With respect to contacting MP's.

There was a senate committee regarding the credit bureaus some years ago. I watched much of it on CPAC.

The Equifax exec. either outright lied to the committee or doesn't know what's happening in his company.

I made notes somewhere - he said to the effect that Equifax does NOT release their database to anyone without the proper consents.
Meanwhile, I was regularly receiving credit card offers from one institution, with whom I had never had dealings.
I recorded the telephone conversation in which I called to inquire how they obtained my info (I'm an EXTREME privacy freak). The CSR said "From Equifax".

??

It is estimated that 1/3 of credit reports contain errors.

You should obtain yours AT LEAST once per year. I just tried TransUnion's new automated telephone request - received my report in about a week - impressive.

Telephoning anyone is useless & frustrating.

Use registered mail - it's cheap and effective.

If the bureaus don't respond - complain to your provincial department. They WILL investigate (again, use registered mail).

I had someone send a disputed debt to CBCL just as it was becoming IQOR. I sent a registed letter to their Privacy Officer requesting all my personal infomation, including records of the times that they called my residential telephone. They never responded. I then filed a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, who started an investigation, which took about 6 months of time in total. The Privacy Office found in my favour (which means nothing). IQOR sent me my requested information. I told them that there was no lawful debt, to destroy all my personal information, and I never heard from them again.

Short story:

Stay off the phone.
Don't let them play their system.
Use the system against them - it probably cost Equifax $1000. in resources for the complaint against them. It probably cost IQOR about $2000. in resources for the complaint against them.

Death2Equifax maybe you should contact your M.P. and demand that the regulations governing Equifax be inforced or changed. If enough of us complain the government will have to do something.

Heres a funny little story I call - The Big Nothing - Roundabout three years ago I had my identity compromised via our trash I think, and I found out about it when I got a phone bill in my name from a company I have never dealt with. So what am I to do? I phoned the city police and they took all the info they needed and told me not to worry I wouldnt have to pay the bill. Phew! They also told me to contact Equifax a company I had never even heard of up to that point. Fine. I contacted Equifax and found out about a string of unknown attempts at getting credit in my name from a number of companies. A phone co. A couple of banks, A furniture store etc. Well the jokes on these crooks because I have lousy credit and apart from the one cell co. These pricks got nothing from my name. Nothing. Thats about what one cop told me will come of my case. So life goes on for me, a little more wiser about my personal papers and a little more bitter towards the world. Flash forward to now. A few years older and I am about to buy my first house with my Fiance and Mother on the mortgage. All the paperwork is done and I'm ready to sign my life away. Let me please be a banks slave! But wait!! Equifax needs me to update my Address and Phone # Fine. How hard could that be?? OK first thing they have an address on my account from even before My identity was stolen and an old phone #. Also I do understand that they are trying to protect my lousy credit from bad guys. Lets phone Equifax... S.I.N. # please, D.O.B., Name, Address..... cant remember my address from 10 years ago. Ooops no ever told me that kind of information would be so critical in life now. Besides that young people move around a lot ten years ago is a long time to anyone. So, time to send in the paperwork. New phone bill, proof of address, Identification, Identification, Identification, along with a letter with reasons why I want to change this information written and signed of course by me. Fax away!! Wait 3-5 business days...... We have not recieved your fax... can you supply us with the exact time and date of said fax? Sure can I got the verification #. (Heavy Franco Accent) So Sorry Pleez Resend. Fine. Got new verification #.... 3-5 business days..... I phone 18662050681... Ya kinda in a hurry here buying a hpuse and all.... can you tell me if you have recieved my fax. All i wanna know is if you have the information you asked for..... So sorry we cannot.. please allow more time..... More confusion and rudeness for and by who, the most myself or Equifax I am not sure.
I just want to change my phone number and address to buy a house..... 3-5 business days..... wait over Easter weekend.... Ok! they have my information and have denied my claim because the fax was too dark and they could not read some of my identity.... OK! Do you french have an Email address? It is 2010 right? can My claim be dealt with by one person? can I phone and talk to the same person more than once
instead of different accents again and again? I have the feeling that Equifax could give a darn about me. What have I done wrong? This story doesnt even get close to the frustrated rage I have built up inside of me. The endless useless phone calls the hours of missed work the repeated ignorance to my claim.... the hilariously messed up automated phone number, hands down the worst automated service I have ever or will ever hear. How can you tell a machine your postal code? A C D E V P B G all sound similar even to a real person regardless if your franco or not!!! Who the hell is in charge of all these poor confused souls like me? why does Equifax have this control?? I am a healthy, quite, hard working normal everyday Canadian. I continue to work as much as I can in a not so shiny economy. I pay my bills and my taxes. I owe nothing. No credit card debt no car debt no extra debt. Everything I buy I pay for up front. I own 2 vehicles and a house full of stuff. I have 50,000 dollars saved up much of which will go towards a 250,000 dollar mortgage. I do not need Equifax at all as I am blessed with a family that will have my house in their name. This is not close to the point though.... My identity was stolen... Cops do nothing. I want to buy a house.... Equifax is pure hell. I am the victim I play the victim... I hate Equifax more than the crooks who stole my identity. I hate Quebec. I hate franco canadians. I am driven to so much rage over Equifax and its incompetence that I hope the worst things happen to its employees. I have gotten three of them to admit that they dont remember their own addresses from ten years ago and they also admitted to getting loads of angry phone calls all the time. I want them all to suffer. I am not a nut job, but I can really understand how someone could snap. I hate feeling like this and want it to stop. I want Equifax to know and I never want this to happen to anyone else, but im sure it is always happening. If anyone out there reads this and can either help me or you are suffering because of Equifax email me at Whizzle.delowko@gmail.com Im sure a record of others suffering or an appeal for help by me, will look good if Im ever standing in front of a judge for some horrendous crime Ive committed in a blind rage. I can only be thankful that Equifax is in Quebec and I would never have any reason to go there at all. To sum it all up I will continue fighting with Equifax until I get my changes. I lost my identity and nothing ever came of it. Equifax has ruined a small portion of my life now. I will not play the victim anymore, and I want my freedom back. Carol Gray is the President of Equifax Canada, Jean Claude Chartrand is Chairman. I sincerley hope the worst of disease rots them both.

