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U.S. Govt. Stipulates Free Annual Credit Reports
alue writes "Under the terms of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, passed last year, and amid growing concerns over privacy and disclosure of sensitive financial data, the three leading credit reporting agencies must provide consumers with a free summary once a year of all credit information on file for that person. Consumers in 13 Western states will be able to grab free online copies of their credit reports starting Wednesday."
i mean it didnt take long for those free online credit reports to become "free" as in a "free ipod"
Why does it not surprise me that it will take another fscking year for the !$!@#% District of Columbia to come online with this... Isn't that where the damned law was passed in the first place?
Geezuz...
Is there something hidden away in the US Constitution that says that all Bills laid before Congress must have names that are really crap acronyms?
Is there someone on the hill whose job it is to make them up?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
...starting Wednesday.
Hmm
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 02, @08:00AM
Accurate and, sorta, timely reporting there killer.
Sure it's an interesting exercise to see one's own credit report but then what? When there are mistakes on it can you get them fixed?
Without the word bomb? OK Joking, but wow, this is actually a bloody good idea!
At least if all the relevant details are sent to everyone... I hope this doesn't get back handed to someones cousin to implement, and the data gets out... again...
This is one thing where I hope europe follows suite... and that credit companies are tightly regulated to help the little man... and woman...
In Korea, Only Old People Get Free Annual Credit Reports. Nope, doesn't work.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
While I might take advantage of it if I knew there were problems, knowing I would have to wait a year to see it again (even if I later had real problems) would make me think twice before requesting it just to look it over.
The government is finally useful! I'm partying tonight!
In my experience, when a problem is found, I've had no problem getting an updated credit report for free.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
FTFA:
Should I order all my credit file disclosures at one time or space them out over 12 months?
You are entitled to receive one free credit file disclosure every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies through the Central Source. It is entirely your choice whether you order all three credit file disclosures at the same time or order one now and others later. The advantage of ordering all three at the same time is that you can compare them. (However, you will not be eligible for another free credit file disclosure from the Central Source for 12 months.) On the other hand, the advantage of ordering one now and others later (for example, one credit file disclosure every four months) is that you can keep track of any changes or new information that may appear on your credit file disclosure. Remember, you are entitled to receive one free credit file disclosure through the Central Source every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - so if you order from only one company today you can still order from the other two companies at a later date.
I for one welcome the mail from the phishers about the new http://www.annual-credit-report.com/.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
This is really good. The number of people with mistakes on credit reports is pretty high. Especially if anyone is to do anything major (buy a car, get a mortgage), you need to check your credit beforehand! IIRC, if you have been turned down for credit before, you can request a copy of the report in writing within (I think) a 60-day time period.
Here's their general contact info:
Equifax (800) 685-1111
P.O. Box 740243, Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian (888) 397-3742
P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013-3742
Trans Union (800) 916-8800
P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022
Also, if you want to opt-out those pre-approved credit solicitations, you can call (888) 567 8688 or contact the above parties by mail (make sure you reference your name, address, and SSN).
Equifax Inc.
Options
P.O. Box 740123
Atlanta, GA 30374-0123
Experian
Consumer Opt-Out
901 West Bond
Lincoln, NE 68521
Trans Union LLC
Name Removal Option
P.O. Box 97328
Jackson, MS 39288-7328
That being said, you should have been checking your credit once a year or so to make sure there's no mistakes. If you're buying a house in the next year, check now for any mistakes. They can take a looong time to fix.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
The FACT act says that people in western states can get this now but some states, specifically Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont, have required credit bureaus to do this for a while.
And how exactly does your privacy benefit from having yet another place available on the web with your data on it?
Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but the less boxen with my data on it, the better.
Cooper
--
I don't need a pass to pass this pass!
- Groo The Wanderer -
I HIGHLY doubt this is a win for the abused... er, I mean, consumer. I properly filed for a free copy of my credit report from experian (NOT those rape you FreeCreditReport.moreSpam places) and started recieving specific junk mail and telemarketing which I was free of before.
So, what does "free" mean? Free from cost? Free from marketing? Free from being spied on?
The link in the story just looks like another phishing scam to me. Nothing about the site says, "No really, we're the official one that's not gonna sell all your information to whomever wants it." What's "official" about it?
What would be a consumer win is that the credit agencies automatically send out annual credit reports along with a report of who looked at your credit during the last year and EXACTLY what they saw.
Between big business and big goverment, the little guy has no hope.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only web source authorized by all three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies from which free annual credit file disclosures can be requested.
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I believe they have to send you a new one if you find a mistake (that they made, mind you). :(
Basically, if there is something on there that you dispute you work it though them (and the agency that submitted it if needed) and then you can request a new report, free of charge, to make sure that it is fixed. I looked into this a while back so it may be out of date, or just plain wrong because I never tried to correct anything. Unfortunately, all those debts were mine
Back to the current topic, I suspect that this free report will actually be limited in someway and then they will offer to sell you the special, extended edition, unrated directors cut for some small fee.
I don't think, Therefore I'm not.
there's some neocon advantage. like they insist on making your credit easily available to the individual, and a nice side effect is it's very easy for them to get a copy too, which will tie in nicely with all the other records they have on you.
From working in a bank, I've heard that your score goes down a small amount every time you request a credit report, to discourage people from applying for loans to dozens of banks, or the same bank over and over. I couldn't find anything about this on the website, but it might not be a good idea to request a report numerous times.
I had an error on my credit report. A phone company I had never used said I owed them $100. I contacted the phone company and the credit agency and explained to both that it was an error but after many attempts I ended up paying them off.
This is the proof, even here in Germany the SCHUFA charges you for your very own infos about yourself, being backed by the govt although it is illegal to charge for it.
Your credit report is one thing. What about your FICO score?
I think its good that we get free credit reports now, or at least in those western states.
Back to the current topic, I suspect that this free report will actually be limited in someway and then they will offer to sell you the special, extended edition, unrated directors cut for some small fee.
I suspect also that you are correct - now as it sits you can get a report for $5, (in my state) and then if you want your credit SCORE its another 5 dollars - so very likely they will cleverly market this to say something along the lines of "Your credit report is USELESS without a credit score! for only $5 we'll give you your credit score"
And you know how many people are going to take that option, i mean, it's only 5 bucks right? so the credit companies actually stand to make more money off of this deal, since more people will be interested in a free report, then once they are merketed to will realize that they absolutely MUST have their score as well.
