Please read our disclaimer always use the services of a professional
Who cannot offer a free credit report? Let's start with the last one first because
it shines a lot of light on the rest of the questions. Any company, web site or service
that is in business for a profit and is not named Experian, Trans Union or Equifax
is not able to provide anyone at any time with anything remotely resembling a credit
report free of cost. Period. End of story. Got that? Further, there is one place
set up on the web to get free copies of credit reports at no cost and it is: www.annualcreditreport.com
. We'll talk more about this site a little later but, other wise, caveat emptor,
let the buyer beware.
How then are these offers being made? Look closely, the "Free"
report is usually offered initially upon signing up for a service that charges your
credit card each month for monitoring your credit. If you cancel the service just
in the nick of time, before the charge is made to your card, you will get it at no
cost. What a hassle! And the bet is you will wake up at least one, if not a couple
or more months later with several charges to your card. You think these guys make
foolish bets?!
Then what caused a free credit report to be offered on the front page
of newspapers, who is providing them and how and where do I get one? Due to the importance
of consumer credit history, identity theft and complaints from consumer rights groups
about having to purchase a credit report in order to gain knowledge about the contents
shown on individual consumer reports, even if it was reported inaccurately, a change
was mandated.
The Fair and Accurate Consumer Trade Act (FACTA), a revision of the
Fair Credit Reporting Act, provided for one credit report free of charge from the
reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax) every twelve months, if and
only if, you haven't received a credit report in the previous twelve months. The
consumer, by either mailing a written request to the three major credit reporting
agencies or going to www.annualcreditreport.com one can obtain the free report if
they meet the criteria. This program was and is being phased in to sections of the
U.S. by the credit reporting agencies starting in the western states, with the northeastern
states at the time of this writing still to come.
However, Pamela Yip of The Dallas
Morning News writes that even this has not been without its problems.
"The Federal
Trade Commission said Experian Information Solutions Inc., one of the three major
credit bureaus, settled complaints that it "deceptively marketed 'free credit reports'
by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for
a credit report monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn't cancel within
30 days... . With the help of the Federal Trade Commission, the bureaus established
www.annualcreditreport.com as the only authorized online source for consumers to
get a free report under federal law.
The Truth About "Free" Credit Reports -