NO WAY to get to a CSR to figure out what is wrong, either with my original problem or with why I couldn't get through to a person.

Imagine how long it would take to get a credit issue resolved using snail-mail!

OKAY, RANT OFF

Can anyone else recommend a better credit monitoring agency that they use? This one was initially given to us because an employer got themselves hacked... we just kept using it.

[jebmke]

All ours are frozen. Not sure I see the value of monitoring if credit is frozen.

[jazz4cash]

Sorry you are getting such a runaround in the midst of what could be fraud/identity theft. I would check some other sources to get a credit report/access to recent activity. Everyone has access to a free annual report but I also have several ‘free’ credit monitor alerts that were provided with some other account. AAA is one and Credit Journey by Chase is another. Credit Journey is free for all but I’m not sure if everyone gets a detailed report. I would certainly be willing to pay a few dollars to verify no unauthorized accounts have been established in my name.

[easysurfer]

Equifax = The art of the stonewall

Pugmom, I feel your pain.

Hope I live long enough to witness a day when they go out of business.

[easysurfer]

I believe with Transunion, if you create an online account (free) with them, you can pull up a credit report with them that way every 24 hours. The quickest route for 1 credit report may be Transunion.

Every year I get my annual credit report from all 3 agencies. I do that the old fashioned way by filling out and snail mailing a paper form. Takes about 10 days go receive.

When I tried online, I know had no luck with Equifax. I forget if luck or no luck with Experian. I think no problem with Transunion. I go snail mail and have no problem with all 3.

[pugmom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke All ours are frozen. Not sure I see the value of monitoring if credit is frozen.

Kind of embarrassing. We are not looking for credit, and I was not aware of the idea of "freezing". If you don't have an account with a monitoring service, how does one *do* the freezing? I would prefer that to dealing with this.

[braumeister]

It's pretty easy, and I highly recommend it. This is a good summary:

How to Freeze Your Credit

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pugmom Kind of embarrassing. We are not looking for credit, and I was not aware of the idea of "freezing". If you don't have an account with a monitoring service, how does one *do* the freezing? I would prefer that to dealing with this.

Supposedly, one can create an online account with all three agencies and perform freeze/unfreeze just be signing on.

I say supposedly because in my case, I have an online account with Experian and Transunion and the work fine.

For Equifax, I had an online account one time but my account is locked out and got totally stonewalled trying to reset my account. About feeling your pain with my earlier post, they totally gave me the run around too about asking me to send it proof of ID. Even after I sent in proof, they declined saying I need to send in proof . So, as for my online account with them, that's pretty much stuck.

I was with Equifax able to sign up (go figure) with their online lock/unlock credit feature . So now, I have two places frozen and one locked. All manageable online.

[Aerides]

It's my understanding that the account/credit card numbers used by Equifax, or shown by/to the bureaus, are not the full/same numbers of your actual accounts. So that might be part of the mismatch.

I use credit karma, and creditwise from capitalone, to monitor and report changes. They both work well.

[jebmke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pugmom Kind of embarrassing. We are not looking for credit, and I was not aware of the idea of "freezing". If you don't have an account with a monitoring service, how does one *do* the freezing? I would prefer that to dealing with this.

You can go online with each agency and do this. It will require setting up online access with them which is a bit of work. But once you set it up and go in, it is pretty easy to freeze.

Not sure if you can do it over the phone - never looked into that.

[mrfeh]

Equifax is horribly run and incompetent.

This is a recording.

[ShadowBloom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash Everyone has access to a free annual report

Apparently you can get this free weekly now: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-al...credit-reports

[pugmom]

Thanks again to all... In the case of husband and wife, do each have to set up the account and freeze?

I am going to set up the Experian and Transunion accounts now, and see how that goes...

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pugmom Thanks again to all... In the case of husband and wife, do each have to set up the account and freeze?

The freeze is on the account, not the person. So just do it in the name of the primary account holder. I have it with all three major agencies plus three smaller ones. In the extremely rare circumstance where I want to open a new account, I just let the application get denied, then call and ask which agency they use. Then I unfreeze that one for a day and let it get approved. Very simple, and I've done it a number of times.

[jebmke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister The freeze is on the account, not the person. So just do it in the name of the primary account holder. I have it with all three major agencies plus three smaller ones. In the extremely rare circumstance where I want to open a new account, I just let the application get denied, then call and ask which agency they use. Then I unfreeze that one for a day and let it get approved. Very simple, and I've done it a number of times.

We freeze credit for each of us. The credit account at Experia, say, is different for me than for my wife.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke We freeze credit for each of us. The credit account at Experia, say, is different for me than for my wife.

Thank you. I've had my coffee now.

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke You can go online with each agency and do this. It will require setting up online access with them which is a bit of work. But once you set it up and go in, it is pretty easy to freeze. Not sure if you can do it over the phone - never looked into that.

Agree 100%, I've also done a freeze all four (even I still forget about Innovis) online, and can "thaw" them temporarily online, but setup was a bit of a pain.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger Agree 100%, I've also done a freeze all four (even I still forget about Innovis) online, and can "thaw" them temporarily online, but setup was a bit of a pain.

For even more thoroughness, I also froze at Chexsystems.

[CDRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadowBloom Apparently you can get this free weekly now: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-al...credit-reports

Thank you! This makes it easy.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke All ours are frozen. Not sure I see the value of monitoring if credit is frozen.

Creditors will usually do a credit check before issuing credit...but not always. We've had our credit frozen for many years but that didn't stop a bank we never heard of from issuing, or attempting to issue, a CC to someone else using our name. The bank never checked our credit file before attempting to issue the card. The frozen credit stopped that attempt cold and credit monitoring notified us of the attempt. We never heard from the bank or any of the credit monitoring services. I had to notify them of the attempt. Credit monitoring = cheap insurance.