Don't Tread on Me
Once again, the government decided that it should tell private companies how to go about their business.
The registar is shielded by Domains-by-proxy. There's no reason to do that for a REAL credit check site. Also, there's no SSL certificate.
Anyone ever bother reading their privacy policy? I don't feel safe after reading various bits.
note that the free credit file disclosure is not required to (and probably will not) contain your computed FICO (Fair Isaac & Co.) number relating to your credit rating. this is the number proprietarily computed and available (at a cost to you) fromi re=5
Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax. the number ranges from around 500 to 850 and could be different from the three sources.
http://www.myfico.com/myFICO/FAQ/FICOScores.asp?f
What exactly will prevent this?
The site says: "To assure that your credit file is disclosed only to you, the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies will authenticate your identity utilizing the personal identification information you provide on this site, including, but not limited to, your Social Security number, and then require that you answer certain questions."
But what information on my credit report is known to me that is not known to my immediate family members, my employer, my physician's office, etc.?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
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Are you not willingly doing business with these companies?
While it's great that there eventually may be free access to credit reports, I personally believe that knowing my FICO score on a regular basis is more important. One of the credit card companies I have a card with, Providian, is the only company I know that provides me with my FICO score for free. I hope more companies follow this trend, because a person's FICO score weighs heavily in determining your credit worthiness.
Thanks big time!!!
The-Bus you rock.
I just stared getting this crap in the mail.
Now I hope it will stop.
Most of the requests do require very specific questiosn to be answered, unlikly to be known by anyone (other than immediate family member, who you hopefully can trust) before displaying on-line. In some cases, they will only mail it to your home address. One of them (I forget which) had a 'test' where you had to answer questiosn about specific bills you have received (what was the amount owed on a certain date) or multiple choice questions, with quite a few that were none of the above, etc.
In short, yes it is enough.
I recently went through some hassles trying to clear a delinquent account off my credit report. The thing is, this delinquent account was only reported by two of the three agencies. In fact, each of the agencies listed a different current address for me (former military, so I moved a fair amount), as well as slightly different account information.
If you find a discrepancy on your credit report, the first thing you need to get is evidence - preferably in the form of a letter or statement from the company making the negative report. Put that together with a letter giving an explanation of the situation. It's not a bad idea to put your last two addresses in addition to your current address, in notes at the bottom of the letter. Send copies of this to all three agencies (details can be found at their individual websites).
After a week or two processing time, the credit agencies will send you a written reply telling you the results of your challenge. Included with this will be an *updated copy* of your credit report detailing the changes that have been made.
One other thing to keep in mind when working with your credit: feel free to challenge something even if you know it's a legitimate negative item. If you tell the credit companies "No, I didn't bounce that check three years ago.", they have to attempt to contact the bank that claims you did. If that bank does not respond within a set time period (I believe it's 30 days, but I would have to double check), the negative item is wiped off your record.
Finally... bad credit items stay on your report for *SEVEN YEARS*. All you college students keep this in mind. Additionally, a good number of companies are doing credit checks as part of their interview process nowadays. It's also required if you're going to get a security clearance from the US Government.
Transplant
Disclaimer: I am not a credit counselor, nor do I work for any financial institutions. So, double check what I've just said before you take it as fact.
I doubt its that hard to get hold of someone's file anyway. After all, anyone you apply to for a loan can get hold of it, as can their agents. Since they have to make it avaialable to a large number of people, it's difficult to offer that much protection.
This is interesting.
From the FAQ
What is a credit score?
A credit score is a complex mathematical model that evaluates many types of information in a credit file. A credit score is used by a lender to help determine whether a person qualifies for a particular credit card, loan, or service. Most credit scores estimate the risk a company incurs by lending a person money or providing them with a service -- specifically, the likelihood that the person will make payments on time in the next two to three years. Generally, the higher the score, the less risk the person represents.
So, they'll send you the goods they have on you, but they won't tell you the very information that counts the most?!? Last time I got a credit report, it showed my score on it. Are they looking provide the "report" free, but make you pay for the score?
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
This is a twitch in the right direction for the credit system... it makes more accessible what was entirely a monolithic (trilithic?), black-box setup.
However, the internal workings are still not entirely known. The algorithms for calculating the credit score are guarded like launch codes, and you still have to pay even to see what that code is. Not to mention that the companies are free to use the website as a marketing venue for their other services, as long as they don't impede your ability to get your report. Think of it as ad-supported software.
Hopefully, this will allow people to more easily find and correct mistakes that would otherwise ruin their lives. But there are still a lot of practices in the credit world that need to be corrected.
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
dpbsmith raises good questions.
So when I request my "free" report. The paper it is written on magically appears as does the printer and ink. Once the magic ink is printed on the magic paper, it's put in a magic envelope and magically transported to me.
Sorry I'm just a little skeptical when I see the word "free" used in such contexts.
Has anyone seen who is actually paying for this? Is it the credit agencies or the tax payers? Hafd dorf sokut timbre busket
Immediate impressions:
0) The idea is that you give the annualcreditreport.com's site your details, and then go back and forth between there and the three reporting agencies' websites. This worked pretty well. They have an interesting security feature where the site only works if you type the URL directly or the referrer is one of the 3 credit agencies.
1) Experian's site was broken --- it reported an error, but I bet the annualcreditreport.com now thinks I've used up my 1 free report with them anyway.
2) They don't give you your FICO score (the number summarizing your creditworthiness), but offer to sell it to you for 5 or 6 bucks, instead.
3) The sites do basically the same things, but the contrasts in processing and reporting styles between Equifax and TransUnion (Experian he broken, remember) are interesting:
* Equifax asked me a trick security question to verify my identity: "You may have a mortgage from January 2001 -- Which of the following is the monthly payment?" The answer for me was 'None of the above' as I don't have a mortgage from then. But it scared the shit out of me when I saw the question! Talk about identity theft!
* Transunion makes you establish a login name / password / reminder question + email contact, and tries to sneak in a spam newsletter. Equifax doesn't do this.
* Both sites try hard to get you to buy your FICO score.
* Transunion's report presents its information better than Equifax's.
In Norway, you get a (paper) copy of your credit report every time someone hires a company to make one. It's the law over here. It seems reasonable. You've actually had to pay for getting to know your own credit details? It's kind of funny.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
What do you think the US government's credit report would look like?
