Don’t type while you’re mad!

I’m just trying to do what they tell me and check my credit report every year, there are a few things that I don’t want on there that should be gone now and I’d like to see that. But the people who are collecting all of this information about us and controlling our lives at the same time don’t want to give it up for free.

I go to annualcreditreport.com and put in my information and they give me the list of agencies to get my report from. I visited Experian and received my report almost instantly without having to create a login or jump through hoops. Then I went to Equifax. I have had trouble with them in the past and I am still having trouble now. It was over a year since I visited them last and you’re not supposed to write down your passwords so I can’t remember what it was and I have to do the reminder. I typed in the answer to the security question a year ago so I don't remember if I capitalized the answer or not. I guess not, O.K. one more try and oops! You’re locked out!

Then I see an email pop up in my inbox saying there has been a breach in security. Someone has been trying to unsuccessfully access my account. Yeah, it was me, how about you email my username and password and not your customer service number? So I called. What a surprise, I got a nice fellow named Sam with an Indian accent. The credit reporting services tell you never to give your social security number over the phone but the first thing they ask for when you call is your social security number. After giving him all of the information you’re not supposed to give somebody over the phone he emailed me a new username and password and then tried to sell me the monthly monitoring package which is why they make you call in the first place. I go back to the website and type in the new information and it still doesn’t work, it's taking forever to load the page. They must send us free people to the slow server because every other website I visited before this went smoothly.

With Trans-Union I punched in all the numbers on the phone to get to the login help desk for the free credit report and after several clicks, I got a busy signal. I can’t remember the last time I even heard a busy signal. You usually go to some eternal hold system, not the busy signal. After calling back and finally getting India, they gave me a number where the ringing from the other end sounded old, like it was going into an Alabama prison calling centere where I got someone that sounded Austrian. Maybe if people in America were working the economy wouldn’t be so bad. So they asked for the information I’m not supposed to give and reset my password. Then they tried to sell me their program as well. They want to make it so difficult to get the free report that you’ll sign up for the $15 per month credit monitoring service just so you won’t have to deal with this shiffnigzzzzeffkrg. It is so aggravating. Next time I’m requesting them by mail.