No Thank You Experian!

On the Credit Rating Agency website from the company Experian their tag line is "A world of insight".  What it really should say instead is "Intrusively and without your knowledge, pimping out your data".  Why do I say this?  Well, from personal experience.

You see, about 2 months ago, Dr Desert Flower contacted our bank (one of the big national, too-big-to-fail US institutions) just to inquire if they could call us back about a home loan, since we are renting here in California.  The very next day, our phone began ringing off the hook, with misguided and misinformed mortgage brokers from shady, never-heard-of-before, finance companies.  Each of these unprofessional callers incorrectly assumed we were "re-financing" our California home (which we rent, and do not own, but the callers were too stupid to figure that out).  The first day, there were 4 callers.  The next day, 6 more.  These were inane callers interrupting my work conference calls, leaving long messages, all of them dodgy and circumspect about who they were, how they got my name, or with which company they were associated.  I began telling them off, to remove my name from their lists, and asking them if they understood what the "Do Not Call Registry" was, and are they familiar with the $10,000 federal fines they would be hit with if they called back?  The 2nd week, the calls stopped.

Then, this week, DDF contacted a mortgage broker referred to us by our realtor, as we are looking to possibly purchase a home and wanted to see how much of a mortgage we could be pre-qualified to receive.  That mortgage broker again ran a credit check on us, and yesterday, once again, the flood gates opened.  3 calls yesterday, 5 calls today.  I began interrogating the callers directly, after they butchered the pronunciation of my last name:
"what is the nature of this call?"
"from what source did you get my contact information?"
...and then telling them I would never be interested in getting a mortgage from a telephone broker who I do not know, who I have never met, who is being predatory upon my wife and I, and whom I do not trust.  Sheepishly, some of them apologize.  Others, just rudely hang up on me.
"Do you understand what the Do Not Call Registry is?"
"Do you understand that if you call back, I will be reporting you and your company to the Federal government and they will hit you with a $10,000 fine?"

After the 5th call today, I looked up Experian, since 3 of the unsolicited callers told me that they 'purchased a list of potential borrowers from Experian' - to which I told each of them "that was not money well spent, was it?".  Buried 5 levels down on their web page, is an "Opt Out" page (link here).  It also has a link to the Do Not Call national registry.  I called Experian's OPT OUT number (1-888-5OPTOUT, or 1 888 567 8688) and the computerized answering protocol had the nerve to ask me for my name, address, social security number, and phone number.   Of course, it could NOT figure out what my street was, since it is a bastardized Spanish spelling that is meaningless and un-referenceable, so that lead to "leave a detailed message, with the spelling of your street address" logic path.

I never asked Experian to sell my information to anyone.   I never authorized Experian to sell my information to anyone.   And I am obviously not happy that Experian pimped out my name, and the predatory lenders have swarmed my phone number like locust.    I don't know if the other 2 national credit rating agencies do the same thing, but it is rather despicable and underhanded.  I rank credit rating agencies on the same list of bottom feeders and those who add no value to society, along with derivative traders, ambulance chasing injury lawyers, California DMV workers, industrial artificial franken-food manufacturers, tele-marketeres, and political strategists.

Hey you kids, get off my phone!!!!  grrrrrrrr