Just a quick question - my attorney said that because I have some stubborn issues on my credit report that won't go away no matter what we try, as a last resort I can officially "opt-out" of Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. This means I will have no credit report, which I am fine with since I have plenty of cash, own my car and home outright, etc...basically I have no need for credit. So the question is, if I do this, and then wait a year or two and "opt-back-in", saying I want a report again, what happens? Will I start with a fresh slate? Will the report pick up where it left off when I opeted out? Any ideas/thoughts? I would particularly like the pros here to comment...interesting idea I think. Btw I already "opted-out" of other database info, like Nexis-Lexis, Choicepoint, etc. and that has never caused any issue...in fact it's been great from a privacy standpoint.
Your attorney sounds like a dreamer. LOL You can opt out of Lexis Nexis for certain reasons from particular databases LexisNexis Opt-Out Requests - LexisNexis But you can't opt out and not have a credit report.
If CRAs are private companies and not government agencies, how can they maintain records on you if you wish to "opt-out"? I mean, how is that legal if you do no business with them specifically, and they are a private entity?
They are reporting what is given to them by their customers, the creditors. You aren't their customer in that you aren't paying the subscription fee. They collect the data sent to them, and they report it to whoever has a permissible purpose. You may prevent someone from applying for credit without you being contacted, but I don't think that it makes your report go away.
Your attorney is probably confusing opting out of prescreened offers with opting out of the credit reporting process. While you can opt out of prescreened offers, and even "freeze" your file (meaning you have to get a PIN and give it to anyone you want to pull your report when you apply for credit), your report is still there. An e-mail was circulated saying you could opt out of reporting, but like so many e-mails, it was false. The details about that e-mail are here. You can check it out, but you'll see that there is no opt-out of reporting.