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
is that when you request a resolution to disputed facts, they have to take it off of the report. this is for a limited time while the investigation goes on. after that, if the entity that put the record in on the first place is not happy/convinced/paid off/etc, they can put it back on.
this is how 'credit repair' scams work. you can get your credit 'cleaned up' for a certain amount of time if you time everything correctly. also, a certain number of people will not fight small amounts. i would have assumed that if you dispute 1.81, it would not come back, but for 1.81 to be there is the first place is kinda stupid. there is a possibility that it was automated and a challange will force a person to become involved and say 'this isn't worth it.'...
eric
While I did, you don't have to get your report from all three at the same time. You might be better off getting your report from one bureau every four months -- chances are, identity theft would show up on all three of them at about the same time.
While they did try to sell credit-monitoring services, they weren't especially obnoxious about it -- once I unchecked them, I was able to proceed and get the free report without much hassle.
Each bureau had its own security questions, and they're designed to be 'non-wallet' questions, like "What is the account number on your mortgage?", or "What is your monthly car loan payment?"
If you're paranoid, you can also find information on that web site about how to get your credit report by mail or telephone.
And yes, you can get incorrect info removed. I paid for a combined report in August. There was an error, a civil case that was Dismissed, nonsuit, but reported as a judgement against me. I filled a protest with Equafax, and they removed it in less than a month.
They're already free here.
Once per year isn't a huge cost.
This also helps the credit bureau keep accurate records, which is a benefit to them.
If you have a bad credit rating due to an error, you might choose not to borrow money due to the high cost. This is a lost opportunity for a lender.
Accurate data is good for business.
When I requested my credit reports before I got married they asked some questions that even I had problems answering. An example of a few I remember are: You currently have a student loan issued by which of the following banks? Bank A. Bank B. Bank C. None of the Above. Or another was What was the address you lived at when you received credit card XXXX?
These are good questions and I'm sure they've gove through a lot of work try and figure out how to ensure your credit report only goes to the appropriate person. While there are reasons to be leary of the credit reporting industry this is NOT one of them.
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
You can view your own credit report as much as you want. This doesn't show up as a request, nor does it lower your score. What lower's you score is if credit card companies request your credit report. So if you apply for 5 cc in 6 months, each one will lower your score.
This is why people get upset when companies check your credit report without permission. Sometimes your own CC company does this so they can raise your limit. Any rate it's a hit against it.
But don't worry about checking your own credit report. Not only that you can only do it once a year. I check my credit report every 6 months. If fact I use a service (offered by equifax) that emails me whenever anything changes on my credit report and I can look it up.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Lois, this isn't my Batman glass. - Peter
I don't want a free credit report. I want accountability from three corrupt, incompetent, and powerful corporations.
How generous of the three credit reporting firms that we can see, for free, the information that they collect and profit from. The information that is used not only to decide on whether we can buy a home, but what our car insurance will be, whether we'd make a good employee, whether we can get a security clearance. Now we'll have the obligation to correct the errors made by others, at our expense. Let's Experien, TransAmerica, and Equifax off the hook.
So, your credit rating is now the measure of your worth. Now with laws regulating when we can see our report (for free), the government is giving further de facto authority to three private, profitable, and notoriously error prone organizations. These unregulated corporations that act in a quasi-governmental capacity expect us to be delighted that we can see our data once a year.
Of course, you still don't get to find out how the all important "Fair" Isaac number is computed. But that's another issue.
A question to ask one of the credit reporting firms is if you can be removed from their system. Say I don't want to use a credit card, or get a car loan. Why should my information be tracked? Why should these firms know who my employer is, what my salary is, my marital status? For God's sake, even if you wanted a car loan, why do they have access to so much information? Drop the damn "credit efficiency" argument and you have private agencies with enough data to ruin your life.
Somewhere along the line we've abandoned freedom and liberty for the sake of slightly lower prices, both on goods and loaned monies. I'd accept a higher interest rate to have some privacy.
/* Dang, I can't type that well. */
You can get a free credit report already if you get turned down for credit. This is just going to swamp the credit bureaus with unnecessary requests and make it harder to get mistakes corrected. It's cheap to get a report anyway. This is just the govt pretending to do something for the little guy.
If the govt really wanted to do something meaningful, they would stop employers from pulling credit reports for employee candidates. It's truly unfair for anonymous HR wankers to evaluate the worth of a candidate based on credit scores, scores that can be ruined by illness, theft, unemployment, or a former spouse. Many talented, hard-working IT professionals have been unemployed for long stretches.
All of this personal information floating around contributes to identity theft as well.
Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!
I was asked similar questions on separate occasions (a total of 4 questions) and the correct answers were always none of the above. Seemed a little strange to me.
...to +4, Insightful??
If there really was a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to get your personal credit information (?????), is the best way to do it really setting up a website under FACT for consumers to get free yearly credit reports?
For fuck's sake.
Please, tell me about how flu shots are for mind control and that a 757 really didn't crash into the Pentagon. Can't wait.
...and you will see why this law is a good thing.
Wether or not a law is a good idea is an entirely seperate question from wether or not it's constitutionally permissible. Never forget that.
In this case, I think the law falls well under interstate commerce powers clause of the federal government, but I am not a lawyer.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Since its pretty obvious you haven't pulled your own credit report through one of the bureaus before let me give you a run-down of the things you must verify.
Start with your SSN, home address, phone number, etc. After authenticating all of that information you will get probably five questions like the following:
In October 2001, a request to open a loan was made by Toyota Financial Services, how much is this payment each month for this loan
A. 200.27 - 224.56
B. 235.57 - 260.01
C. 265.33 - 290.17
D. 315.29 - 327.89
E. I do not have an account with this institution
Now when I go through it, I have to pull my bills to answer all the questions . This is one of the things that the bureaus have been good at in terms of enforcing security by putting these questions to the person requesting their credit file.
Last time someone did this sort of post(might have been k5, not slashdot), I found 2 out of the 5 addresses were wrong- not just wrong digit...wrong PO box, wrong town, wrong STATE. That's VERY dangerous given that you are sending more than enough information necessary to do identity theft.
Please post links to their "how to reach us" pages on their websites next time.
Please help metamoderate.
for the columns in the admin piece is pretty nice (it only works in ie 6 though). I have not seen js that had done this before. For me it seems faster then blogger but I like blogger better because of the customization I can do to the templates. I have had no problems viewing things in ff so overall I think they did a good job.
