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Free Credit Reports

Question
I saw an article that said the government now allows consumers to get one free copy of their credit report every year. I am planning to purchase a house soon, so I went to an Internet site that I saw advertised to order my free report. I received my copy right away, but then was sent a bill for $79 for an annual "credit monitoring service" that I didn't even realize I had signed up for. What gives?

Answer
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 allows all American consumers to receive one free copy of their credit report every year. The best way to order the report is to visit www.annualcreditreport.com, an Internet site created by the nation's three largest credit bureaus- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Unfortunately, the new law has also triggered the creation of hundreds of other Web sites with similar-sounding names that aren't always on the up and up. As you discovered, some of these sites offer free reports but also sign up unwary visitors for expensive and unnecessary credit-monitoring services. Others sell the information a consumer provides to mass-marketing firms or other companies.

A few sites are operated by downright thieves, who take the consumer's information and use it to raid their bank accounts, apply for credit cards or even obtain mortgages. The Federal Trade Commission recently began cracking down on some of these nefarious Web sites. For example, more than 1 million people who went to www.consumerinfo.com and its sister site www.freecreditreport.com for a free report inadvertently signed up for a credit-monitoring program. They are expected to have their money refunded in the coming months. The FTC has completely shut down a few other sites and is trying to send the operators to prison. Of course, FTC watchdogs can't solve the problem overnight. To protect themselves, consumers seeking a free report with no strings attached should use only www.annualcreditreport.com. Again, it's the one and only site that is operated and backed by the nation's three largest credit bureaus.

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