That's not quite how credit freezes work, if they pull Equifax and only that bureau is frozen then they will usually just pull from another credit bureau. People who churn credit cards use this to their advantage - they often freeze the report with the most recent inquiries (usually Experian) to spread out inquiries more evenly over the three bureaus. I've never heard of anyone getting flat out denied for credit (besides mortgages) because they had a single bureau frozen. Sometimes it requires a phone call but usually its just automatic.
You also can't prevent them from reporting information about you to Equifax.
Anyways, you aren't really hurting anyone by denying yourself the ability to get credit, you're only hurting yourself.
Remember, these companies are paying Equifax for your credit report.
The point isnt to prevent any credit reporting.. but to prevent equifax specifically from earning money.
And no one is "denying themselves the ability to get credit" by refusing to unfreeze an equifax report. If the lender doesn't want to use one of the other credit agencies, then most people can find another lender. Those businesses need to know they'll lose business as long as theyre loyal to equifax.
It is unfortunate we don't have more leverage... this does leave a lot of avenues open for Equifax to continue making money. But every bit helps.
> If the lender doesn't want to use one of the other credit agencies, then most people can find another lender. Those businesses need to know they'll lose business as long as theyre loyal to equifax
lol, yeah, good luck with that when you go to get a mortgage.
Mortgage lenders pull all 3 reports, not just one. There is a ton of laws around mortgage underwriting that need to be followed. They technically may be able to underwrite a mortgage with only two credit reports but I doubt any mortgage lender actually will or if they did they'd be charging outlandish interest rates. If you're hiding a report they will assume its because you're hiding something negative that's on the report.
Things don't work like you would like in the real world, only in theory. You are delusional if you believe Chase having to pull Experian instead of Equifax once every million credit applications is going to somehow effect Equifax's bottom line.
If your landlord uses a background checking service that uses Equifax and the background check service comes back with "frozen report" and you say "I demand you use a different background checking service that doesn't use Equifax" then your landlord is just going to say lol and rent to the person who isn't being extremely difficult, as its a sign you're going to be a difficult tenant.
You also can't prevent them from reporting information about you to Equifax.
Anyways, you aren't really hurting anyone by denying yourself the ability to get credit, you're only hurting yourself.