Getting a Personal
Cash Advance in Spite
of Poor Credit

Getting Your Free Credit Report
by Michelle Singletary

The Credit CARD Act of 2009, which has eliminated a number of unfair credit card practices, also required the Federal Trade Commission to issue new rules to prevent deceptive marketing of the free reports generated by each of the three national credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Since the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was signed into law in 2003, there has been a lot of confusion among consumers about which site provides the official reports.

The ubiquitous commercials for freecreditreport.com with the curly haired guitar-playing guy haven t helped either.

Upon first landing at that site, you must read carefully lest you be diverted to the Web sites for the bureaus. On the official site, there is bold red lettering that says: Start here to view and print your credit report now. You then have to select the state you live in to begin the free credit report process.

TransUnion, Experian and Experian

But some people assume they should click on the credit bureau links below that wording. Once on the sites for TransUnion, Experian or Experian, you encounter marketing pitches for various products or services, including monitoring for your credit reports or the ability to buy your credit score.

Credit scores differ from your credit report, which contains your credit history. The scores are used to determine how credit worthy you are. There is no requirement for the bureaus to provide free credit scores.

Even setting aside the possible detours on the centralized free site, there s another opportunity to get misdirected.

annualcreditreport.com

After you ve entered personal information on annualcreditreport.com, you'll still encounter sales pitches from the credit bureaus. People have to decline the offers one by one before being allowed to continue through to get to their free reports.

The advertising has to be moved to the end of the free credit report process. This is better but not ideal.

The centralized site should be an advertising-free zone. This would eliminate any chance that somebody might still think they have to pay to get a look at their credit files.

In the Federal Register notice about the rule changes, the FTC said a ban is more restrictive than necessary at this time but that it will monitor the required disclosures.

At least after the new rule becomes effective, the hyperlinks on the home page for annualcreditreport.com will be taken down. This will go a long way to keep people on the right site.

Copyright 2010 Providence Publications, LLC All Rights Reserved

Source:  Providence Journal-Bulletin (Rhode Island), March 7, 2010, www.projo.com/.

NOTES: Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Her e-mail address is singletarym @washpost.com. Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Her e-mail address is singletarym @washpost.com.

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