Southern States Next in Line for Free Credit Reports

Access to our free credit reports has been slowly creeping across the nation since last November. On June 1, it's finally time for the Southern States to be able to access their free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. The only states that still won't have access to their free reports after June 1st are the Eatern states. They have to wait until September of this year to get theirs (unless they want to pay, or sign up for a free trial of a credit monitoring service, which often comes with a free credit report).


From an artcle on MSNBC.com:

ATLANTA - Residents of the South will have the right to order free copies of their credit reports starting Tuesday.

The free access is required under a law enacted by Congress in 2003. Since last year, the law has been gradually phased in throughout different parts of the country, starting in the West.

Now it's the South's turn. Those living in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas will be able to obtain a free credit report per year from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

The only exception is Georgia. It's the only state in the country where consumers have been eligible for two free credit reports per credit bureau per year as mandated by state law.

Credit experts advise that everyone get a copy of their reports from each bureau and check to make sure all the information is correct.

Read the full article

Note: although the article on MSN says they'll be available on Tuesday, it is actually not until June 1 (Wednesday) according to annualcreditreport.com.

WECT TV6 & WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather - Credit Scores and How to Improve Them

We bought a car today. It's a great feeling to know that because of a little thing called my creditworthiness I was able to secure the rock bottom interest rates available. Enjoy the article that give some good basic understanding of credit scores and thier importance.

WECT TV6 & WECT.com - Credit Scores and How to Improve Them
MAY 25, 2005 -- If you've gone out to purchase a new car, but when you tried to finance it, you couldn't get one of those super low interest rates, chances are your credit score was too low.

Your credit score is a fairly accurate prediction on how likely you are to pay your bills. Credit scores are used extensively and if you've applied for a mortgage, tried to get a credit card or just buy car insurance, the rate you received was directly related to your credit score. The higher that number is, the better you look to lenders. If you've rented an apartment, bought cell phone service or applied for a job that involved handling money, there is a good chance your score was pulled.

Obviously, it's important to have a good credit score. The difference in the interest rates offered to a person with a score of 520 and a person with a score of 720 is almost four percentage points. It may not sound like much, but over the course of time, a $100,000 home financed for thirty years will mean more than $85,000 extra in interest charges. The difference in monthly payments alone would be $250.

The bottom line, people with the highest scores get the lowest interest rates, which can save you a ton on money. Several factors go into making up your credit score. More than one third of it is based on your past payment history. Almost another third is based on your current credit capacity. Fifteen percent depends on how long you have had a credit history.

Other factors include how much credit you have accumulated in the past 12 to 18 months and the last ten percent depends on your current mix of credit.

For example, installment loans can help increase your credit score while revolving loans can actually lower it.

Chances are your credit problems probably didn't happen overnight, so it's going to take some time to fix, but there are some things you can do.

Pay down credit cards, but don't close the credit card account because your credit capacity will decrease. Continue to make your payments on-time. Slow down on opening new accounts and if possible move revolving debts, like credit cards to installment loans.

Stick to your plan to improve your credit score because the higher the number, the better you look to lenders when buying your next car or big ticket item.

Reported by Bob Townsend

Some calling this the largest id theft ever, is Your bank involved - May. 23, 2005

Click here to read the entire article Other news outlets are saying only 100,000 were affected, this article mentions 670,000 were affected. I hope that CNN got their figures wrong.

Data at Bank of America, Wachovia, others compromised - May. 23, 2005: "NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp. are among the big banks notifying more than 670,000 customers that account information was stolen in what may the biggest security breach to hit the banking industry.
Account information on the customers was illegally sold by bank employees to a man identified as Orazio Lembo, whom police said was doing business by illegally posing as a collection agency.

When police in Hackensack, N.J., first announced arrests in the case on April 28, they estimated that more than 500,000 people were affected. That number was raised to 676,000 Friday. Because some people have more than one account, Hackensack Police Chief Charles 'Ken' Zisa says the number of accounts breached may top 1 million.

