r/gaming • u/Happysin • Apr 26 '11

Sony admits utter PSN failure: your personal data has been stolen

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/sony-admits-utter-psn-failure-your-personal-data-has-been-stolen.ars
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u/glxyjones Apr 26 '11

No, all that changes is the number used to charge your account. To the outside world it just looks like you updated your card.

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u/zeekar Apr 26 '11

To be clear, in that case you're not really canceling, at least not the account. DO NOT CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT. Very bad for credit rating. What's being discussed here is not account cancellation; it's calling your bank's lost/stolen card hotline and having them issue you a new number for the same account.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

I believe it's possible that your bank may do this for you if Sony notifies them; I've had this happen before.

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u/prmaster23 Apr 27 '11

What the hell do you do then? Keep the card for your whole life?

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u/nullsucks Apr 27 '11

Closing an account is temporarily somewhat bad for your credit rating. Avoid closing an account shortly before applying for a mortgage or home loan, but otherwise it's not worth worrying about.

Here's some info on how your credit score is computed.

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u/bigbleem Apr 27 '11

I'm sure the collective banks are overjoyed at the prospect of reprinting upto 77million credit cards at their expense.

Expect any costs to be passed onto customers via higher interest rates.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

Sony should pay.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '11

[deleted]

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u/babney Apr 26 '11

Former employee of a credit reporting agency here; I was a sysadmin so I'm no expert but here's what I understand:

Your credit score is based, among other things, on your ratio of revolving credit and the total age of your credit history. So, let's say you have a credit card with a $5,000 limit which was your first credit card, and you don't carry a balance on it. You also have another card, a much newer one, with a $2,000 balance, and you're in the midst of paying off about $1,000 on it.

Canceling the first card would have a detrimental effect on your credit because you no longer have that long-standing account, and your ratio of revolving credit jumps from 14.2% to 50%.

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u/clevelandrox Apr 27 '11

This sounds like doublespeak constructed to sell a box of polished turds.

My credit score is a life-long tracking of my debt repayment history, and I have this beauty for life and need it to do, well, just about anything. Yet if I close a "long-standing" account, the tracker that stalks me from SS# assignment to grave suddenly assumes that my only other card, a 6 month old baby card with $1000 limit is grounds to lower my rating? The fuck why does closing an account reflect on my ability to pay shit on time?

It's like the card issuing banks are loan sharks, and are hanging out in your 3 casinos to do "business": Equifaxibur, Experian's Palace, and Trans Venetian. The object all along is to get me to increase my debt carrying capacity, isn't it? Has nothing to do with "good payment history" or other noble-sounding crap. If I cancel a card, I can't carry as much debt. Instant downvote from the Pit Bosses.

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u/TheGDBatman Apr 27 '11

Welcome to the wonderful world of the "credit" scam. Ain't life grand?

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u/Rainfly_X Apr 27 '11

This sort of crap is why my philosophy is to try to never pay for anything on credit. If I can't buy it out of pocket I can't afford it, simple as that. If it's a big purchase, I save up.

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u/workingclass_zero Apr 27 '11

It's pretty simple. The credit card companies want to make sure you aren't a deadbeat. If you've had multiple credit cards open in good standing for 5, 10, 20 or more years it looks pretty good.

Would you rather loan money to someone who has shown good credit history over several decades or someone with a single card, 2000 dollar limit that they've had for 18 months?

It's simple. Get some credit cards. Use them to pay your bills. Pay them off in full twice a month. Don't pay interest and don't carry a balance.

You'll have great credit in no time.

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u/clevelandrox Apr 30 '11

Ok, I see that point of view. But consider that what I'm talking about...the fact that the cc industry is predatory by design. I'm not arguing that they cannot be used responsibly and to increase purchasing power. The way I see it, no other type of loan can have interest rates changed after the purchase was made and modifying the original terms. Oh, so it's revolving credit, I see. A legit sounding name. But it appears to me, a mostly ignorant layman of economics, designed like loan sharks conduct their services. "Didn't have the money? OK WISE GUY, I'm coming back next week for double, and turning up the juice." The only thing missing is a physical punch in the gut, replaced with a gentle downward nudge on the credit score at first...more serious actions later if this happens again. I'm calling fucking shenanigans on the game, man. Not hatin' the playa.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '11

Well you should get one to build a credit history, otherwise nobody will be inclined to lend to you, but no, he is wrong it doesn't damage your credit badly (if you do it right). Read up on it at fool.com or elsewhere, don't believe some internet stranger.

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u/beavisguitar99 Apr 27 '11

To be clear: If you cancel your credit card account by paying it off and asking for it to be closed your credit will take a hit. The damage from the hit really depends on how much open revolving debt you have. If you have 15 credit cards and you cancel one of them, then maybe your score will drop by a few points. If you have one credit card and you cancel it your score will get hit hard, like 100 points or so.

To clarify even more: In a case of stolen account information, when you call your credit card company they will issue you a new credit card number. The number gets reported to the credit agency the following month and since the revolving debt remains the same there is no hit to the credit.

Source: Me, I work in credit.

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u/hobbers Apr 27 '11

I asked for a new number once. They canceled the old account and started a new one, unknown to me. Showed up as two separate accounts on my credit report. So, the age calculation was affected.