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Comment by sivers | Hacker News Reader

New Zealanders, here's the link to freeze your credit:

https://www.centrix.co.nz/my-credit-score/suppress-your-cred...

Two years ago they made you submit a manual request then prove with a police file or something that you have real proof that you're in real danger of identity theft. Now it seems it's more automated.

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Are credit checks a thing in NZ? I’ve lived here all my life and have never knowingly had one run on me, and have no idea of my rating.

It's a thing. You can check your score for free at https://www.creditsimple.co.nz/

It's worth seeing how much data is stored against you.

Very scary: I signed up and they know a lot of personal information such as my bank account numbers (presented completely without obfuscation), and my exact mortgage amounts, plus other information that shouldn’t be so easily available.

No actual authentication to sign up - presumably you can do so if you know a few personal details and somebodies driver’s license number or passport details (neither of which are secure information).

Thanks G

I believe it was nerd wallet, but I signed in a few years back and was surprised to see they had almost a decade of financial data on me. I don't recall them printing out my unobsfuscated account numbers but it was a bit unnerving regardless.

I remember being refused something (although I can't remember what) because my credit record was blank. I bought a bed on hire purchase specifically so I had a financial footprint.

I'm surprised that a standard "average" credit level can't be used as a starting point, and then every transaction afterwards is a difference against that default starting point.

That is, no evidence in favour nor evidence against you.

> I'm surprised that a standard "average" credit level can't be used as a starting point, and then every transaction afterwards is a difference against that default starting point.

> That is, no evidence in favour nor evidence against you.

It's because this isn't a court of law. You're trying to convince other people to give you an unsecured loan. The default will never be an assumption of trustworthiness.

The default assumption of a blank credit info in 2023 would have to be this person is either very young and probably a risk or a fake identity and certainly a risk. That’s why young people can only get small loans.

In US, the usual way to handle this is to get a credit card backed by a security deposit, and use it to build up credit history.

The other two agencies to freeze your credit with:

Equifax: https://www.equifax.co.nz/credit-file-suppression

Illion: https://dbcsprodaecdn.azureedge.net/web/themes/cycnz/assets/...

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