'As this gets going, these numbers are going to go up and up,' Hackensack Detective Capt. Frank Lomia told CNN earlier Monday, adding that more arrests may be coming in the case.

The data-theft may have been the biggest ever in banking, the Hackensack, N.J., police department said in a statement, citing an unnamed Treasury Department official. Of the four banks involved in the case, Bank of America (up $0.01 to $46.58, Research), the nation's No. 2 bank, has notified 60,000 customers of the problem. Wachovia (Research) has notified 48,000 customers.
Customer account numbers and balances were allegedly sold to Lembo, who then sold the information to collection agencies, the Hackensack police department said in a statement.

Wachovia customers whose account information was stolen have received complimentary one-year credit monitoring service and each account will also be monitored by the bank, a Wachovia spokesman told CNN, adding that two former Wachovia employee"

Bank of America spokeswoman Alexandra Liftman said the bank was notifying customers affected, but added there was no evidence of account fraud or identity theft. Customers affected would be offered free credit monitoring, she said, adding Bank of America is cooperating with law enforcement officials and conducting its own internal investigation.

One associate who was named by police is "no longer with the bank," Liftman said. [THAT'S TOO BAD]

Let's Talk Credit Reports!

We have just unleashed the credit report forums on this site that we are very excited about. The idea is to create a place where we can all discuss important issues and get questions answered about credit reports, credit bureaus and other credit-related topics.

For the first little while you won't see a lot of posts in there, but don't be shy about posting a question, comment or whatever. We look forward to creating a vibrant community that can shed some light on these important, yet often misunderstood topics.

www.totalcreditreports.com/forum/

Spouse's Credit Card Debt Could Hurt Your Credit Score

If you're married, or thinking about getting married, you should know how your spouse's credit card debt can affect you. Here's the question:

Q: My wife has run up a balance of thousands of dollars on her credit card. I try to stem the flow but usually unsuccessfully. Am I liable for these debts?

Read the response

Frustation Getting Free Credit Reports

An article about credit reports from my local paper, the Salt Lake Tribune, highlights the experience of one Utah resident who had a tough time requesting her free credit report from annualcreditreport.com. She says she experienced a number of "glitches" when she tried to request her credit reports. I'm not sure what the glitches were--she didn't say. I assume they were related to her not entering the correct information in response to the security questions they ask about existing loans to verify your identity when you request the credit report. I ran into a few hiccups when I requested my free credit report online, but ultimately, I was able to access the credit reports from all three credit bureaus online.

Remember, if you run into any problems requesting your credit reports online, you can always call for your free credit reports.

Privacy Experts' Wish List

"Businesses, government agencies, private investigators and, frankly, anybody with a few dollars and a devious mind can get their hands on some of your most sensitive personal information.

Not that there aren't any laws regulating the collection and use of personal data.

But privacy advocates argue that these laws are so full of holes that those who buy and sell Americans' personal information can work around them without penalty.

In testimony before lawmakers, those advocates have called for Congress and businesses to better secure electronic personal data and restrict its use. And they've urged greater transparency among commercial data brokers that trade in personal data.

Two of those advocates – Daniel Solove, assistant professor of law at George Washington University Law School, and Chris Hoofnagle, the West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy Center – have come up with a proposal for privacy protection that they hope policymakers will consider in creating new regulations.

Here are some of their suggestions."

Raising public awareness about fraud, identity theft

"Many people don't realize that bits and pieces of their personal information can be a gold mine to an identity thief. In fact, a person's name, address and phone number may be enough for a thief to commit fraud or damage a person's good name or credit.

'It's a very serious problem in Arizona,' said David Mitchell, AARP Arizona State Director. According to recent figures released by the Federal Trade Commission, Arizona ranks first in the country for identity theft.