One thing to remember. The authorized companies that will provide free credit reports WON'T be emailing you to promote this service. If you get an email offering your free credit report, you might want to look into the company before you start providing info like your SS#, name, and address.
Hint: your state is self reporting. I mean, just because my last address on file is Texas doesn't mean I'm NOT from California, does it? (*Cough*)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Comment removed based on user account deletion
BEGIN RAVING
Sweet, sweet justice!!!
Yah fork it over you data raping bastards! And I WILL take my custom elsewhere if you've been keeping too many tabs.
Get ready all you marketer scum! Your next!
END RAVING
On the down side, I can see them hiking extra fees on people to pay for 'cost increases' effectivly charging for the service.
Nonotheless, it will be VERY interesting to see what their keeping on us, assumming that is, that they will turn over ALL they have on us.
May the Maths Be with you!
Lol, I fear the OP does not get it. We have had 1 free credit report for as long as I can remember. You just have to write a letter with pencil and paper.
It appears that they now will allow the request to be made over the internet. But I doubt if this is related to any government act, as the actual free report has been available for a long while now. At least 10 years.
I got mine, too, here in Hawaii.
Well, for SOME values of "got."
Experian worked.
Equifax consistently gave me some stupid internal error.
TransUnion gave me an error saying something was down or offline and therefore it couldn't cooperate.
One out of three... hopefully by the time you eastern folks get this, they'll all at least be functional.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Things like your anual mortgage payment and lender, your former street addresses/counties.
Does your doctor know mortgage lender and payment?
Certainly it's not fool proof and there will be abuses, but I think its a step in the right direction.
I was always a bit mystified that I had to pay to see something that can be used against me at any time.
If anything it should be exactly the opposite; lenders and other agencies should have to PAY to see my credit report and it should be mailed to me anually for free.
Apple free since 1990!
I don't know about your family members but your employers more than likely already have a credit report on you or could pull one anyways. (They would have to pay)
No keyboard detected. Press any key to continue.
By the way, those credit reports are (and have been) 100% free in Massachusetts as well.
I get mine every year and see how many errors in my address, SSN, and name they have. It's interesting in the least.
Of course, there are some scammers that will try to charge you for them. But if you call Equifax, etc, directly, they are obligated to give them to Massachusetts residents for free.
ok. I own some land in AZ, have an SSN and things, yet those dudes don't know about me and ask me to send them snail mail, plus 9 USD for them to take my info into account ??? WTF...
For great credit advice on how to fix your credit, go to Credit Boards. Found this a few weeks ago. Good stuff.
Hmm, isn't there some sort of ICANN rule or regulation requiring accurate information in the domain registration records????
While obviously technically accurate, doesn't this intentionally skirt the spirit of the rule?
Ron Gage - Westland, MI
The idea goes basically like this, AFAIK, and I apologize if you already know most of this:
The Big Three do not distinguish between you asking for your credit report and anyone else asking for it (please note, I do not mean this in a privacy sense, only in an actuarial sense). They keep track of how many times a credit report on you is requested. As you may know, some of these are legitimate and some are less so -- but it's not really up to the Big Three (Experian, Equifax, Trans Union) to decide what's a legit request and what's not -- they just process the requests. Reports are requested for virtually every major financial transaction you engage in, including rent, mortgage, credit cards, department store cards, opening a bank account, etc. Ultimately, the theory goes, it's your credit, so it's your responsibility to maintain it.
Credit ratings are based on actuarial tables (just like insurance policy rates). There's a whole industry based on creating formulas and algorithms designed to determine within a certain statistical variation how likely you are to be a good credit risk (ie, pay back the loan with interest) or a bad credit risk (ie, default on the loan). Some of the determining factors for these are income, age, residence, length of current job, whether you rent or own a home, etc. In short, they're trying to figure out how stable you are.
If you apply for a lot of credit cards, though, that's a very, very major red flag -- short of bankruptcy, it's probably the biggest red flag they have. That implies that (a) you're trying to live way beyond your means through credit, (b) you're trying to pay off almost-defaulted credit cards with other credit card loans, or (c) everyone keeps turning you down for loans. Any or all of those are Very Bad Things for a legitimate credit agency, and as chum is to sharks for credit scam artists.
All of which says that you requesting a credit report on yourself several times a year can start to push you into higher risk categories, since they don't really distinguish between you asking and someone else. In addition, there may well be an actuarial calculation that says that people who request their report constantly are bad credit risks, because they have some need to do so (as opposed to being mildly paranoid and/or financially sound).
I would hope that any legislation calls upon the actuaries to change their rating tables so that personal credit requests are eliminated from consideration, but AFAIK that's not Congress's bailiwick. Since the tables are all determined by private industry consortiums, I don't think Congress can actually mandate a change in them -- but I could be wrong about that.
Thanks a lot for doing this. I'm glad you did so we can all see where the scam is now. When I checked on my credit history a couple years ago, it included the fico score - no charge.
In other words, It's NOT free. It's not free in any sense of the word. If they don't include the most important information, the arbitrary number that determines if you get a loan or not, then what's the point?
And from the sounds of this, it seems as if this site does little good, except for sorce material for phishers. They need to get their act together if they really wanted this to work right. However, I doubt they want it to work and I doubt the FTC could care less.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
What's with the deceptive mod-links to their advertising site? How do we know someone posting AC has the authority to make these statements???
Besides the obvious like credit card accounts and mortgages, credit scores are used in many other places. These include insurance products of all kinds (though some states prohibit this), signing up for utilities, rent applications, some job applications. Even some rental car agencies have experimented with using your scores.
There is a scary practice called "universal default". One bad glitch in one credit account can be used to restrict credit in many other accounts, even though you didnt abuse those accounts.
I doomed now that I turned in my library books late last week !!!
Heh... In my case, that should constitute proof that they _don't_ have access to my credit records. :-P
That rule is a good start. All of my personal info is covered by copyright, under which it must be used for only the express purpose for which it was copied by me to the original recipient, with no "recopy" rights. We need an explicit law which backs that up, and specifies remedies for damages under violations, like divulging without permission, or use outside its original scope (like unauthorized marketing). Every copy transaction outside the original organization, including authorized credit reports, etc, requires notification of the copyright owner, like radio plays of songs reported to ASCAP. I'd also like to see a registry of personal info licenses, so every copy of the info sent includes the public ID of the license under which the limited copyright, under which it is transferred, operates. Then let Senator Disney swing his copyright net in Congress widely, protecting the people as much as the corporations.
