TransUnion to Offer Credit Freezes Nationwide

An anonymous reader writes "In a little-noticed press release issued Tuesday, credit reporting bureau TransUnion said it would begin offering credit freezes to all Americans, a change the belies the credit industry's oft-uttered claim that doing so would be too expensive and burdensome. The program takes effect Oct. 15, 2007, will cost $10 each to place and to remove, and request and must be filed by certified mail. As The Washington Post reports, the move comes as some 39 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws entitling their residents to credit freeze rights. The new right may have little benefit unless the other two major credit reporting bureaus follow suit, and both companies are staying mum about any plans to do so. In May, Slashdot examined a related story on the credit bureaus' traditional resistance to freeze laws."

That's nice...

[__aaclcg7560]

How about giving back my identity and life, and maybe throwing in a free iPhone for kicks? Signed, Joe Blow Consumer

Re:So what they really mean

[Antony.Muss]

You could steal your own identity and save the $10.

You've all got it wrong, its like this:

[Gary W. Longsine]

1) Lobby Congress with many millions of dollars over many years so that your industry, an entirely artificial creation of oligopolies over which you have no influence, can fuck up your life with their piss poor security and even random errors in their "system" 2) Watch as consumers get their lives fucked up when bad guys exploit an entirely different but also screwed up monopoly that entered your life and over which you have no control or influence (Windows) 3) Charge people a fee every time they need to "start" and "stop" your "service" to protect them from item 2 4) Profit!

Possible problematic detail...

[Chris Snook]

"Acceptable forms of payment are American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa."

Re:That's nice...

[TubeSteak]

How about giving back my identity and life, and maybe throwing in a free iPhone for kicks? Signed, Joe Blow Consumer

Dear Joe,
After checking your credit score, we talked with the credit bureaus & discovered you won't be able to afford >$1,000 a year in cellular service anyways.

Sorry, no iPhone for you.
Signed,
AT&T