'In the most serious cases, people who have had their name stolen are refused loans, have lost their job or have even been arrested for crimes they haven't committed.' Mitchell adds that cleaning up after an identity thief can also take years, hard work and money.
In an effort to raise awareness of the rising problem of identity theft in the state, AARP Arizona has launched a campaign to inform people about this type of fraud and what people can do to protect themselves.

'The first thing to remember is to exercise caution when anything involves the release of your personal information especially your Social Security number,' said Mitchell. 'It's also good practice to ask how your personal information will be used or if it will be shared with others.'
Mitchell suggests that people keep their Social Security card in a secure place and limit the amount of credit cards and other personal information carried in wallets or purses.

Another step to protecting against identity theft is to guard mail and trash. 'It's wise to use official post office collection boxes for outgoing mail instead of unsecured cluster mailboxes. Identity thieves can easily break into them and steal mail that contains personal information."

Read more, click here.

Many Free Credit Reports Aren't Free

There is still a lot of confusion about they hows and whys of these free credit reports. I'll let you in on a little secret...but you've got to promise not to tell anyone. The reason there is so much confusion is because there are tons of websites out there who make a commission everytime someone clicks on one of their links and signs up for the credit monitoring service or requests a free credit report (in conjuntion with the monitoring service), or buys a credit score or report. You can hardly expect these web marketers to simply give free information away when they can give a link to an almost free credit report and make a commmission on it.

Don't get me wrong. We make commission on those True Credit and MyFICO links, too. We also make money from the Google advertisements on various pages of the site. We use the money we make from those advertisements to pay for hosting and enhnacements to this site. We try not to let the advertisers dictate the content of the site and we strive to present the information about credit reports in a much more balanced (and truthful) manner. Our goal at Total Credit Reports is to give you all the information you need to understand your credit reports and credit scores. For example, we try to make it clear that after this year, everyone in the United States will be able to access their credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus once a year. Although this is true, the fact is, you might not get a full picture of your credit rating or credit worthiness unless you pay the extra fees to get a credit score. Credit scores can be purchased at the same time as you request your free credit reports, or they can be purchased separately.

The credit reporting industry is very confusing to most of us. We hope to be able to demystify the whole credit reporting process through this site.

For more info about the REAL free credit reports, check out our free credit reports page.

Article on MSNBC about the Not-so-free, free credit reports

Time Warner Admits Loss of Sensitive Data

CNN reports on its own parent company's apparent neglect regarding sensitive personal data of employees. 40 backup tapes that contained the social security numbers of over 600,000 current and former employees and their dependents are nowhere to be found. Time Warner is not sure what happened to the backup tapes. This is getting to be an every week occurence that someone admits to leaking personal information that could end up in the hands of identity theives. It's crazy how often this is happening these days. The scary thing about all of this is that for every one of these big companies that has to fess up, ho many smaller employers have it happen but don't say anything to the media--or how many don't even realize they've lost the data?!?!

Credit Bureaus to Blame for ID Theft?

Martin Bosworth over on ConsumerAffairs.com says the credit bureaus are the biggest threat to people's privacy related to identity issues.

ConsumerAffairs.Com receives a constant stream of complaints from irate customers regarding credit bureaus' inability — or unwillingness — to protect the personal information of the very people they claim to assist.

Since about every single American has a credit file with the major credit bureaus, it's not suprising that some people run into problems with them from time to time. I don't think most people understand how much money these credit bureaus make selling people's personal information. Heck, they make money off of us when they make us pay for OUR OWN credit score or credit report (beyond the one free one per year). For all the money they make from our data, the least they could do would be to make it easier to fix errors on our credit reports--not to mention talk to an acutal human being when an issue arises.

Police hope to stem rise in identity theft

"It's an insidious crime, one that can go undiscovered for months and cause damage that can be costly and take years to repair.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the country, say police. Though the overall number of reported identity thefts remains small in Maine, it is on the rise.

Portland police have begun a crime prevention program aimed at teaching residents how to protect personal information, like credit card and Social Security numbers, from people who would steal it. And a national database is being created to track information on victims so authorities can quickly differentiate between a legitimate identity and a stolen one.