--
make install -not war
Consider this: if there is incorrect information in your credit report, it is up to you to find that out, and persue action in order to get it corrected. The burden of proof is squarely on your shoulders- you are in effect guilty until you prove yourself to be innocent. In addition, I (a blood-sucking lawyer, I'm ashamed to admit) have found with several of my clients that only the legitimate threat of legal action moves these monolithic companies to get things changed, even when a preponderance of evidence shows that the information in the report is incorrect.
Ultimately, I believe that the system is broken, and nothing short of a wholesale reworking of the laws surrounding debt collection, and debt collection agencies will fix this problem. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was a good start, but there needs to be more done in order to protect Joe and Jane Consumer.
---As my daddy used to tell me: "You gotta be smart before you can be a smartass."
I have had the displeasure of having someone else with my name in that last 3 cities I have lived in. All of them seem to have the worst credit possible. Before I bought my house I had to clear 5 really nasty items from my credit report before I could close.
It took 3 months to take care of it, plus while contacting the collection agencies involved they updated the other person's account with MY information, and tried to switch social security numbers with the listing they had on Experion. It was a very unpleasant situation. Luckily I had called the credit reporting agencies first, so when this less than scrupulous company tried to pull a fast one, they actually caught it.
Shawn's Tech Articles
Excellent information. I'm sick of getting dozens of credit card offers a month. The other thing that annoys me is that my credit card company keeps mailing out those "convenience checks". To the tune of a dozen every week. It's like they haven't gotten the point that the only reason I even have the card is because they were stupid enough to offer me a 2.9% for the life of the balance transfer option. ;-) Thanks Capital One... your convenient low-interest fixed rate loan allowed me to pay off 10 years of CC debt.. next month I'll be CC debt free and on the road to only spending what I can pay with cash. ;-)
Motley Fool Radio Show. (I like the Motley Fool, but those guys have terribly live personalities. Listening to their radio show is painful.)
The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
... with the form at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/requestform final.pdf which means you don't have to open 3 'accounts' with passwords, email addresses etc. But, of course, someone could steal your application in the mail...
In addition to my SSN, they asked me which bank held a loan with me, and approximately what the monthly payment was for it. While this may be known by a spouse, it shouldn't be known by your family, employer or doctor.
"That's a nice car you got there."
"Thanks, My Social Security Number is 555-80-7427, and I have a loan through Wells Fargo where I pay $350 per month."
One of the three got my date of birth wrong. They give an 800 number to call. When you call, the answering machine says the office is closed.
The US doesn't default on its debt payments.
I guess I don't understand. It's always been law that you are entitled to 1 free credit report every year from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. In addition, you get a free credit report every time something negative has been added to your report (the reporting agencies are required to inform you when something negative has been added).
I've been ordering my credit reports at least once a year for as long as I can remember.
eMelody Web Directory add your site today!
These are good questions and I'm sure they've gove through a lot of work try and figure out how to ensure your credit report only goes to the appropriate person.
Appropriate person? They sell reports to anybody. That's part of the problem.
Wow. You have absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever about lying, huh? Perhaps that bad credit rating is deserved...I mean if you advocate lying, how is a business/partner/whomever supposed to know you will keep your end of a contract (i.e. what the credit report is supposed to reflect).
If you did the deed, own up to it and pay the price or don't do the deed in the first place. One or two minor problems (like bouncing a check 3 freaking years ago) are unlikely to seriously impede your ability to either buy a car or a house - especially if you made good on the check.
Sorry; forgot to include a link to the CNET article where I read about this.
The link.
Alan
Some of the questions are pretty obvious however. When I pulled my wifes it said that she had a mortgage account that was opened back in 2001 and it wanted to know who this was with and what the monthly payment amount was. I chose none of the above for both because she rents an apartment. Anyone who knows her would know that and could have easily chosen the correct answers. The question I was asked when I pulled my own file was a much better question and I actually had to think a minute about it. It was about a car loan that I had for about a year back in '97. Would have been nice if they could have asked me about something just a bit more recent. I couldn't remember the exact monthly payment amount so I guessed what I thought would be pretty close and got lucky. Someone else could have done the same, but the part about who was the loan with should have kept prying eyes out of my info so I feel secure with the system.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Now I am a strong believer in the GPL, so I would use copyleft. That way if there is (for example) an error in my SSN, anyone can go in and just fix it and the world will be a better place...
If you send me your bank ATM account# and PIN under the GPL, I promise to send back copies of any changes I make, after I've tested them thoroughly ;).
--
make install -not war
for the first time its our cousins across the pond who have scored for individual freedom.In UK everytime one requests a credit report , one has to pay £2.
here's hoping against hope that we might have a similar law sometime soon.But whilst Blunkett is busy pushing his blunkettcard i doubt any thought will be given to the man on the street.
Wanted : A Signature.
Experian and transunion are broken on KDE and then when I tried it with mozilla, it said that I already had it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
To get mine I had to verify what company holds the lease on my car as well as what the payment was per month.
Not exactly fool proof but better than nothing
I just tried to do the Equifax one and their website burped right when it was supposed to give me the credit report:
t : /templates/main_template.jsp
An unhandled error has occured:
com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppErrorRepor
Either that or it doesn't work with Mozilla. How much do you want to bet that they already set the "gave him his free credit report" bit in their database for my SSN?
Actually, things stay on your report a *MINIMUM* of 7 years.
I just got all three, thanks to this story, and there is a "30 days late" from 1994 on there, still showing up.
Most people that look at it will not take it into account, but then again, most people look only at your score, and that will be affected.
Lose Weight and Feel Great with Isagenix
Wouldn't it be funny if this were actually a phishing scam? ;)
In my country, _____, we don't have to pay for ______, [because we have very high taxes/oppressive beauracracy/pseudo-socialism] why is America such a backwater hicksville?
In October 2001, a request to open a loan was made by Toyota Financial Services, how much is this payment each month for this loan
A. 200.27 - 224.56
B. 235.57 - 260.01
C. 265.33 - 290.17
D. 315.29 - 327.89
E. I do not have an account with this institution
Where is the CowboyNeal option?
