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."

Comments

Big deal

[say]

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.

Re:How is this modded up...

[daveschroeder]

Ummm, I hope you pretend to an ignorance you do not possess. I can think of any number of reasons why such information could be of use in such a situation, and why making it available on a website (security?) might have its issues.

I hate to tell you this, but your credit reports are already available on "a website".

One of many is TransUnion's TrueCredit. You can instantly get all three of your credit reports and scores, if you're willing to pay $35. Of course, you have to answer very specific questions that reasonably only you should know. No, not just things like your name and SSAN. But dates and times accounts were opened or closed. Addresses you might have lived at. And so on. It is considered a legally sufficient effort to establish your identity.

Currently, the law allows customers free access to their credit report from a credit reporting agency, but only if they have been turned down for credit, turned down for employment, etc., because of data contained in the report. There are also other convoluted ways to obtain a free credit report. Why should banks, employers, and other financial institutions be able to have access to your credit report virtually at will, when you - the consumer; the very person on whom the data is collected - cannot easily or inexpensively get routine access to your own reports??

The government's argument is that a consumer is entitled to access these reports for free, once a year. In a normal universe, this would be viewed as a good thing for the consumer, but in this crazy alternate reality some people live in now, it MUST be some kind of a neocon plot.

Be that as it may, many other countries impose legal requirements on credit reporting agencies to make their records available to the individuals concerned, and I see no reason why the US should be an exception.

The US is no exception. We've always had legal requirements surrounding the acquisition of credit reports, and still do. There is a level of muster that must be met for identification, distribution, and security. These reports are ALREADY DELIVERED ONLINE by all three agencies AND third party companies directly to the end customer. The information is already there and easily accessible. Additionally, there will no doubt be tracking to ensure each customer only obtains one report per year.

Is your assertion that now that there is a site that allows customers the right to view one free instance of their credit reports per year, that this system is somehow more prone to a large data collection conspiracy, even though the data has been collected and distributed in the same fashion for years?

I can't believe that this act actually does something GOOD for the consumer - something that customers can already do, but have to pay a virtual arm and leg for - and you twist it around into a conspiracy.