Somebody wants to pull your credit? Fine -- they need an unlock code from you first. Why is this not the default? [Yeah, I know, because the financial institutions that *really* run the country would lose a big chunk of their "impulse-credit" business, and so would never allow their bought-and-paid-for Congressmen to pass such a law.]

Having to check your credit file once a year to see if someone has already turned your life a living hell is a criminally inadequate safeguard.

Seriously, I've tried all three credit bureau sites and every single one says it has trouble giving me my credit report online. Like hell I'm going to have them mail something like that to me. I don't want my personal information in the hands of the post office or the people at FedEx. Heck, I even stopped the bank from mailing my statements to me.

Just give me my credit report, damn it!

This happens to me every single year!

I would bet dollars to donuts that a certain percentage of requests are "accidentally" errored out.

Those multiple choice questions like "A loan you took out in 2003 was for what amount?" are just plain asking for an inadvertent wrong response.

It would also help to reform the scamtastic system of debt collectors in this country. Government reform has had little to now impact, the only way it will change is if the credit bureaus put the screws to them.

1.) One username and one password
(registration is a huge PITA when you 'land' at one of the three sites. especially if you forgot what you used last year.

2.) no pop-ups

3.) give me a score as well

4.) eliminate any/all adverts, side sells

5.) make it more official "mycreditreport.gov" or some other similar ".gov" address

6.) extensively test your product. I've gotten way too many errors in the two years/times I've had to use it.

@Orv:

Yes, just make it so you log into annualcreditreport and that is it. I always forget the 3 usernames and passwords and have to jump through hoops to get it changed. Or if they don't change that, at least make the transition from the government site to the credit agency sites a little smoother. There have been times when I've clicked on the link for say Equifax, go to the Equifax site, the report fails for whatever reason, but the government site thinks it went through fine so I couldn't get my Equifax report.

Your version would be a lie. And if you actually go to freecreditreport.com you'll see this displayed prominently on the main page:

"IMPORTANT INFORMATION

When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM. If you don't cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period**, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership.
ConsumerInfo.com, Inc. and Freecreditreport.com are not affiliated with the annual free credit report program. Under a new Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. To request your free annual report under that law, you must go to www.annualcreditreport.com."

So what's the problem with them?

unfortunately, it's not as easy to obtain these reports. you can't get them thru the annual site - you either have to go to the individual sites or go thru the mail.

the ftc could certainly provide a redirect .gov page (or multiple as skaperen suggests) w/ very little trouble though.

Honestly, every time I try to do it something freezes or screws up somewhere down the line. The entire thing is a clusterfuck.

I just wish they would get rid of those singing assholes on TV.

@korin43: Freecreditreport is actually one of the best of the bunch in terms of the for-profit credit report sites. It's a low bar, but still. Contrast with that one Ben Stein advertises for-there's a ripoff site.

8) any firm selling credit information access services (freecreditreport.scam etc.) must include a clear and explicit statement in all advertising (TV, internet, etc.) that provides location of the real government required free credit information.

1)Consumers must be able to access their credit report at any time for no charge

2)consumers have the right to see their credit score and the mathematical algorithm with which it is calculated

3)any disputed items shall be temporarily removed from credit report until dispute is resolved

4)No services may be advertised, offered, or made available in the request for free credit report process. No credit card or other payment information may be collected during the request process

5)All entries on your credit report shall be made traceable by the credit bureaus to the reporting company and provide direct contact information for the reporting company.

6)All entries shall include explicit information on when, how, and under what pretenses the consumer gave permission for this to be collected.

7)Credit bureaus shall be liable for incorrect information reported on consumer credit reports.

if they want to collect information on us, we have the right to ensure that it is always 100% correct, where it came from, and what it means.

@harvey_birdman: No, you get your free annual report from TransUnion's webpage, which is freecreditreport.com. You only have to pay for the monitoring service or to see your fico score. Your annual viewing of your TransUnion report is free from that webpage.

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: No, the report is not free. To get the report requires you to enroll in a bullshit monitoring program. That program may have a free trial, but it is a precondition of getting your credit report. That monitoring program enrollment is the cost of getting your report through them.

@zentec: You do have that option...you just want it for free, and the resources to do it cost money, so thats not fair.

You want somone else to pay for you to track your credit.

@apd09: Becasue the credit score is a trade secret, credit reports are not.

Fair Isaac credit scores use info from your credit report to generate an easy to compare piece of info for banks, they can look and based on criteria they trust, see that the person has X score and person 2 has y score. If they are close, they can look at details, but if they know that the score has to be above a certain number to qualify, they can skip looking at details.

Basically, the score is not the govs to give. It belogs to a private company.

@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: ditto.

@lalaland13: The report is Free. The trial is for monitorting service. Ive done it, got my free report, and then actually liked the service they were offering. After about 9 months, my bank offered the same service for cheaper and I called and cancelled with 0 hassel.