This is a good start. Under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), formed back in the early 80's, consumers gained a lot of rights to prtoect their credit from predatory lenders and unfair credit reporting practices. The problem is, many people do not understand their rights or how to begin to fight bad creditors or incorrect credit reports. And unfortunately, the FCRA has not stopped problem creditors from pulling the same old tricks they have for years to keep credit scores low and interest rates high- re-aging deliquent accounts, non-PP credit pulls, etc. Face it, bad credit means big $$ to many industries.
How do you think card dealers survive selling new cars for $1 over invoice (and don't argue that the 3% invoice credit for marketing is where they make their money)- they make it on the back end. They "buy" the rate from the bank and hike it up for profit. Sure they can sell at a loss when they bring in an extra 2k on the back end.
This is a good first start for the government- many people will obtain a free report when they were not willing to pay 8-13 dollars before. BUT, at the same time, many states already offer free credit reports once a year (i.e. GA) and that has not stopped bad creditors.
The government needs to put harsher controls (and FINES) on creditors who break the FCRA. Educationg the consumer (free reports) is a start, but you need to give them ammuntion, not just a weapon.
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
I have lots of stuff on my credit report that's like ... WTF!?!?!?!.
I bought a car, had it two days before it blew up and got it checked out. They filled up holes in the engine with clay. I sent it back and filled out some paperwork cancelling all that jazz. That was 5 years ago and it's on my credit, that and a CC that had my name on it due to the fact I was a contracter and needed my name on the company card to use it. They go out of business and stick that on my report too.
My advice is to wait the 7 years for it to go bye bye if you can and don't want to pay for it. If you dispute it your credit rating is effectively 0 until the dispute is settled, and that could take over a year. My credit score is 770 and I can't even get a gas card now that I'm waiting for this. And they even mailed all the paperwork to an address I haven't lived at for 4 years. If I didn't dispute it I would have good enough credit for almost anything even with $14000 dollars of debt, 90% of which is fraudulent. Only 16 months to go.
Nope, but three times a year is better. And that is what you seem to have here. Check each agency in a staggered fashion and you'll give yourself better coverage.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/optalrt .htm
That's the link to the FTC site stating the number and it's purpose.
Causing Chaos Everywhere,
Nik J.
The strange world of a loner, in a populous city, drowning in society
Wow. You have absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever about lying, huh? Perhaps that bad credit rating is deserved...I mean if you advocate lying, how is a business/partner/whomever supposed to know you will keep your end of a contract (i.e. what the credit report is supposed to reflect).
In today's world, ethics and business cannot mix if you want to be more than just someone's corporate bitch.
I was unable to view any info yesterday. Eventually I got a PDF from the Equifax site that I can mail in to make the request.
For those unable to log in, the annualcreditreport.com site first asks for personal information then redirects one at a time to the three big agencies.
This new law really sounds like the "harvesting email addresses" act since you have to provide email addresses to create an online account at each of the three agencies to view your report online. I was unable to get it to work any any of the three.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
So yes it is a real site. And a signed SSL certificate is only useful to let the end user know they're who they say they are. It has nothing to do with the security of the site.
This is why Slashdot can't link directly to them but certain companies like Transunion can. If you type in the name of the domain yourself then link scams don't work so a signed SSL isn't an issue.
Also, once I hit the sign up area it went to a secure connection without any warnings. I don't bother with a sign cert for my web-mail and am warned when I access it through SSL.
So you're pretty much wrong about everything and the moderators didn't bother to verify your claims before they wasted their mod points on you.
Work Safe Porn
The downfall, though not in my mind, any time you apply for a large credit item, the credit agencies will call you to verify information with you.
I put my information on fraud alert long ago. You need to renew it every two years. It will keep anyone from getting credit cards in your name and such. Since my father has my SSN, my mother's maiden name, and my DOB, this comes in handy.
Also, when you get a credit card, put a password on it. Call them and request this, since your mother's maiden name is just too easy to find out.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/green/cc/crdt2e.asp has all the numbers you should need.
I went to buy a car recently and experian and transunion both called me to verify it was me getting the car. Maybe a hassle to some, but something I enjoy having done personally. I know no one is going to royally screw me over.
this information hasn't been posted here yet:
in addition to requesting your report over the phone as mandated by law, if you live in one of the required free report states (not the new credit act western states, but CO, GA, MD, MA, NJ, VT), you can view yours instantly online:
http:/www.experian.com/freestate link
So, i accessed this last night and got my equifax and trans union without a problem. Experian gave me a "file not found" error on the web page after answering all of their questions, and now it says i've already accessed my report for the year. Great programming guys! Go ahead, try to call them, you'll get a runaround in their phone system and never get to talk to a person.
Is this basically the same as the Data Protection Act except limited to only 3 organisations? In the UK and Europe (maybe since the '80s?) you have access at any time to any information that any organisation keeps on you for any reason (including the police) and you have the right to know the reason and how the data will be used and that it will be kept secure from others..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Okay, I'll bite...
First, I have excellent credit. My problem was due to a cell phone company reporting me delinquent from an account that had been closed for 6 years. Since I had copies of my bank statements (showing the cleared check) as well as the "final statement" from the company showing the account paid in full, I was able to clear it off my record.
I in no way advocate lying to help clear your credit report. I just figured I'd state the truth; if you challenge the validity of an item on your credit report and the reporting company does not respond, the item will be deleted. Good or bad, that's the way the system works. The bounced check scenario was nothing more than an example.
Transplant
Why is it that, it's yesterday for west coast, in freaking March, for upper midwest, October next year for lower midwest, and mid-2006 for the east coast/territories?
This is just some seriously dumb bullshit. Besides, you are entitled to a free credit report from an agency when someone turns you down for credit purposes, and the price of a credit report is set to not exceed $9 by federal law.
Another way to get a free credit report is to go to progressive.com (yes, the insurance people) and ask for an online quote for insurance. If you give them permission to run your credit, they will then have you qualified to get the free information from the bureau.
Now, on the other hand, since there are three different credit bureaus, you're still basically fucked. You get one free one, you gotta pay for the other two. So, it really doesn't matter.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
The Big Three do not distinguish between you asking for your credit report and anyone else asking for it (please note, I do not mean this in a privacy sense, only in an actuarial sense).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
wrong.
There is in general 2 types of inquiries into your credit report. One is the "hard" type (this stays on your report for 12 months I think), which people (other than you) are allowed to know (it's in your public report). The other is the "soft" type, which only you are allowed to know (this stays on your report for 24 months).
Asking for your own credit report, ID-ing, promotional requests, etc are "soft" inquiries. It's on your file, but only you can see it.
