Big brother alert!

The other day, Lor and I set out for Home Depot to look at some hardwood and laminate flooring, and to buy the usual random homeowner stuff, like plywood, and a replacement wheel for our wheelbarrow, etc. After having some fun looking at the flooring and then making our purchases, Lor snagged an application for Home Depot's new Rewards Mastercard.

Yeah, I know, every company has a rewards card these days, but we found the idea of getting rewards at Home Depot is just too tempting to pass up. So, we looked over the application and decided that since we've been unhappy with one of our other current cards (we've had it forever, and have great credit, and they've still increased our rate and recently added an annual fee), we'd apply. We noticed the URL for applying online, and decided to go that route.

We filled out the application, and clicked submit. After a few seconds (literally!), Big Brother was there looking back at us from inside the web browser window. Naturally, Home Depot had done some sort of behind the scenes, initial credit check on us to see if they should even bother giving us a card. However, the page that it returned was just downright scary. It was a page of reasonably detailed, multiple choice questions about us! For example, one was a question about a previous address. Each question had 4-5 answers, one of which was actually the correct answer!

I'm sure this kind of information is available through the hopefully secure channels involved in processing credit card applications, but when we were confronted with it like this, we suddenly realize just how much the credit agencies know about us.

Tags: House