Consumer complaint received 2022-03-02
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes

Complaint:
Complaint is about Experian and how EXCRUTIATING ( and to date impossible ) it is to get human help to resolve a critical active fraud situation. 

XX/XX/2022 : received email via credit monitoring service ( NOT Experian ) that fraud activity was taking place - someone actively applying for and obtaining credit fraudulently ( XXXX  XXXX, XXXX XXXX, Bank XXXX XXXX,... ) I am in process of moving residency from USA to XXXX- so on-line and IMMEDIATE access to help is VITAL. 

XX/XX/2022 : Was able to SUCCESSFULLY and EASILY place credit record freezes via on-line with XXXX and XXXX. This helped to get attempted fraud activity somewhat under control. Experian on-line system refused to authenticate me and I could NOT place freeze on credit info NOR a fraud alert (! ). Experian insists I mail in information- which is useless for immediate action. Experian phone lines/trees will only provide automated/useless help, and no ability to access a human agency regardless of any options chosen ( including XXXX ', " # ', ... ). 

XX/XX/2022 : Discovered that I could place a fraud alert via XXXX, which then took XXXX hours to propagate to Experian. 

XX/XX/2022 : On-line Experian still refuses to authenticate and allow freeze to be place. At least the XXXX initiated fraud alert now shows up on Experian. Tried multiple phone numbers for Experian ( XXXX, XXXX,... ) and ALL result in useless automated phone trees with NO ABILITY to transfer to human agency. ( See clark.com too for helpful suggestions on how to contact a human ). 

XX/XX/2022 : Also, as part of XXXX settlement ( XXXX ID XXXX ), tried to activate the free credit XXXX monitoring service implemented through Experian. This refused to authenticate too (! ), and could not be used in an attempt to freeze my credit info - calling XXXX resulted in human contact, but they were unable to help at all and needed me to wait 3 days (!! ) before a manual verification process could be used to activate account. 

Experian in general has set up their phone trees and their web site to STRONGLY PUSH their UNNECESSARY subscription services, and to hinder any possible activities on the part of someone to quickly and effectively clamp down on an active credit fraud situation. Creating an Experian user account on-line does NOTHING to help implement a credit freeze or to initiate a fraud alert rapidly- this can be accomplished WITHOUT creating an Experian user account ; the account appears to be simply another means for Experian to market their IMO unnecessary subscription services. 

I have had to call XXXX XXXXXXXXl XXXX, Bank XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( and likely others soon too ) because of the delay in being able to implement a simple on-line freeze of my credit information on Experian.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation