Watch Your Back, Barefoot

Scott,

I like you. And I like your advice. Which makes me want to give you some of my advice. Watch your step. You’re a finance guy, right? Let me run some numbers by you: you said the three credit bureaus in Australia made $521 million collectively. You are challenging their entire business model. Do you see where I am going with this? You are a pretty bright fellow, and I respect your advice (and BIG BALLS!). Just remember, an American president got murdered in broad daylight.
 
Tony
 
Hi Tony
 
Thanks for your concern, but I don’t think the credit bureaus take me very seriously. After all, they have highly paid lobbyists who have better access to politicians than I’ll ever have.
 
Still, I think locking your credit file is one of the best ways to safeguard your identity, and to stop scammers who’ve accessed your personal details via a hack from applying for credit in your name.
 
The most logical solution would be to put a ‘lock and alert’ system on all credit reports. That is, give people the ability to lock their credit file so no one can see it (without the customer’s consent) and send an immediate two-factor-authenticated alert to the customer if someone tries to access it.
 
 In America, the government forces credit bureaus to offer exactly this service. I’ve asked federal Finance Minister Stephen Jones why he doesn’t follow their lead. He told me he’d look into it, but I haven’t heard anything for months. Bang!