Rant

equifax/transunion: oh, look! we don’t care why, but there are “too many different phone numbers” being reported for you. we’re lowering your credit score

I treat all members of the credit bureau (all banks, insurance companies, etc) the same when it comes to info sharing, just as if it’s all the same org. Because they all share the info via the credit bureau. If you give a different number to every bank, every bank can see all the numbers you gave to other banks through the credit bureau.

I give just one useless number to all of them. A FAX number. Banks have no hope of getting me on the phone. But fuck them.. they create this mess by joining the credit bureau. They’ve demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with useful info. So for self-defense, consider making every bit of info you give as useless as possible.

You might be interested to know that the phone numbers on your credit report never mention the source who reported the phone number, which is unlawful. I wrote this thread about it:

The law that all US credit bureaus violate, bluntly, simply because there is no enforcement mechanism: data source disclosure

Somewhat related: I just gave up on keeping a clean credit score. I realized now at 35 that I’m never going to own a house in my crazy expensive city, and I’m never going to buy a brand new car so what’s the use of having a great score?

I still pay off all my debt but I don’t give a fuck if I miss a payment when the greedy fucks are charging high interest anyway.