US credit bureaus are legally required to give you a copy of your file on request at no cost (max 1 per yr). But some of them demand a copy of your driver's license. Why should we trust them with that? Doesn't that precondition, invented by the bureau, in effect violate my right to receive a copy? #efx #equifax #tru #transunion #expn #experian #innovis
Americans aren't even required to have a driver's license, so how can it be required to have one to obtain a credit report?
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@koherecoWatchdog Are you claiming that these place will not accept a nondrivers photo ID, or did you perhaps mean to say a photo ID and not specifically a license?
@freemo 2 of 5 CCRAs demand a "driver's license". I have little doubt that they would accept state-issued ID, but it's the same problems: 1) citizens are not legally required to obtain a DL or state ID 2) the state ID is not gratis in every state 3) many DMVs sell data to brokers 4) consumers have good reason to distrust CCRAs with that data.
@freemo US consumers do not have an option to opt out of data collection by credit bureaus, who collect data on us without our consent. They are also sloppy about securing the data, because breaches impact non-customers with no contract with them. So a consumer would be a fool to give even more data to a CCRA just to get their report.
@freemo Data is also worth money, so when you give data to a CCRA who abuses your privacy w/out consent, you actually help them profit from the uncompensated exploitation of your data.
@koherecoWatchdog Your preaching to the choir, all this I already know and more or less agree with.
@koherecoWatchdog I would agree that is a concerning decision and I would support a better definition to ensure an ID wouldnt be required.
@freemo Not defining it would seem to get CCRAs off the hook almost completely. I could start a CCRA & make a company policy that "proper ID" is a fishing license + a DNA sample + retina/fingerprint. The fishing license would exclude a large chunk of the population, then the DNA & everything else would wittle those who fish down to a tiny minority of those willing to go further.
@freemo Or even better, let's say they'd need a fishing license & a pilot's license. That would really narrow down the consumers eligible to see their own report.
@freemo Ideally a lawyer would answer my question. Fed law requires CCRAs to obtain "proper identification" from someone who asks for their own report, but the law doesn't define "proper identification". The convention has always been name, DoB, SSN, and address, but 2 CCRAs have started exploiting the lack of definition to force ppl to enrich their dataset.