Credit reports play a surprisingly large role in our lives, but even more surprising is how often they contain critical mistakes, John Oliver helps the big three credit agencies, Experian, Equfax and TransUnion see why this is a big problem.
It’s bad enough that the three major companies now market themselves as a good – even necessary reference for potential employees, but hundreds of agencies now market our background information to whomever wants it. The consumer is left playing a long, expensive game of whack-a-mole, with incorrect information that creeps up online. John presents appalling cases of mistaken identities,barring employment, housing and credit. It’s big news to find that you’re a terrorist, a criminal or even deceased! Your bad credit could belong to someone with the same first name, who lives thousands of miles away. The companies claim that their 95% success rate is stellar, but the ten million people who are affected by bad information are less than thrilled.
Because the cards are stacked against the consumer when an error occurs, John has cleverly thought of a way to help them experience the problem from our side. It will prove interesting when the extremely distasteful companies Equifacks, Experianne and TramsOnion – become confused, as they must, with the financial tattlers bearing similar names.