"The more front line workers who say to their management, "I'm not interested in working for a company where I being yelled at" - maybe then we'll get some action."

Not really. You are talking about people who have no other options for employment.

When it comes to actual damaging issues it is frustrating but it doesn't take long to fix. I had a re-dating issue on Dec 16 2009 and by the the second week of January it was corrected and now I'm suing the collection agency. Four weeks over the holiday period isn't bad. True Equifax was useless during all of this but that is why we have the Registrar and the Courts.

The TU situation is troubling and when I deal with them I find it frustrating but it isn't actually causing me any harm. If it was I would have taken more serious measures to fix it by now than trying to deal with TU directly. If your situation is causing you issues I suggest you stop dealing with the bureaus and instead go to the Registrar and / or the court house.

Thanks for the silly 'tip' Millie.......gawd - I so hoped there wouldn't be someone here who would 'pop' up with the 'be nice' hand slap.

I agree with you Bogey and Montey. 100%

Farting Butterflies and Unicorns about how we wish it would 'be' with these two companies is so far beyond my sentiments - I am PISSED.

These companies are where the buck stops. There is nowhere else to go. There is no one to complain to. There is no regulation - nothing.

It's about CONTROL - and they know it.

Their data capturing practice is flawed and affects people like me - I'm NOT complaining as a CONSUMER - I'm not looking for a buy now pay later Brick card or someone who has had collection action taken against them for not paying bills.

Is that is the norm? Note - I'm not trying to insult Consumers - I am one too!! Oh Gawd - please don't 'someone' extoll the virtues of the Consumer:)

Unlike many of the people assumed to be your average "wackjobs" - I would at least qualify myself as an "educated wackjob" - I resent dealing with companies preventing me from doing what I want to do - when I want to do it.

I resent applying for working capital to expand a business that employs people and being notified by my bank that there might be a problem - through no fault of mine and no way to properly, easily or logically correct it. Luckily they ignored them.

Equifax and TU have an obligation - in my opinion - as the only credit reporters - I know there are others too - to properly report. In my opinion they should be embarrased by their performance but they are likely too busy counting their money.

These companies make huge profits selling us products I believe they've created a need for.

While I 'hear' you Millie P, and I agree with some of your ideas, I think we ALL need to get angry and get the attention of anyone who will listen.

My wish On Fantasy Island - The more front line workers who say to their management, "I'm not interested in working for a company where I being yelled at" - maybe then we'll get some action.

