Credit report free gov California

The only place those free reports are available is at AnnualCreditReport.com, run jointly by the Big Three (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax (EFX)). Yet, dozens of websites credit report free gov California affiliated with the bureaus falsely imply that they can also distribute the government-mandated free reports.

At FreeCreditReport.com, ConsumerInfo.com, PrivacyMatters.com, Free3BureauCreditReport.com and other similarly named websites, free trial offers and package deals abound.

The most ubiquitous: pitches credit report free gov California for free credit reports and free credit scores if you subscribe to a "credit monitoring" service that alerts you each time a lender checks your credit history, says Robert Mayer, a University of Utah professor who has analyzed two dozen such sites for Consumer Reports WebWatch. "The word 'free' is used so freely that it really has no meaning in the context of these types of sites," Mayer says. The profusion of websites hawking credit reports, credit scores and credit monitoring to consumers have one thing in common: They all sell credit report free gov California data supplied by the Big credit report free gov California Three.

The bureaus are the drivers behind a blizzard of consumer promotions for credit reports (a record of how you pay your bills); credit report free gov California credit scores (a calculation of your creditworthiness, based on your credit report); and credit monitoring (a monthly subscription service, which credit experts say is of marginal value). credit reports and free Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, each bureau must supply every consumer with one free credit report a year. But while meeting the minimum requirements of this federal mandate, the Big Three have been energetically tapping credit report free gov California online shoppers for hundreds of millions of dollars of fresh revenue and profit. By selling credit data via websites that use "free credit credit report free gov California report" and "free credit score" as inducements to sign up for credit monitoring, which has become a cash cow. No surprise that the vast matrix of websites pitching credit data to consumers engenders befuddlement. Even industry insiders say it's all too easy for consumers credit report free gov California to get flummoxed. "There should be more education about what you receive credit report free gov California and how to navigate the credit report free gov California various sources of information," says Mark Catone, senior vice president of First American Credco, which processes credit reports. 3 free credit scores Experian, for instance, sells to consumers at Experian.com and at six other sites. Experian spokesman Don Girard says that selling to consumers at websites using different names "is just creative marketing." TransUnion, privately owned by the billionaire Pritzker credit report free gov California family of Chicago, operates TrueCredit.com, credit report free gov California the site where Wendy Temple bought her TransRisk credit score, as a wholly owned subsidiary. Another major subsidiary, TransUnion Interactive, distributes consumer products via dozens of independently run websites, company spokesman Steve Katz says.

These include PrivacyMatters.com, free-credit-reports.com, Credit.com, Free3BureauCreditReport.com, FreeCreditReportsInstantly.com, speedycreditreports.com and SpendonLife.com, Katz says. Equifax alone sells consumer products primarily through its eponymous website, Equifax.com. "Our approach has always been to take the high road," says Steve Ely, president of Equifax's Personal Solutions. Joel Winston, the FTC's associate director of privacy and identity protection, credits the bureaus for improving their public disclosure statements in recent months. But he says the FTC remains "very concerned" about any lingering credit report free gov California confusion. free credit score report "The principle we're upholding is, you've got to make clear what it is you're selling," Winston says. "And also make all of the conditions clear." The Big Three for decades denied consumers access to their credit histories, selling data exclusively to lenders.