Among a host of other things that the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) stipulates is that all U.S. consumers will be able to contact a central source and request a free credit report from all three national credit reporting agencies (CRAs).
Please leave out comments about FACTA, CRAs, scores, the economy, etc. Just answer this question, knowing that in 2005 all consumers will be able to contact a central source via phone, web or mail and request a free annual credit report…
(For ramp up purposes, FACTA will roll out in quarters, from West to East…but that is not relevant)
**…Once the central source information is publicized, will you contact the central source to order free credit reports from all three CRAs?
Ooh, I hadn’t heard about this yet but it definitely sounds like something I’d do. Assuming it did not require oodles of red tape, hours on hold or signing up for credit monitoring services, or anything other than simply requesting and receiving my credit report. I would likely go through the web first, and if that were not an option probably by phone, with mail being my least preferred method of accessing it.
I live in Massachusetts, where a similar law has been in place for MA residents for the past several years. My wife and I have pulled our credit reports pretty much annually for the past 5 years. It’s pretty easy - I think last time I did 2 over a website, 1 over the phone - for some reason one of them was annoying enough over their website that the phone was an easier option.
I don’t know if I’ll do it every year, but I’ll definitely do it. I’ve had a vague desire to do so, but didn’t want to go through the hassle of figuring out how to do it myself, and I was definitely not going to give my SSN and address to some outfit online.
I’d prefer to do it the Web, all other things being equal.
Like the residents of Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont, we in Maryland have a state law that mandates a free report every year from each of the big three credit reporting agencies.*
As someone who only moved to the US in 2000, i only began to generate a credit history fairly recently. I applied for credit reports (from all three companies) for the first time a couple of months ago, because my SO and i were moving in together and our new landlord wanted credit reports.
The process was actually very easy–like muldoonthief, i requested two online and one over the phone–and the reports arrived within a couple of weeks.
From now on, i’m going to make a point of getting one every year, whether i need it or not, just for my records.
It’s also worth noting that, whatever state you live in, and even before the passing of FACTA, you are allowed a free credit report if you have been denied credit in the last 60 days based on a credit report. Generally, you get the free report from the same reporting agency whose report resulted in the denial of credit.
Yes, I live in Colorado and I get at least one a year. I usually only do one, not all three, but if I could do all three at the same time that would be great.
This should have been free to people in every state a long time ago - since so much is based on your credit, and since errors are common on credit reports, not to mention identity theft becoming a huge problem, this is long overdue.
Always too tempting to toss in generalizations, huh?
For the record, so we don’t debate the ‘free’ aspect, and that it’s ‘overdue’: You’ll pay out the nose now, via higher bank fees, application fees, document fees, etc…etc…etc…because the cost the CRAs must absorb to provide the free reports will be passed onto customers of the CRAs when they buy credit reports for review - big banks, credit card companies, mortgage companies, etc - and they will recoup it a hundred times over from their customers - YOU.
Once they are free, I will certainly order them annually, from all three CRA’s. Online, if possible.
As Philster points out, we’ll be paying for them anyway, might as well get the benefit.
This is one way that identy theft and errors can be discovered.
Yes, sounds like a great idea. I’m always worried that I’ll forget a bill or it’ll be lost in the mail and years down the road I’ll be screwed over while trying to buy a house or car. (yes, I know this doesn’t happen because of one bill, but I’ve only had bills for… oh… a year or so and already stuff has been lost due to moving and address changes).
[off topic mini rant] You know what bothers me? When an acronym is made up from a word then they try and fill in the letters to make it sound good. FACT act, PATRIOT act etc… argh. [/off topic mini rant]
