'Security Risk' Blocks U.S. Troops Overseas from Free Credit Report Site

No Free Online Access for Millions of Americans

YONKERS, NY, Oct. 24, 2007 -- Millions of U.S. citizens outside the country -- including several hundred thousand members of the armed forces -- are not permitted to see their personal credit information on the Web site set up by law to provide free access, over security concerns that an offshore user might create. Four years ago, the U.S. Congress mandated creating the AnnualCreditReport.com site that gives consumers free access to one report per year from each of the three major credit agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

The law that created that site, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 -- known as FACTA, or the FACT Act -- was designed to protect U.S. citizens against fraud and identity theft by providing easy access to credit information. FACTA requires the three major consumer credit agencies to provide consumers upon request with a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months.

A credit report details a person's financial history: timeliness of credit card payments, loans and other liabilities, based on data from banks, merchants, creditors and courts. Credit reporting agencies sell this information to businesses that use it to evaluate applications for loans, insurance, credit, employment or renting a home. Credit reports compiled by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion form the basis by which a credit score is calculated.

In a Dec. 4, 2003 statement, the White House lauded President Bush's signing of FACTA into law, noting, "[The act will] help ensure that all Americans, of every income level and background, are able to build good credit and confront the problem of identify theft."

But access to AnnualCreditReport.com is denied to Americans living outside the United States, a Consumer Reports WebWatch investigation has found. This includes not only students and private citizens, but government employees and military personnel, including combat troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Full details of the story can be found here.

The investigation follows a detailed analysis of the credit industry's practices creating alternative sites to http://annualcreditreport.com, which include marketing expensive services such as credit monitoring that consumers are unlikely to need, with the enticement of a "free credit report" consumers are already entitled to by law. That report, published July 5, can be found here.

About Consumer Reports WebWatch
Consumer Reports WebWatch serves as a daily resource of unbiased and trustworthy information, using the proven methods of Consumer Reports and other independently derived research methods. The WebWatch research agenda includes health, financial services, news and information sites, children's sites and general issues of concern to consumers on the Web, such as privacy, spyware and information security. Consumer Reports WebWatch at Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, acknowledges support of The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute as instrumental to its founding and first five years of success. WebWatch's investigative reports, articles and news are available to the general public at ConsumerWebWatch.org. WebWatch accepts no advertising or corporate support whatsoever. WebWatch serves as a special unpaid adviser to the StopBadware.org project of The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute. WebWatch director Beau Brendler is a member of the At-Large Advisory Committee to the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers (ICANN). WebWatch is a member of the W3C and the Internet Society.

About Consumers Union
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, is an expert, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of its information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. Consumer Reports content can be found online at ConsumerReports.org. Consumers Union's public policy work can be found online at ConsumersUnion.org.

###