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Credit report fees increasing January 2007
Posted on Dec 15, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Two of the three credit reporting companies are increasing fees on credit report checks. Equifax and Experian say it is so they can provide better security and protection for consumers and comply with federal law (TransUnion is quiet on the issue). Mortgage brokers and others in the real estate industry say it will hurt borrowers and the less well to do (which means they will pass the fees along to consumers and not eat the cost). I don’t have a feel for the isue myself yet, and I prefer to not make a knee jerk reaction (although I expect the credit bureaus to take a beating).
Mercury News.com has the story. Read it and try to make some sense of it. Post a comment if you have an opinion.
Home buyers and refinancers face higher fees for credit reports beginning Jan. 1 -- a price boost that has mortgage, credit industry and consumer group leaders fuming.
Some believe the higher fees will inordinately affect moderate-income and minority first-time mortgage applicants who have non-traditional credit patterns, marginal credit scores or ``thin'' credit files. They also predict that as a result of the increased costs, mortgage loan officers may not shop as aggressively for such clients -- leaving them with higher interest rates and worse mortgage choices than they'd otherwise receive.
At the core of the controversy is a policy change by national credit bureaus Equifax and Experian that neither company announced publicly: Beginning next month, they expect to be paid every time a lender or a mortgage investor obtains an applicant's credit file as part of the funding process.
Filed under: Credit
Tags: credit report, equifax, experian
Comments
Making Your Credit Report Work For You on Dec 16, 2006
This is a nice blog, thanks! It may sound silly that you have to watch your credit report, but you would be amazed at the number of people who actually have errors on their credit report and they are completely unaware of it.
In Making Your Credit Report Work For You, there are a couple of things that you can do.Hope you'll find it and your many readers very useful.
Have a super day!
cra informant on Dec 19, 2006
Couple of things: 1) technology has changed dramatically driven by Fannie Mae and others. What was once limited sharing under a joint user exception to the FCRA has exploded and the CRAs are clearly worried that they have no idea who is getting their hands on the reports and the only way to fix this is to force the brokers to disclose who they are providing them too. Brokers don't like it - they have to pay more and comply with the simple request. 2) Brokers charge already over a 1000% mark-up to consumers for the merged credit report they provide. Another 5 to 15 dollar charge to meet this new obligation may cut into their profit. Real issue here is that consumers should be allowed to shop around for all products and services relating to mortgage loan (such as a credit report or title insurance) and that does not happen.
bad credit credit cards on Apr 2, 2007
experian through creditExpert.com offer a 30 day free trial. i don't think you'd need to check your credit history that often, once or twice a year is good enough.
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