Does the existence of large credit reference agencies such as Experian infringe on personal freedoms.?

Question

Say for example they get some personal details wrong ,you cant get credit and you might not know why .This company then has the audacity to charge a fee for you to find out what they have on you and if its wrong you must provide the proof and so furthering their knowledge of you and charging you a further fee for the changes .You then have to pay a further fee to ensure the changes have been made.

Answer 1

If you are turned down for credit, the potential lender has to tell you why if you ask. I believe (do not know for sure) that the credit reporting companies must give you a free credit report 1 time a year. Although, the system is not perfect, these companies do make it easier for people to get additional credit. If a business could not get this information, they would have to charge a higher interest rate to cover the wont pays. This way they can weed out the wont pays. I believe, though, that if the credit reporting companies are charging to change your information, that this is wrong and we need a law to insure that they must change the info free of charge when you submit proof and must furnish you a statement that they have changed the info.l

Answer 2

Actually, there are three credit reporting agencies and not every bank or lending institution uses the same one(s). I understand where you're coming from in that a number of rental agencies will also look at your credit before determining if they're willing to rent out an apartment to you. Seems to me that it would be quite possible for one to become homeless and destitute if they had a run of bad luck that affected their credit. It might explain why there are so many homeless people these days.

You can get your credit report for free, and I don't mean by signing up for some stupid credit service offered on the Internet. The Federal Trade Commission, website listed below, has initiated legislation that allows all US citizens to receive a free copy of their credit report, from all three credit reporting agencies. Their website lists a toll free number to call that will take your information and start the process. Within a few weeks, your credit reports will start showing up.

In doing this last year, I noticed that one of my student loans was misreported as having been six months tardy in payment, when actually it was the six-month grace period after my graduation. I reported it to the credit agency and it was corrected, though I wonder what type of affect it had on my credit when applying for loans prior to noting the error.

Answer 3

You're scratching the surface when you talk about infringement. The supercomputer highway of interconnected supercomputers harvesting trillions of bytes per second runs like a subterranean maze of tunnels along fibre optic tubes almost the size of sewage pipes has got everything squared as far as your little footprints are concerned.
The infrastructure across international boundaries has the technology in place today to track every transaction, every phone call, every visit to a terminal recording your appointment, every car journey, every internet activity etc if it is so required by the military/industrial complex hiding behind respectable acronyms like GESO, MOD, NASA, NSC, NSC, NORAD, IISS, NATO.
The Kissinger disease of a Bismarchian world ruled by the iron will to dominate and succeed under the even more euphemistic label 'New World Order' places 'Experian' at the level of a toilet attendant in the much bigger beast of 'JUT' Joined Up Thinking of the CORPORATES.
If you want to scratch below the surface start with researching the 'Trilateral Commission', a new political force that is to be feared above any system that has ever encompassed the earth. From there you will find all the tenticals of raw political power traceable by a bloodline of dead bodies to the central dynasties of financial control.

Answer 4

Credit reference agencies, are there to protect OPM. "Other Peoples Money"

The money that banks and credit card firms lend out to the public is money that other people have worked for and left in safe keeping with the bank and for the bank to use & Invest in the capital and bond markets to make more money and pay back profits to the depoisitors, so if information on a bureau data base is wrong, sure they as a profit making company with bills to pay to use electricty etc, will want to charge a fee to maintain your records and also charge a fee so that they can pay data entry people to ensure your records are correct. It is after all people helping other people, thats the concept here.

So as far as personal freedoms go, they do in fact ensure that you keep yours!

Answer 5

Keep voting Republican!! You will get even less access to credit agencies!

It is sad to think experian, Transunion and Eqifax can put almost anything on your report and you won't even know it! A late medical bill! Unbelievable what they get away with and how many people they screw! And you know what? They don'r care!

Nation's Big Three Consumer Reporting Agencies Agree To Pay $2.5 Million To Settle FTC Charges of Violating Fair Credit Reporting Act

Three national consumer reporting agencies, Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., (Equifax), Trans Union LLC (Trans Union), and Experian Information Solutions, Inc. (Experian), have agreed to a total of $2.5 million in payments as part of settlements negotiated by the Federal Trade Commission to resolve charges that they each violated provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to maintain a toll-free telephone number at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours. According to the FTC's complaints, Equifax, Trans Union and Experian (collectively, consumer reporting agencies or CRAs) blocked millions of calls from consumers who wanted to discuss the contents and possible errors in their credit reports and kept some of those consumers on hold for unreasonably long periods of time. The proposed settlements with each CRA also would require that it meet specific performance standards to ensure that CRA personnel are accessible to consumers.

A 2.5 million fine because they were blocking consumers! A drop in the bucket! I bet they went right out and put one in! Did you notice it was to keep one DURING BUSINESS HOURS!! They can't even do that!

Answer 6

Greetings!

I do not have a problem using credit history as a tool and a commodity for those institutions who are issuing credit.
It becomes an infringement upon your freedom, when they do so and sell it and other information not relating to a credit application to a third party.
They have pertinent information not related to creditworthiness that they make available, to say landlords, Employers, Schools. etc.
This is wrong. But then, we are represented by cowards, and thieves, (oops did I leave out child molesters) what is one to expect.

Good Luck

Answer 7

I took out buy now pay later it turned up on my credit rating as not been paid.I got in touch with the company I had agreement with,they were disgusted & sent me a letter stating I had missed no payments has they were not due.We do not need I,D. Cards they already have all our personal data only they deny it.Yes they do infringe on our personal liberties & we can do nothing about it
as they only deny it.

Answer 8

Yes in so much as the person can't get their OWN record without paying for the honour! and then if the info is wrong it takes ages to rectify

Answer 9

There is a host of information held on you, and Experian etc have simply latched onto this as a business, and to be honest, wouldnt you if you'd have thought of it first...