If you haven’t heard, two of the three nationwide credit reporting bureaus, TransUnion and Equifax, have announced plans to offer the ability to freeze their credit to consumers in all 50 states. The third big credit bureau, Experian, is apparently not motivated to join the party.
The effective date is supposedly October 15th. So get ready to make that call and tell them you don’t want any more credit. Good grief, that sounds weird to me. It is somewhat like swearing off water. While I am not at that age and status in life (retired/debt free) where I can, would, should, freeze my credit, I know there are plenty of people out there that want to be able to freeze their credit and avoid any risk of identity theft. To me, this is a matter of who owns my credit, me or them. Seems to me I do, since I pay the debts. I and anyone else ought to have the right to freeze our credit any time and for any reason we want.
In this interview with Danny Orock, Legislative Coordinator for Georgia Watch, we discuss various aspects of the “credit freeze” debate. While it is certainly a good thing that two of the credit bureaus have bestowed this favor on the people that make their existence possible, without legislation, state or federal, what business gives, business can take away. That is precisely why the effort to get our state legislature to pass appropriate legislation should continue.
Of course, my take on the matter is that this voluntary program is an effort to forestall legislation. Can anyone think of an industry where self-regulation has worked?
For example, the two credit bureaus will freeze your credit, as long as you are willing to pay for it, $10 or so. And to be effective you have to freeze it with all three, so that is $30 to do it right. And you can’t really do it right with only 2 of the 3 credit bureaus participating. There is still one left from which your credit and identity can be stolen. I wouldn’t mind a fee to freeze your credit that reflects the cost of actually doing it (push two buttons, 5 seconds each, multiplied by $7.15 per hour, equals $.02 rounded). To be fair you also have to cover the time on the phone or email, cost of equipment, etc. So let’s add 1000% of the actual costs and a good fee seems to be $0.20. What the heck, I am a generous man, give them a quarter.
According to Danny, there is a hearing this Thursday in the House Banks and Banking Committee on the credit freeze bill or bills. But don’t expect any progress. The committee, chaired by James Mills, (R-25), has failed to do anything so far.
Danny and I discussed two other issues with regard to which the legislature seems to be unable to oppose insurance companies. First, there is uninsured motorists (UM) coverage. You know, the insurance that pays you cash when the other guy didn’t buy insurance. Must be kind of like AFLAC, I guess. Most people don’t understand how important UM coverage is. You don’t have to buy it, but everyone should. It is cheap and can provide a degree of protection when the person that hits you has no insurance. Under the current law, if you purchase the coverage you may not get any benefit from it, even if the other person doesn’t have enough liability coverage to pay your bills. Why? Because your insurance company gets a credit for the amount of the other person’s (the one that caused the accident) liability coverage. You paid for it, but you don’t get it! Get it!
The other issue is getting the boys in power (the Republicans) to change some of the laws they screwed up in 2005 when they tried their very best to make it as hard as possible to sue your doctor, no matter how bad he screws up. They hit a home run for the insurance company when they passed a law that said you can’t sue hospitals and doctors for what happens in the emergency room of your local hospital, unless they actually intend to hurt you. The Senate Republicans have been saying for two years they realized the law they passed in 2005 was unfair and needs to be changed. Yeah, sure! They tell you this, and then say they are impotent to actually get it changed.
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