My credit Indianapolis

No surprise that the vast matrix of websites pitching credit data to consumers engenders befuddlement.

Even industry insiders say it's all too easy for consumers to get flummoxed. "There should be more education about what you receive and how to navigate the various sources of information," says Mark my credit Indianapolis Catone, senior vice president my credit Indianapolis of First American Credco, which processes credit reports. Experian, for instance, sells to consumers at Experian.com and at six other sites. Experian spokesman Don Girard says that selling to consumers at websites using different names "is just creative marketing." TransUnion, privately owned by the billionaire Pritzker family of Chicago, operates TrueCredit.com, the site where Wendy Temple bought her TransRisk credit score, as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Another major subsidiary, TransUnion Interactive, distributes consumer products via dozens of independently run websites, company spokesman Steve Katz says. best credit report These include PrivacyMatters.com, free-credit-reports.com, Credit.com, Free3BureauCreditReport.com, FreeCreditReportsInstantly.com, speedycreditreports.com my credit Indianapolis 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 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. free 3 credit reports and scores "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 my credit Indianapolis a free copy of their credit report, the bureaus moved aggressively to tap my credit Indianapolis the consumer market.

sales of credit data to consumers negligible in 2000 hit $220 million in 2003, my credit Indianapolis soared to $488 million in 2006, and should top $860 million by 2010, says Craig Focardi, financial services analyst at market researcher TowerGroup. Though consumer sales make up only a fraction of the bureaus' lender-centric operations, they have become the bureaus' fastest-growing source of revenue. But my credit Indianapolis this windfall derives from an online marketing free-for-all in which many websites and promotional offers aren't what they seem. freecreditreport "Consumers face a bewildering variety of things to click on, some of which my credit Indianapolis is 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.