"You're starting to see this spread into Maine," Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood said Tuesday. "All of a sudden we're starting to get phone calls. Even though the numbers are low, it's a crime we never had to deal with."

Maine authorities received 424 complaints of identity theft in 2004, 42 of them in Portland. There were 246,000 reports nationally."

Read full article

Why is My FICO Credit Score Wacky?

From Fool.com:
"Hi, Dayana! I have a crazy FICO score question for you that I cannot find the answer to anywhere else. I recently requested my credit report and FICO scores from TransUnion and Experian. The report data is identical on both -- but one gave me a FICO of 678 while the other was 754! That's a huge difference, and I'm wondering what's the cause, and which is accurate -- and, more importantly, whether there is anything I can do to get lenders to look at the higher one. Thanks a lot, D.

Wonder why your credit scores are so wildly different? It's because they are wildly different. I had a similar experience to yours recently while buying a home. My Equifax score was 30 points higher than my TransUnion score.

Here's why:

Call, Don't Click for Free Credit Reports

Bankrate.com recommends calling for free credit reports instead of requesting them online.

"You can access the information online at annualcreditreport.com, but watch out -- if you don't get the Web address exactly right or if you search for terms such as "free credit report," you could get sucked in and scammed by one of the many credit report "impostors" currently inhabiting cyber world. A third method of obtaining the information is by regular mail, but you must first complete a form to send with your request and, of course, it takes longer."

Another excerpt from the article:

"The WPF investigation identified 96 known misspelled, registered domains -- 28 of which belong to Experian and other credit services such as MyFico at FairIsaac. These sites try to exploit errors in typing to deliver you to a different site with services you have to pay for. Some of these impostor sites actually claim to be www.AnnualCreditReport.com, while others take advantage of the typing error to forward information on you to search engines or advertising partners of other affiliates.

Even if you're fortunate and careful enough to get to the "real" free credit report site, you're still not out of the woods. When you visit the site you first fill in some personal information and continue to the next page. There, you have the choice of selecting one of the big three to order your report from.

Remember, you are entitled to one free report every 12 months from each of the big three credit reporting firms. You can order all three at once, which is good if you want to compare scores, or you can order one now and save the others for later on, which you may choose in order to see how scores improve or decline."

Here are the tips they gave to protect yourself as you request your free credit reports:

• Free is free: If you have to supply a credit card or checking account number, it means you're going to pay. You may get the initial credit report for free, but you may also be signing up for a continuing service at a price.
  
• No junk mail: Don't respond to e-mail offers for free credit reports -- they're almost always spam.
  
• Be secure: Always be sure you're on a secured Web site when entering your personal information.
  
• Keep it secret: When phoning the toll free number (877-322-8228) for a free credit report, ask that only the last four digits of your Social Security number are displayed on the reports to be mailed to you.
  
• Reduce solicitations: Don't give out your e-mail address to obtain a federally mandated free credit report -- it is not required.
  
• Run from pop-ups: If you do choose to go online to https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com and see pop-up ads, or if the site is not secure, close your browser and start over. Secure sites will have a padlock logo in the corner, and the address will begin with https:// instead of just http://.
  
• Check and uncheck: If you go online to https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com, be sure to look for any pre-checked marketing or newsletter offers. If you decide you do not want these offers, uncheck the box.
  

I'm not as paranoid as the people interviewed by BankRate.com, but as I learned when I requested my free credit reports, it's not as easy as you think it will be--and they do try to sneak a bunch of non-free services in there. I wouldn't recommend that you don't try it online, but if you do, just be sure you don't mistype annualcreditreport.com. Or even easier, just click on one of the links in this article.

For more info about the "call, don't click" rationale, visit the World Privacy Forum.

Identity Theft of Family Members

"Tom Hancock grew suspicious when the father of his grandchildren, Philip T. Janvier, moved into a new apartment.