I am on a (arm and leg paid) program that I can monitor my own credit report from one of the Big Three. I check my report every other day, that since my credit card was defrauded, just in case my ID was stolen. I can do it as often as I like, and this does not impact my credit rating at all.
In your country, ________, you are all a bunch of [socialists/terrorists/Frenchmen]
Why can't you drop your backwater idea of spending on social programs, and instead give that money to corporations like we do here in the USA?
I ordered a background search on myself: the report included the names and addresses of my neighbors, public info on the cars they drive, etc. as well as much correct/some incorrect info on me.
As far as I know (and I'm certainly not an expert), negative items stay on your credit report for a MAXIMUM of seven years. See section 605(a)(4) and (5) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (There are some exceptions to this rule in subsection (b) and another that extends the ten-year period for info regarding certain student loans.) Maybe you can ask to have that delinquency removed?
Also, I've heard that positive items stay for a minimum of 10 years, but I'm not sure about that.
I think you are correct. I know someone who just received a free credit report that had no report on the credit score. They had to pay to receive the score. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be any way to check that your score is computed correctly. Numerous queries seem to suggest that the credit reporting companies are not even aware of how the scores are computed. They just have a computer program which tells them what the score is. Apparently this program is completely infallible.
You can order these free reports over the phone or through snailmail as well. When you order reports through snailmail you just need to provide some standard info, like past addresses, past employers etc.
I was not intending to disparage your credit. It was more of a 2nd person "you".
I in no way advocate lying to help clear your credit report.
How is it that you can say that when your original post clearly suggested that individuals desiring to clear legitimate, negative items from their credit reports should claim that said situation never occurred? That's a lie. If you do not want to advocate lying, you could just have easily suggested that items believed to be in error (vice known to be legitimate, negative items) should be challenged and if the challenged company cannot or does not respond to the challenge the item will be cleared.
I was able to clear it off my record.
Honestly, glad to hear that you were able to get this straightened out. False accusations can really damage a person's reputation and it is encouraging to see that your experience clearing up the matter was straightforward.
This has saved me a lot of trouble in many avenues of my financial life:
When concluding a transaction with the provider of services or goods -- such as utilities (gas, electric, etc.), revolving credit (any credit cards, or credit accounts - store or vendor accounts possibly), cell carriers, hotels, health clubs --- the list goes on -- get a "zero balance receipt."
This is a receipt prepared by the vendor that shows you owe nothing more. If you should ever have a dispute, you now have some evidence of payment. Handy thing to have.
Some vendors will not even let you close an account with a positive balance -- when they owe you money! With a zero-balance, your business is done.
It is precisely this type of invoice that the vendor must send to the credit bureaus to correct errors in your account. If you have a copy, show it to the vendor, and ask them to write a letter to the bureau(s) to that effect.
CYA. Plain and simple.
I am occasionally have tabs at my local bars... when I pay them off... I ask to see that my name is crossed off the notepad.... Saves us both an ugly dispute...
Very slowly they are moving towards that. But when dealing with something as important as your credit report, it doesn't hurt to spend an extra $2.50 and send something to the bureaus certified, so you know that they got it. Doing both probably wouldn't hurt.
Also, make sure you're not simply listed as an authorized user on the account (on the report, this is usually a status "A" or "U", not "B" or "CB" or "J"). If that's the case, you need to contact the bureaus directly. It gets trickier when you're looking at Jr./Sr. stuff.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
That's an asinine statement.
If you honestly believe that ethics and business do not belong with each other than it must be safe to assume that:
Come on...you don't really believe that, do you?
What you are really trying to express, it seems, is a selfish perspective built on whatever you can get away with. If that is the case, if your word, your contracts, your responsibilities and your commitments that you have willingly entered into mean nothing to you, then you are as bad as the machine you are raging against. Its dishonorable and sad.
Take responsibility for your mistakes.
It seems like it is another way for the credit agencies to collect up to date information on you. The terms of use policy says clearly they can use and keep any information you submit. So really, it sounds to me like a convient way for them to keep tabs on you if you are moving around.
Am I being overly paranoid?
Interesting security measure, using actual knowledge of the credit history rather than just a personal question, something that can be guessed or even researched.
What happens if one of the security questions is based on erroneous information?
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
eBay's ID Verify service uses this exact same line of questioning. When I went through it, strangely enough, the answer to every question turned out to be "I do not have (or never had) an account with this institution."
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
i can't believe in this whole thread no one has brought up the point that - when you divulge all this info to "check your credit report" - you are required to give them accurate contact info and your whereabouts, WHICH WILL BE SHARED TO ANYONE ABLE TO PULL YOUR REPORT! collections agencies, the gov't, airlines, etc LOVE THIS, thanks very much for being concerned and we now know where to find and harass/arrest/etc you.
:P
i have several friends who have been "off the credit grid" for years and quite prefer to remain that way. some of them have bad debts that they're willing to and would really like to fix but would be deluged with collections accounts that have been bought and sold many times. so they live in a sort of hole in society, with it being difficult or impossible to get insurance, open a bank account, etc etc - it's not just about capital loans, the fscking things are used *everywhere* now, just like the (supposedly illegal? should be!) practice of requiring SSN and recording gov't issued ID details! the practice of buying and selling debt is an abomination, the ultimate expression of the harmful practice of usury. once they get your info, it's not removable and it propagates...
call me paranoid, but i see you've all fully bought into the system. IT guys and professed freedom/privacy advocates, at that! you are the ones who *know* how this can be abused. everybody must be doing really well for themselves, rock on police state.
...but only after the rebate.
Sorry to disappoint.
Since its pretty obvious you haven't pulled your own credit report through one of the bureaus before let me give you a run-down of the things you must verify.
Start with your SSN, home address, phone number, etc. After authenticating all of that information you will get probably five questions like the following:
It's pretty obvious that you haven't tried the new system. I was asked the basics: name, SSN, home address (no telephone #, BTW). Additionally, I was asked TWO questions. BOTH questions were about my mortgage. Question 1: Who is your mortgage lender? Quesiton 2: What's the mortgage payment? That was it.
Curious: did Experian give you the FICO score for free?
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Oh boy, another proprietarily computed number, unknown to me, to rule my life. No wonder I got turned down for a credit card the first time. I had just moved to the USA, applied, and got a letter back saying: "You haven't existed in the USA, for a minimum of 2 years, so you don't exist, and by definition you are bad credit." They mentioned some number that wasn't available due to my non-existence in the previous 2 years. I guess they were referring to the FICO score.
