During all of my long life I have never had any direct contact with a credit rating organization until recently. Recently my credit report was sent to me. The first credit report I ever received in my whole life! So why am I giving a credit rating group a low rating? Was my credit rating low? No. All information about me was wrong! Not one right address in the whole bunch.
I decided to phone the organization and ask them to correct the information. The credit reporting group said they couldn't correct the info because it was passed on to them from the credit rating agency. So I phoned the agency. Yes, it would be easy to correct the info, just give me your Social Insurance Number (S.I.N.)and we'll pull your file up. Well, I don't give out my S.I.N. unless I'm dealing with government. Then they asked for my credit card number. I really became suspicious with that one and asked to speak to someone else. The next guy was really infuriating. A real icy, thuggy kind of guy. No help from him. I asked what other information I had that would be acceptable for him to open my file. I kept getting the same answer and being insulted some more. I finally asked him what government agency regulated them. He immediately gave me a number for consumer affairs and my conversation with the ice man ended..
So I decided to see if my bank could help. Yes, they would help because I had been given such a rough time. The next day I received a call from someone who didn't seem connected to anything. I finally determined the she was a disputes settling expert and a fraud investigator. It took me a long time to determine where this person fit in. She didn't ask me for information, just wanted to know what had happened in my dealings with the credit rating agency and that she was trying to solve the problem. After 45 minutes she told me that there was a page on the credit rating agency's web site that I could print and have my information corrected. That's it . Just fill in the form. Why hadn't the thug on the phone told me this? It was his company. So after much trouble to change some information it turned out to be simple to change it.
Now I'm left thinking that if they make such elementary mistakes with addresses , can I trust them with my credit rating?
I've never gotten my own credit rating sent to me, but I would NEVER give out my SSN or my credit card information over the phone. So you were smart. Who knows if that was real or not??
ReplyDeleteIt was for real. I was at the right place. I will be filing a letter of compalaint. Because of a bank's loss of info thousands of us have been put on a credit watch incase the our info gets into the wrong hands.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many scam artists out there I don't talk give ANY information on the phone nor do I mail anything. If I need to talk to somebody about banking I do it at my bank to my banker.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that we're backed into a corner where we can trust so few. These guys were legit. I just don't pass that info out. I'm sure they had my S.I,N. and credit card number. I just wasn't going to give it to them.There are many other ways to set up a file.
ReplyDeleteHi Red. I'm glad you stuck to your guns and didn't divulge any info ... you just don't know who you are dealing with when they are not face to face.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be hard nosed about these things. I knew I was dealing with the credit bureau but I didn't like what they were asking for and I didn't trust them.
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