There are three ways to get a free
copy of your credit report each year, but you can
protect your bank account and privacy by skipping
the online method and calling the toll-free phone
number: 1-877-322-8228.
You can access the
information online at annualcreditreport.com, but
watch out -- if you don't get the Web address
exactly right or if you search for terms such as
"free credit report," you could get sucked in and
scammed by one of the many credit report
"impostors" currently inhabiting cyber world. A
third method of obtaining the information is by
regular mail, but you must first complete a form
to send with your request and, of course, it takes
longer.
The free credit reports come as a
result of the FTC's final ruling under the Fair
and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.
According to the
ruling, the three major credit reporting agencies,
Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, each are
required to provide consumers, upon request, a
free copy of their credit report once every 12
months from a centralized source. This centralized
source includes a Web site, a toll-free telephone
number and a postal address.
The program is
rolling out region-by-region with residents of the
West and Midwest now eligible to request their
free annual credit reports. Over the next
six-month period, the availability will roll out
eastward, with the last of the eastern states
becoming eligible on Sept. 1, 2005. The reports
will not automatically be sent out. You can
request them three ways: Over the Internet by
going to annualcreditreport.com; by
phone, by calling 877-322-8228; or by completing
the Annual Credit Report Request
Form, and mailing it to: Annual Credit Report
Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA,
30348-5281.
The trio of
reporting agencies established a single authorized
Web source for customers to access the information
for free: annualcreditreport.com. That is
the only federally mandated source for free,
no-strings-attached credit reports.
The rest of the
Internet Web sites advertising "free" reports --
98 of them as of this writing -- are in fact
impostors whose real agenda is to steer
unsuspecting consumers into a for-profit marketing
enterprise, according to a World Privacy Forum in-depth
investigation and report.
"As a long-time
pro-technology advocate, it saddens me to advise
consumers to avoid a legitimate Internet site,"
says Pam Dixon, WPF executive director. But, she
adds, even the AnnualCreditReport.com site blurs
the lines as to what services are free to
consumers and what are available at a
cost.
The WPF report
uncovered dozens of confusing sites, many of which
are operated by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion,
the big three bureaus who together run the
government-mandated and authorized free report
site.
Fraudulent,
deceptive and misspelled domains An estimated 50 impostor domains
are active and luring unsuspecting customers to
questionable sites -- including to Experian,
Equifax and TransUnion sites that charge for the
very same service they are offering for free. In
other words, while they run one Web site jointly
that offers free reports, they're also running
dozens of other sites -- often under different
names, such as ConsumerInfo.com -- that charge for
the same or additional services.
The WPF investigation identified 96 known misspelled,
registered domains -- 28 of which belong to Experian
and other credit services such as MyFico at FairIsaac.
These sites try to exploit errors in typing to deliver
you to a different site with services you have to pay
for. Some of these impostor sites actually claim to
be www.AnnualCreditReport.com, while others take advantage
of the typing error to forward information on you to
search engines or advertising partners of other affiliates.
Snags at authorized site
Even if you're fortunate and careful enough to
get to the "real" free credit report site, you're
still not out of the woods. When you visit the
site you first fill in some personal information
and continue to the next page. There, you have
the choice of selecting one of the big three to
order your report from.
Remember, you are entitled to one
free report every 12 months from each of the
big three credit reporting firms. You can order
all three at once, which is good if you want
to compare scores, or you can order one now and
save the others for later on, which you may choose
in order to see how scores improve or decline.
If you choose TransUnion, for example,
it requires you to register to get your free
report and asks for an e-mail address. If you
sign up for its newsletter, it will share your
credit and other information with affiliates
and partners. Experian and Equifax, the WPF says,
use confusing menus in offering the free credit
reports and ordering reports from all three means
a consumer would have to read and understand
four different privacy policies. Robert Brennan, an attorney in
La Crescenta, Calif., issues another interesting
warning: Some of these online credit report sites
contain a mandatory arbitration agreement which
prevents you from taking a case against the credit
bureau to court.
"I have long recommended the Internet
to consumers for advice, research, and consumer
information," says Dixon, "but in this case I
strongly urge using the toll-free telephone number
to order these reports. Doing that will expose
you to far fewer hazards and challenges, some
of which could be quite serious."
Scott Bilker, founder of DebtSmart.com and author of the
best-selling "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card
Debt," says it is almost impossible to monitor,
never mind control, the mushrooming of these
impostor sites. "The big credit bureaus do offer
free credit reports. But they are also quick
to order information about your credit score
which comes at a price. They also try to sell
other services such as credit score protection
or credit management.
Paul Richard, executive director
of the Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE),
also is warning consumers about bogus credit
report sites. "If, for one reason or another,
someone has to use the Internet for this purpose," he
says, "the most critical thing to insure is that
the correct address or URL has been typed in
correctly."
Protecting yourself
Free is
free: If you have to supply a credit
card or checking account number, it means
you're going to pay. You may get the initial
credit report for free, but you may also
be signing up for a continuing service at
a price.
No junk
mail: Don't respond to e-mail offers
for free credit reports -- they're almost
always spam.
Be secure: Always
be sure you're on a secured Web site when entering
your personal information.
Keep it
secret: When phoning the toll free
number (877-322-8228) for a free credit report,
ask that only the last four digits of your
Social Security number are displayed on the
reports to be mailed to you.
Reduce solicitations: Don't
give out your e-mail address to obtain a federally
mandated free credit report -- it is not required.
Run from
pop-ups: If you do choose to go online
to https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com and
see pop-up ads, or if the site is not secure,
close your browser and start over. Secure
sites will have a padlock logo in the corner,
and the address will begin with https://
instead of just http://.
Check and
uncheck: If you go online to https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com,
be sure to look for any pre-checked marketing
or newsletter offers. If you decide you do
not want these offers, uncheck the box.
"In this day and age, with identity
theft rampant," says attorney Brennan, grandson
of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William
J. Brennan, Jr., "it's a good idea to subscribe
to a monitoring service to keep on top of your
credit report and changes each month."
For complete findings of the "Call,
Don't Click" report visit WorldPrivacyForum.
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