The New Hope Road complex, with a pool, playground and buildings flanked by azalea bushes, appeared too expensive for Janvier, who was unemployed, Hancock said.

So he went to the police.

A few weeks later, Hancock learned that the apartment, along with a Bank of America checking account, was actually in the name of his grandson -- a toddler who was 2 when Janvier used his Social Security number and name, according to arrest warrants.

Last week Raleigh police charged Janvier with two counts of financial identity fraud.

The case sounds like an anomaly, but investigators say that as identity fraud rises, this niche -- using kin's identity to perpetrate fraud -- is increasing, too.

"It happens much more than you usually think," said Sgt. C.L. Cosper of the Raleigh Police Department.

All thieves look for is opportunity, he said: Knowing someone else's name, date of birth and Social Security number affords one.

Last week, a grand jury indicted a Raleigh man for using his son's Social Security number to obtain credit cards and rack up more than $4,700 in charges, according to court documents.

In January, Cary police arrested a 38-year-old man on felony charges after he obtained property by using his son's name and Social Security number to get a driver's license and take out a loan, police said. His son was 8 years old at the time.

The Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit agency that researches identity theft nationwide and educates citizens, gets about 700 requests for help a week, said Linda Foley, the group's executive director. More than one-third of its calls and e-mail messages, about 250 a week, involve the abuse of a child's identity by a parent.

Foley said that many children who discover their parents have stolen or abused their identities are reluctant to come forward. "Some [family members] are in complete denial because they don't want to cause a fuss," he said. "They don't want to stir the pot."

Many of the victims and offenders who were contacted for this story declined to comment. Others could not be located.

In a typical identity theft of a relative, an adult will get a line of credit using a child's name and Social Security number. The date of birth is changed so the victim appears older. When creditors enter the Social Security number, computerized databases show a clean credit report.

There are common factors in the fraud cases, investigators said. Often, when police investigate a single complaint, it blossoms into several charges. Or, a victim has a clean credit history, which doesn't raise any flags for creditors.

Another factor can be the family itself. "Typically it comes from a dysfunctional family," Cosper said. "Maybe there were underlying issues with the family, and this brings it all to a head."

Full Article

How Can I get a CLUE About Choicepoint's Reports?

"For years, the public has known little about a database that helps the nation's insurance companies determine how much to charge their customers for auto and homeowners coverage - or whether they will cover them at all.

But CLUE reports - short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange - are secret no longer. Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, consumers now can order, for free, two detailed reports covering five years of claims on their home and car policies.

The CLUE database is maintained by ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Ga., which allows consumers to order each of the two types of CLUE reports online within seconds, review them immediately and, if needed, request any incorrect information be fixed.

Ordering your CLUE report can be just as important as obtaining your credit report, given the thousands of dollars many families spend each year to insure their homes and automobiles. The reports are used with other information to set rates and approve coverage.

Because the reports are such important tools for insurance companies, it is critical that consumers fix any errors and, in some cases, add statements to their reports. For example, if your dog bit a neighbor who filed a claim for medical costs on your homeowners insurance policy, you could request that a statement indicating you no longer own the dog be included in your CLUE report.

Already, CLUE reports are becoming an important tool for savvy consumers, said Chuck Jones, ChoicePoint spokesman.

For example, a number of home buyers now are making offers on homes contingent upon receiving a favorable CLUE homeowners report from the home seller, Jones said.

"This is something a lot of home buyers want to see well in advance of closing now," he said.

Why are CLUE reports important to home buyers? They detail the type and magnitude of damage to homes that can cause future costly repair headaches or make the house prohibitively expensive to insure. In some cases, a costly claims history on a home may make it difficult for a buyer to even obtain coverage at all.

CLUE reports, for example, may document whether a property has had water damage or a faulty roof and the extent of the damage.

Jones said home buyers may want to consider providing a copy of a property's CLUE report to their home inspector to ensure problems documented in the reports have been fixed."

Full article from the Salt Lake Tribune