Thank goodness I was living in a small town in the Midwest, where people actually talk to other people. I marched up to my local bank branch and said, "Why can't I get a credit card with a six-figure income??" Of course, everyone knew each other, the loan manager said, "We'll get that fixed," and less than a month later I had my first credit card with a measly $1000 limit. (Well, first US credit card; prior to that I had already held for six years two non-US credit cards with five-figure limits.) That limit rapidly multiplied, and went past $16k before I started tossing out all those notices they mailed to me saying, "Hey, we automatically increased your credit limit AGAIN! By the way, don't you want to see all these nice ads?"
But if I wasn't lucky enough to have a pretty whopping salary, and if I hadn't been in a small town where we knew everyone, my life would have been made pretty nasty by that One Number. No wonder some honest, hardworking folks, IT or otherwise, are having trouble making ends meet.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
...but my education is actually IN physics, and there's a plenty big enough hole in the outside of the Pentagon (I feel sorry for you, by the way, if you're basing any of what you said on that shitty flash video that's making the rounds).
Read all of this post, and pay careful attention to each of the URLs I've cited. The evidence that flight 77 hit the Pentagon that day is overwhelming, but if it makes you feel all fuzzy inside to believe otherwise (and believe that flight 77 itself was shot down, or landed somewhere and its occupants all executed and hidden), go for it. (This, of course, ignores the fact that if the government WAS indeed behind it, it would have simply been easier to fly flight 77 into the Pentagon, if that is indeed to be the official story.)
Please, before you respond, read all of the post I mentioned, AND all of the content within (though I'll let the 9/11 Report itself slide).
As opposed to paying for a credit report, in which case you can get a report on anybody you want. The reason for the security questions is to protect your identity only insomuch as they aren't giving out for free what they otherwise might be able to profit from.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
leary
That doesn't appear to be a word, or at least dictionary.com doesn't have it with the intended definition. There is a word similar to it, though, with the meaning intended. Does anyone know what it is? I've been trying to remember it myself...
Look out!
leery
Agreed that everyone should have access to their own info, from hi-tech junkies to ma-n-pa in rural Manitoba. But I doubt the infrastructure required to snail mail out credit reports is less than that for an online system. Neither one is free, but the data is already going to be sitting in some electronic form, so you're just presenting it in a secure way, not inventing a whole new medium (paper), and distribution proccess (mail, handling, shipping).
;-)) has the same, so I would argue that considering the internet as the lowest-common denominator for information access is better than the mail. Of course, having both options is best, but if that's too costly, I think more people would be better served by being able to a get a free copy of certain info by internet, raather than by mail. If waiting 2 weeks for some info is acceptable, then even in the harshest Manitoba winter I assume hardy Canucks can get to their libraries once in a fortnight.
;-)
Also, I know here in the US every town has free internet access at the public libraries. I assume that the more socialist-leaning Canada (not an insult (unless you think it is
This applies not just to credit reports, of course, but to most any official information service. Think of an updated Shawshank Redemption with Tim Robbins' Andy Dufresne being a hacker instead of an accountant. Sort of Shawshank meets The Matrix
"Software is either testable or detestable."
A free annual credit report is a good idea in implementing the "right to know your credit history". However, security concerns will always remain because web technologies are inherently full of security risks.
I'm a US expat. How do I get a free credit report. Under "states", I can't really list "none of the above". :-(
As for making it harder to get mistakes corrected... As if it's a walk in the park now. Try having your identity stolen; You're looking at two years friend. How about having the same first name, middle initial, and last name of someone who has filed bankruptcy. That will take a bit longer. The latter is something my brother has been dealing with for the better part of a decade. Apparently, the good folks at the credit agencies don't understand that he didn't have a $15,000 credit line at age 4.
Frankly though, I'm against the whole process. It would be unconstitutional/unlawful for the US Government to do this, so they just farm it out to private industry. I don't get it. Slashdotters bitch and moan about TIA or MATRIX, yet "Oh FICO? That's grand!"
And if you have a bunch of judgments against you, guess what? That means you ripped a bunch of businesses off, got sued, and lost. And you wonder why employers are saying "No thanks"?
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Verify employment by calling former employers? What about companies that no longer exist? Besides, I do both credit reports and calling former employers. Plenty of people's stories check out. I don't need the added risk of someone whose story does not check out.
Look, I empathize with your predicament, but don't take the tone with me like I (or somebody other than you) got you into your mess. There are plenty of ways to get your head above water and it only takes a year or so of being clean to get your FICO out of the tank. I'll take someone who is resourceful and meets his obligations over someone who blames everything on others like you do. I'd never hire you.
I think you fail to appreciate the risk that businesses take on from their employees. That's why we prefer the squeaky clean ones. You don't like it, start your own business and hire all the deadbeats you want. It wouldn't bother me.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
... and I can tell you that in order to copyright somthing there must be a minimal amount of creativity involved. For example, you can copyright the expression of facts, but not the facts themselves.
FYI I am an audio engineer earning a BS at MTSU's Recording Industry Program and Copyright Law is a required course: http://www.mtsu.edu/~record/
Libertas in infinitum
I'm talking about rights themselves, on which laws are sometimes based. Creating anything new, including a collection of old things or information, is creativity. My examples of an email address, or a child's full name, are minimally creative. I can't copyright "that" I am
"Doc Ruby", so it can be reported, but I have the rights to copy "Doc Ruby" as my name. This is an area often confused with trademark, which requires official registration, uniqueness in an industry, trade, and vigorous defense against dilution. But it is similar in principle, though lesser in degree, than copyright of the text of a book. You obtain a book I wrote, with my permission, but may not copy it and distribute it to another person without my permission. Likewise, you may obtain my name in a letter, composed by my parents, who transferred the copyright to me (ancient "fair use"), but may not copy it to another person for any other purpose than fair use, such as identifying me in a business, legal or social transaction. Sharing lists of people's names, unknown to you personally, is not considered "fair", so when not covered by any express permission, is not rightful.
I'd be curious to hear your teacher's actual position on this issue. Not because I think they'll agree with mine, or because any difference will necessarily change my mind. But because I'm interested in the standard defense of selfserving corporate logic from the threat of copyright equity between personal info and corporate info.
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make install -not war