March 5, 2009
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Wilderness to Free Credit Report, Pt.3
Uh-oh.Starting over again and again, I continue the quest for my credit card report:
9) Skeezix-move back 6 squares: When I returned after 5 minutes, I learned that the screen had ‘timed me out' and I had to start all over from the beginning (nice to know ahead but, at least, I was finally getting good at this game).
10) Next page (again): After starting over from step 2) thru step 8), I was ready to move on. (Boy, was I. ‘credit card report', here I come!) Choose bureau : « TransUnion » | ‘Next'.
11) Warning screen: I was given one final chance to cancel, in case I wanted to start all over again (no, thanks). | ‘Next'.
12) "You already have an account": ‘Enter: | ‘Username | ‘Password' | ‘. After my credit card report debacle four months ago, they weren't going to let me start over. I couldn't remember the ‘username' nor ‘password' I had used four months ago. Because my SSN was still the same, they were going to hold me to the login I had used (or tried to) last year. Something did tip me off, though. I discovered that neither the ‘username' nor ‘password' would allow for ‘digits' or ‘special characters'. For such high security this seemed like an anomaly, that's why I now, remembered what I had used.
13) Luck of the Irish: For the first time, I got lucky and my hunch worked. Boom, I was logged in to TransUnion.
14) Tip the Doorman: There, to greet me, was the gracious offer of also getting my credit card score, complete with ‘analysis'. Only $7.95 additional, payable to the ‘appropriate partner'. I was so pumped, I couldn't say "No". After all, I had just won the lottery by guessing my username and password correctly. Besides, I know credit reports are so voluminous and inaccurate that an ordinary person can't make any sense of them. You can waste months, trying to fix something only to find out later that "it didn't make any difference". So I put the charge on my favorite credit card and pressed ‘Accept'. And then...BOOM!
15) "Unable to Confirm Identity": Please contact our Customer Service team to verbally confirm your identity."