Consumer complaint received 2024-09-29 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services — Didn't receive services that were advertised
Company: TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
XXXX related complaints about TransUnion and its products : 1. Lack of a single sign-on for TransUnions product line puts the burden of creating, remembering, and managing multiple logins on American consumers : one for each XXXX XXXX  product. 

2. Theres no means to add another activation code within an existing XXXX accounts logged-in state. This forces American consumers who increasingly experience overlapping data breaches from various companies theyve done business with to log out, then create a second login, with a different email address, in the same TransUnion product. 

Details below. 

XXXX. 
On learning of a data breach in their technology, a company sometimes provides a partial remedy to consumers by offering free credit monitoring for 12 or 24 months. Sometimes they do this out of goodwill ; sometimes they are forced to offer it because of a settlement resulting from a consumer lawsuit. 

To provide credit monitoring, a company will send letters and emails to their customers with links to one of a small set of credit monitoring service providers. TransUnion is one of these. TransUnion has a slogan on their site : Information for Good. 

My data was breached, so I followed instructions from a company letter that sent me to a TransUnion product called XXXX XXXX XXXX. On that site, a consumer is asked to paste in a unique activation code. Doing this leads a consumer down a path of creating a new account. 

Theres also a login option, in case you already have an account. Well, I do. 

I already have a TransUnion login from in the past having received credit reports, updated data in them, locked and unlocked my credit, and monitored my credit. So I tried to login with those credentials, but it says invalid credentials. When I go to TransUnions website, the credentials let me in. Despite XXXX being a product of TransUnion, they expected me to create a new identity in order to monitor my credit. 

Because TransUnion is dealing with financial data and a higher level of security, the process of creating a new account on XXXX XXXX XXXX  requires more steps than a non-financial account. Create a password ( and save it somewhere ), choose a security question and type an answer ( save them somewhere too ), verify my email, and verify a form of identification. 

They have a third product similarly called XXXX XXXX. ( Drop the XXXX from the front, and its somehow a new product requiring a new login. My own login from XXXX XXXX XXXX, and my login from TransUnion doesnt work at XXXX XXXX. 

Instead of figuring out how to validate a consumer once and enable them to use their products, TransUnion expects hundreds of thousands of American consumers to spend 15 minutes each validating their identities, creating multiple unique logins, and remembering and managing them. This, just to interact with and manage their credit. Is TransUnion a poor company? Can TransUnion not afford to take this burden off American consumers? Even Universities make accessing their various products as easy as a single sign-on. 

TransUnion does this with XXXX of its products listed on their Member Login page, not including a fourththe XXXX  version of XXXX : https : //www.transunion.com/customer-support/login This is a barrier to entry for even the most tech savvy of us. 

XXXX. 
I received another letter recently that sent me to TransUnions XXXX. 

Since I have an account from a previous breach, I logged in, but once logged in, there is nowhere within XXXX to enter an activation code. A consumer can only add an activation code for a new data breach in the logged-out state ( I called to verify ). 

Once logged out of my account again ( still with my new activation code ) TransUnions XXXX takes me through the process of creating a new account. 

When going through it the first time, I filled in all the info I had previously used for my current account, and when I got to the email, it says : email address is already taken. Well, yes it is. Because thats my email. Whats going on? 

When calling TransUnion technical support, I asked : where do I find the place to enter a new activation code into my account? Support says you cant do that, you have to create a new account with a different email address OR if you want to use your current email address, you can deactivate your account. Under My Profile, under Manage Account, you have the option to click Cancel Account. Then he advised that I wait a few minutes before creating a new account using the new activation code and my existing email. 

Does TransUnion think that there is anything obvious about this process? Why at each step is the burden on perhaps millions of Americans to have to create multiple accounts IN THE SAME PRODUCT in order to access a fresh new data breach 12- or 24-month extension on credit monitoring? 

On that deactivation screen it advises : Use the button below to cancel your XXXX XXXX account. Canceling your account will not affect your credit report, but you will lose the ability to view the historical data and trends over the course of your enrollment. If your credit report is locked at the time you cancel your account with XXXX XXXX it will be unlocked. 

By doing it this way, rather than enabling me to activate a new one with my current login, Iand a million other Americans like melose historical data if we do it that way. 

Data breaches are becoming commonplace in American consumers lives today. TransUnion is creating obstacles to managing the influx of data breaches and credit monitoring.

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 non-monetary relief