‘Dear Equifax: You’re Fired.’ If Only It Were That Easy. There is already a potential out in the rules that allows for data from just two agencies if that is “the extent of the data available.” While this rule may exist to help people with a limited credit history, there’s no reason Fannie couldn’t also apply it to people with an extensive history that happens to reside only at Experian and TransUnion, and not at Equifax. When you sign up for a credit card or a mobile phone or any number of other loans or services, you agree — whether you know it or not — for the provider to send a report card on you to credit reporting agencies like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. And this breach isn’t like those at other companies that have let their data loose, like Yahoo or Target, where you can simply find another company to patronize. Some readers, many of whom will have no need for mortgages or much new credit in the future, have tried to delete their Equifax files since the breach. That company no longer has permission to make money off my personal data. But it would be far easier to simply ask Equifax to erase your file and not make a new one. This is an industry that uses our personal and financial data as its product and the real customers are the banks and others who want to check up on us. It simply looks to the other two big credit bureaus for underwriting guidance if an applicant does not have a file at the third, said Ashley Tufts, a company spokeswoman.
