Slashdot Mirror
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"
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.
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?
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.
The regional roll-out is probably due to capacity, getting the records into an online database was possibly done in waves, state by state, and that's just the order they picked to enter them into the system in.
As for the referrer, look at how many scams are already going for people charging you absurd amounts to get a copy of your credit report. They are probably trying to prevent scammers from charging people for an online copy of their credit report when all they do after they charge your credit card $9.55 is to forward you to this site.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Your credit report is one thing. What about your FICO score?
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
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!
I don't think there is any EU-wide law on this. In the UK however, you can get your credit reports for a statutory £2 fee and have been able to for some years.
How much did it used to cost in the US?
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
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.
I don't think this is quite true. I think that your credit rating is only affected by potential creditors looking at your credit report at your request. The reason it goes down is because most potential creditors will be concerned if you are looking to take on substantial debt in addition to the loan that they are offering you.
When a credit card company checks your report to "pre-approve" you or when you request one yourself that is categorized differently and should not affect your credit rating.
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.
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
I think it would be rather difficult to make it through life without ever getting a loan of any sort, credit card, or any of the other myriad of services that require a credit check. Heck, my last apartment even wanted to check my credit when I applied.
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
Not quite true. You are right that when creditors run a credit check that it goes on your report and multiple checks are generally held against you. However, requesting a copy yourself does not go on the report and therefor cannot hurt you. They are two different classifications of "credit check".
Finkployd
What do you think the US government's credit report would look like?
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
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...
I too was disappointed to find that New England was last on the list. But I can understand that they're doing this in a slow, fractured rollout. It allows them to build slowly in a number of areas including bandwidth, real help, and accrued data. It's slower than we'd all like for sure.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
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!
...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.
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.
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
For great credit advice on how to fix your credit, go to Credit Boards. Found this a few weeks ago. Good stuff.
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.
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
Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus:
Opt Out
888-567-8688
I did this about a year ago and it stopped the offers cold. It's a single-point where you can tell all four credit reporting agencies to stop giving your data to direct marketers.
But don't take my word for it, put the phone number in Google and read all about it.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
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."
UH HUH
888-567-8688
888-FAT-GIRL
yea, right. I'm not falling for that one. again
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...
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.
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
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
Actually it's 888-LOST-NUT. Official FTC number you say? What's that say about your current administration?