3 Weeks Later, Equifax Makes a Peace Offering
Given the mess you face with people’s data security, why not create a three-bureau freeze or lock, so
that people don’t have to worry about thieves taking data stolen from Equifax and using it through competitors, Experian or TransUnion?
Over the years, and even on Experian’s website as recently as this week, people in the industry and banking representatives have repeatedly warned
that it can take days to unfreeze your file, which can cause big problems if you’re trying to buy a car or close on a home
Other things we don’t know yet: Whether Equifax will force people to submit to mandatory arbitration
or some other loss of privileges or rights in exchange for free locks for life.
This is how TransUnion’s similar free service works, one
that it’s been pushing hard at people who have come to its website looking for a credit freeze in the wake of the Equifax hack.
When Equifax issued the mea culpa it owed us a few weeks ago via an op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal
on Wednesday night, Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., the interim chief executive, threw a padlock our way.
If you simply don’t bother applying for instant credit at the department store or do not remember the
numerical PIN they gave you to thaw your file, then the bureaus can’t sell that access to your file.
This is the same company, however, that could not create a functioning website for
people worried about whether thieves had stolen their Social Security numbers.