The few staff I have spoken with - know there methods are flawed and they are embarrassed too - but simply admit their hands are tied.

Let's untie them.

The issue isn't that errors are going to happen -- that is assumed and accepted by any reasonable person.

The issue is how do they deal with disputes. The system is completely inadequate and there is plenty of case law to indicate that credit bureaus owe a certain standard of care to the individuals they keep data on that neither TransUnion nor Equifax is meeting.

My recent issue with re-dating shows a major flaw in the system. When I launched an investigation Equifax's response was to ask iQor to confirm the date of last activity. They did. When I asked what documentation did iQor provide I was told none they just confirmed the date. When I asked what was the nature of the activity Equifax explained they did not ask that and didn't know. So basically their investigation consists of just asking the collection agency to confirm that what they intentionally misreported is true.

The issue became even more perplexing when I offered to supply Equifax with documents from the original creditor showing a complete lack of any activity since 2002. I was told they would only accept records from iQor as evidence and that I had to deal with them. When I explained that iQor would hangup as soon as I requested anything and that they ignored written correspondence I was just told I had to find a way to deal with iQor.

When it comes to TransUnion I didn't have this re-dating issue but I have asked twice and been told twice that you can not appeal a date of last activity. That isn't true obviously but if you call TransUnion that is what the CSR will tell you.

I fully understand that the majority of people who contact credit bureaus actually don't have legitimate claims and that they are likely rude and in many cases a little wacko. I am sympathetic to that but if they were to hire competent staff they could quickly figure out who to be dismissive of and who legitimately has an issue that warrants attention. That in two years I have not been able to correct my TU report is laughable -- I say laughable since the credit that is being reported as mine is actually belongs to someone who pays their bills so it actually likely helps my score but if it was bad stuff I think I would be really upset and frustrated.

Basically these are the changes I would like to see and which I think are required.

1) Front-line staff that isn't retarded. This isn't really a unique problem but something that is present in all customer service. Try calling Bell or Rogers tech support or even almost any major computer manufacturer. Until you get escalated the person you are dealing with is incompetent. The problem is that with credit bureaus there is no escalation. You can't get past the front-line staff without complaining to the Registrar.

2) The procedures have to be more balanced. Simply trusting collection agencies because lying is against the law isn't working. If someone launches an investigation the credit bureau should require the collection agency to provide some level of documentation and specifics. If the collection agency refuses to provide documentation then the individual gets the error corrected. The policy of accepting confirmation from collection agencies without documentation is retarded and clearly designed to favor collection agencies. Likewise, TU refusing to even consider an investigation if the issue is re-dating is comical yet if you call and ask that is exactly what the CSR will tell you.

3) Staff needs to have a better grasp of English.

4) A way to escalate a situation without having to either go to court or the Registrar. At a minimum if an investigation is launched and the credit bureau finds for the collection agency that the option of appealing to the Registrar exists should be clearly stated. As it stands you are told you can attach a note to your file but that there is no other appeal. Simply not true.

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With respect to being rude I agree they are but I'm willing to cut them some slack. I'd say at least half and likely closer to three-quarters of the callers they deal with are either wackjobs or very rude themselves. It is not a job I would want and I can fully understand being a miserable person if you had to deal with that all day.

I remembered this podcast that I did with Barb.... she felt pretty help less... for a long while...

the credit bureaus are good at shuffling paper that's for sure..

It's important to remember that Equifax and TransUnion manage literally billions of pieces of user info... they simply can never manage that with the staff they've got....

Although I agree that "losing it" may not help, sometimes one just cannot stand anymore abuse (poor if any customer service) by these companies who hold our personal financial information and treat people like garbage.

I say it's high time to write to one's Member of Parliament and have our currently prorogued government do something to help Canadians being abused by these credit rating companies.

Companies like TU and Equifax are EXACTLY why we need government oversight and the reason I trust gov't just a bit more than I trust big companies.

Corporations NEVER have an interest in the public good, unless it is for profit. Therefore they need to be put on a leash. Unfortunately I don't hold out much hope with our current, far too big business friendly, government.

At least we can vote the bums out of office once in a while.

This is the first time equifax did not correct something for me and I will give them the benefit of the doubt this time due to their system problems. I am glad the majority of creditors do not go by Trans Union reports or this country would be in serious trouble. If creditors are not going to use Trans union when deciding if you should get credit why not cut them off and save some money.