Credit report and score Texas

Another major subsidiary, TransUnion Interactive, distributes consumer products via dozens of independently run websites, company spokesman Steve Katz says. These include PrivacyMatters.com, free-credit-reports.com, Credit.com, Free3BureauCreditReport.com, FreeCreditReportsInstantly.com, speedycreditreports.com and SpendonLife.com, Katz says.

Equifax alone sells consumer products primarily through its eponymous website, Equifax.com. "Our approach has always been to take the high road," says Steve Ely, president of Equifax's Personal Solutions. Joel Winston, the FTC's associate credit report and score Texas director of privacy and identity protection, credits the bureaus for improving their public disclosure statements in recent months. But he says the FTC remains "very concerned" about any lingering confusion. "The principle we're upholding is, you've got to make clear what it is you're selling," Winston says. "And also make all of the conditions clear." The Big Three for decades denied consumers access to their credit histories, selling data exclusively to lenders.

Once the government gave consumers the right to a free copy of their credit report, the bureaus moved aggressively to tap the consumer market. sales of credit data to consumers negligible in 2000 hit $220 million in 2003, soared to $488 credit report and score Texas million in 2006, and should top credit report and score Texas $860 million by 2010, says Craig Focardi, financial services analyst at market researcher TowerGroup. fair credit reporting act Though consumer sales make up only a fraction of the bureaus' lender-centric credit report and score Texas operations, they have become the bureaus' fastest-growing source of revenue. But this windfall derives from an online marketing free-for-all in which many websites and promotional offers aren't what they seem. "Consumers face a bewildering variety of things to click on, some of which is credit report and score Texas valid, much of which is not," says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. The bureaus make no apologies for how and what they sell to consumers. The biggest bureau, Dublin-based Experian, reported $375 million in consumer sales in its fiscal year ended credit report and score Texas last April. "Unhappy consumers don't buy your stuff," Experian's Girard says.

"We've been averaging about 20% growth in our direct-to-consumer business, credit report and score Texas year over year. free credit report.org That's due to credit report and score Texas happy consumers." Not all consumers are endeared with Experian. The company's well-known subsidiary, Consumerinfo.com, has been fined credit report and score Texas twice by the FTC.

In August 2005, Experian paid the FTC $950,000 to settle charges that Consumerinfo.com misled consumers into subscribing to an $80-a-year credit-monitoring service. In February, Experian paid credit report and score Texas the FTC a smaller fine $300,000 to settle a second round of credit report and score Texas similar complaints. Experian admitted no wrongdoing credit report and score Texas in either FTC case. On Consumerinfo.com's home page, that disclaimer is in small, light blue lettering on dark blue background next to a large "order now" button for a credit monitoring subscription. In March, about a month after Experian paid its second FTC fine, Melissa Duenas, 28, a customer service representative in Denver, surfed to Experian.com in an attempt to obtain credit report and score Texas her free credit report. She recalls being guided to a Web page where she typed in a credit card number, as directed, thinking it was part credit report and score Texas of verifying her identity. Actually, Duenas had signed up for trial use of a credit-monitoring service.

After a month of free service, Experian initiated a recurring $13-a-month charge, which was dropped only after Duenas complained. true free credit report The FTC and credit report and score Texas Experian say the service was properly explained. Consumer advocates advise credit data shoppers to remain extremely wary. "The credit bureaus continue to foster consumer confusion and profit handsomely," says Jeannine Kenney, senior credit report and score Texas policy analyst at Consumers Union. "It's a disservice to consumers." Shopping for a credit score can be mind boggling.

That's because, like Temple, most consumers are oblivious to the rising turf war between the Big Three and Fair Isaac, supplier of the formula for calculating FICO, the score lenders most often purchase from the bureaus to determine a loan applicant's credit worthiness.