As of June 1, U.S. residents of all but 14 eastern states can get a free copy of their credit report online from each of the three major reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). The service, run though www.annualcreditreport.com, was set up to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.
As of June 1, U.S. residents of all but 14 eastern states can get a free copy of their credit report online from each of the three major reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). The service, run though www.annualcreditreport.com, was set up to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.
There have been a few allegations that the credit reporting agencies are underadvertising the service, including blocking referrals from anything but their charge-for-report sites for a time.
Given the unrelenting wave of stories about companies letting loose of personal data (today’s big story is about MasterCard, but past incidents have involved Bank of America, ChoicePoint, UC Berkeley, and LexisNexis, to name a few — many of note because the criminals relied on social engineering rather than computer cracking) and growing concerns over identity theft, a link to www.annualcreditreport.com may be a useful addition to your library’s web site.
The FTC also has an information page available. And speaking of personally-identifying information, your library does have a privacy plan in place, right?
well
Two of the major sites decided that they were unable to offer me credit reports online, due to security concerns (after getting all of my personal information). The other didn’t have a record of me.
I think it’s a datamining operation by the credit bureaus… Like FBI files; those that request their files get a file started on them….
— Ender, Duke_of_URL