Tell HN: Things I Learned about Credit Bureaus This Week

Last week, 1 or more parties hacked my Equifax account, set up an account at TransUnion, and ran up charges on a cloned credit card in Brazil. To resolve this, I’ve interacted with the FTC, police, card issuer, and credit bureaus. Here’s what I learned about the credit bureaus: 1. Equifax has no escalation path for security breaches on weekends. Even if a breach potentially affects millions of accounts, there is no way to report it until Monday. 2. TransUnion has no ability to investigate hacks or security breaches. They can only generate a reference number for the customer to file a police report with. (Note that their top product category is Credit Management & Protection.) 3. TransUnion and Equifax do not cooperate on investigations. Despite evidence that suggests the same hacker was at work, neither credit union indicated any interest in even talking with the other. 4. If your TransUnion account is hacked, you will lose online access for life. You will never be able to download