The service is also very nice as it lets you know any time an inquiry is made against your account etc. For instance, I knew my last landlord did run the credit report I had paid him for.

I try to check one report ever 4 months, but I never remember which ones I have already visited and the website itself makes no indication.

I think they should stop the companies from asking for your credit card information when providing the free report. I know it's optional (I think since Ive been perpetually glitched out from getting my annual for a year now) but I'm sure alot of people don't think it is.

@korin43: It's not a lie at all. Its free with signup for their triple advantage program (going off memory). And that has a free trial. I signed up for it, decided I actually liked the service, and then called and cancelled with no issue when my bank offered the same service for cheaper.

There is 0 cost to the consumer if they cancel the program, which is very easy to do in my experience (less than 1 minute phone call)

2. The web site should also provide an option to have the report snail-mailed the same way that can be obtained through the telephone system or by written request. If one meets all the identification requirements to get a web report, they should be able to get a written one snail-mailed with no additional requirement. This method must work just on the main site alone, without jumping the user to other sites (something that is done to actually get reports online).

3. No SSNs shall be excluded without notifying the FTC about what SSNs are excluded, with justification for the exclusion. (My SSN is excluded from the telephone system and they refuse to explain why)

4. The web site must be made to work using web standards at the minimum level needed to accomplish the task, including with CSS, Javascript, Java, Flash, and animated images disabled. No plugins shall be required, although if present and enabled, they may be used for enhanced service. Colors must have the proper contrasts when dithered. All text shall be visible with contrasting background even when CSS is disabled (redundant color settings in HTML fixes this just fine). No brower or OS type shall be excluded without prior permission from the FTC.

5. The site must be reachable from clients with directly routed IPv6 addresses on or before the date the US government citizen-facing web sites are required to do so.

6. The FTC shall obtain certain domain names in the "gov" and "gov.us" domains, and operate a web server directly that redirects accesses to those domains (and hostname variations) to the official annualcreditreport.com site operated by Central Source LLC.

@CheritaChen: I really don't see how obscurity benefits corporations. I guess there is some retail business selling scores, the vast majority must be to other businesses. And I guess keeping scores hidden helps a little against consumers gaming the system, but only a little, and is just as likely to obstruct business.

Why can't they remove credit bureau advertising from the site completely? Most people would argue that the FTC implicitly gives credibility to related advertising when it pops up on Annual Credit Report.

Once you get past a certain step you are redirected off the annualcreditreport.com site to each credit bureau's individual site. I would imagine they have little control over what the credit bureaus advertise on their own sites.

BUT ... all these costs should be part of the cost of ensuring data accuracy, and paid for by those who obtain the credit information not their own. I'd push for all those credit card companies that buy lists of people with good credit at a specified level being the ones to subsidize the free annual credit report.

Further, there should also be a QUARTERLY credit report that can be obtained at a fixed defined cost of not more than $10. And that cost shall be ZERO for the next report after an item is disputed (as a means to verify the disposition of the dispute).

creditreport.gov
creditreport.ftc.gov
credit-report.gov
credit-report.ftc.gov
credit.report.gov
credit.report.ftc.gov
annualcreditreport.gov
annualcreditreport.ftc.gov
annualcredit-report.gov
annualcredit-report.ftc.gov
annualcredit.report.gov
annualcredit.report.ftc.gov
annual-creditreport.gov
annual-creditreport.ftc.gov
annual-credit-report.gov
annual-credit-report.ftc.gov
annual-credit.report.gov
annual-credit.report.ftc.gov
annual.creditreport.gov
annual.creditreport.ftc.gov
annual.credit-report.gov
annual.credit-report.ftc.gov
annual.credit.report.gov
annual.credit.report.ftc.gov
freecreditreport.gov
freecreditreport.ftc.gov
freecredit-report.gov
freecredit-report.ftc.gov
freecredit.report.gov
freecredit.report.ftc.gov
free-creditreport.gov
free-creditreport.ftc.gov
free-credit-report.gov
free-credit-report.ftc.gov
free-credit.report.gov
free-credit.report.ftc.gov
free.creditreport.gov
free.creditreport.ftc.gov
free.credit-report.gov
free.credit-report.ftc.gov
free.credit.report.gov
free.credit.report.ftc.gov

Including the variations of these that include "www." in front (some people still type that). And perhaps other permutations should also be done, such as putting "my" and "your" in front of these in various ways (588 permutations when those are added).

Meanwhile, landlords have no trouble accessing my credit report with as little as my name and SSN.

Yeah, I get it through MyFico anyway, but it's the principle... if they are required to give me a free one once per year, they should whether I have an account with MyFico or not.

