Patrick's Rants

I got a letter from Experian recently that indicated that my information may have been improperly disclosed. Essentially an affiliate/client of Experian discovered that they revealed information without “proper authorization”.
There was a phone number to call as well as a web site address. When you call the number or visit the web site there isn’t an option or a link for recipients of this letter. There are a couple of different options on the phone line but nothing that says “If you received a letter indicating unauthorized access to your credit report, press 4 now.” This option should do all of the things recommended in the letter: flag your credit report, mail you a copy of your report, remove your name from the preapproved offers list. Or you could just let me talk to a human on the phone.
It turns out, once I was able to access my credit report online (yeah, I had to click on “Steps to take if you are a victim of fraud or identity theft.” I didn’t think I was a victim of identity theft, I just got a letter stating that my information may have been disclosed without authorization. There was no link for that. This turned out to be the right link, but nothing on the main page indicates that it would be.
I say Experian needs to clean up the language or add a link that refers to the letter I received eg. “If you received our alert letter click here.” It would have saved me a couple of hours and saved Experian a couple of toll free charges by me hangning up and calling back because I didn’t hear “If you received our alert letter, press 4″.