The three participating bureaus should have always been forbidden from making ANY sales pitches of puting up sponsor links. They role is to confirm identity of the consumer, provide the free report as required by law, shutup.

How about is No. 3, instead of saying:

"This is not the free credit report provided for by federal law."

Said instead:

"You can't get a free credit report at this site. You will have to pay. If you wish a free report go to annualcreditreport.com

I hope they put freecreditreport.com out of business.

Wait, should my reply have fewer letters in it?

My input: get rid of f'kin credit scores! Judge me from a f'in bs made up score.. whatever... f u

I think those three things pretty much solve the annoying parts about that site.

Allthough, the last time I tried to check all three of my reports, I got denied by one of them.. and it said to mail something in, but I didn't want to go through all the trouble. I guess they should fix whatever causes things not to go through. My other reports showed up fine, so I know I didn't put in any wrong answers or anything.

@dohtem: I would love to see some government approved socks.

And before some smarty-pants does it, army/military issue socks don't count.

Yes, the site should definitely be .gov instead of .com. That would distinguish it from the various not-really-free ilk.

It's free in the sense that you don't have to pay for it. And they don't try to hide their gimmick in fine print - it's right there on the main page, not in a particularly small font and not hidden at the bottom. And they actually state that they're not affiliated with the government program and provide a link to annualcreditreport.com. I don't know if they do that to comply with some existing government regulation or if they do it voluntarily, but it's already there and I think it's sufficient.

Of course they're not the only one, but they're the biggest and most prominent. If others are marketing deceptively, I think that can be dealt with without adding more rules.

Certainly the idea is that once per quarter plus a month you check one agency's report, but identity thieves more a lot quicker than that and in three months can do a lot of damage.

So if my information is so valuable that it needs to be protected, I should have the option of watching it myself and be able to pull a current report from any agency whenever I feel like it.

FreeAnnualCreditReportGuaranteedByUSGovernment.gov ?

John Kerry would approve.

You should not be able to call something freecreditreport.com and it not be free. freewithconditionscreditreport.com, maybe. I know all companies live by false advertising (which may be a redundancy), but come on now. If something is a "free trial" that is not free. That is a free trial.

The current amendments offered are good ideas (upsells, ads, and requiring third-parties to state they are indeed not free reports) and should stay in the bill amendments.

However, there needs to be clear disclosure on what is provided in the report. The report should also APPROXIMATE the Credit SCORE of the individual so that spending money to get the credit score is required. Most people go for the third-parties (or at least people in my immediate family) because they promise the credit score. Despite the fact that the history, at least in my mind, is more important than the score - sometimes my stubborn family would refuse to admit that and go for the score anyway.

Here is what I propose:

1) Provide clear disclosure of what the Credit Report Contains.
2) Provide clear disclosure on how to properly 'clean up' the report to be free of misinformation.
3) Provide a Credit Score approximation. Specifics are not required, in my mind.

freecreditreport.gov ??

The "Annual" part is just a restriction, it's not like the "annualness" is the main feature. I'm all for removing "Annual" from the name entirely.

You may have owed money to one of the following creditors, or you may not have. If you have, pick it out of the list, if you have not, tell us with option D or E, but not C or A.

That is confusing if you have some student loans that have been sold yet are still "serviced" by the original bank you borrowed from. You sit there thinking, "Anchor bank...I think I owed them once..."

However, I am wondering if "after you have received your free credit reports" means that they are required to send separate e-mails or if they can simply include advertisements at the bottom of an e-mail. If the current language doesn't require a separate e-mail then I think needs to be amended to include that.

@xl22k:
The first one was supposed to be:
[www[.]]ftc[.]gov/annualcreditreport

1. All credit bureau advertising and upsells would be removed from the process until after you have received your free credit report(s).

Why can't they remove credit bureau advertising from the site completely? Most people would argue that the FTC implicitly gives credibility to related advertising when it pops up on Annual Credit Report.

Advertise socks, detergent, whatever. This is the one place where you don't bombard grandma with related ads that could confuse her.

I propose they make the address something more official so it isn't confused with all the other "free" sites.

Something like:
[www.ftc.gov]
or
[www.annualcreditreport.gov]

A .gov address would eliminate confusion.

Basically, I want to make sure that the sites do not try to hide the statement or make it easy to skip over in effort to deceive the consumer. It doesn't need to be hard. It just needs to be required.

The third rule doesn't seem necessary unless those sites are intentionally trying to mislead people to believe that they are affiliated with the federal government, such as if freecreditreport.com claimed to give you an annual free credit report. Just offering a free credit report is not enough to create confusion in my opinion. Companies have been doing that since before the government offered it.

That sounds like a great idea to me.
When I tried to get my credit report through Annualcreditreport.com, it would give me errors after I declined upsell offers from one of the three credit reporting agencies and then refuse to give me the reports claiming I'd already received them. Frustrating.