Originally published July 26 2005
Popular credit freezing proposal considered by Oregon Senate
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Around ten states already have a law that allows identity theft victims to completely freeze their credit, and many other states are considering following suit, including Oregon, in which the Senate wants to allow consumers to freeze their credit before identity theft occurs.
Oregonians would be able to freeze their credit reports in hopes of blocking identity theft, under a bill that's coming up for a vote in the Oregon Senate this week.
"We need to provide consumers options to protect themselves before they become victims," said Sen.
The bill would allow the security freeze only for new credit inquiries and would require consumers to send a certified request to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three credit reporting bureaus.
Once frozen, a consumer would have to contact the credit reporting bureaus to grant permission to open a report to a specific creditor or for a specified amount of time.
There would be no cost for the initial freeze, but consumers would be responsible for paying fees of no more than $10 to reopen their reports.
Similar fees would be charged to refreeze the reports.
Ten states already have similar laws in place, according to Prozanski, including California, Vermont, Texas and Louisiana, and more are considering legislation.
Tom Perrick, president of the Oregon Bankers Association, said the banking industry has concerns about the scope of the bill.
He said the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 already allows consumers to attach security flags to their own credit reports if they believe their information has been compromised.
The bill also, "makes the assumption that consumers will remember to unfreeze accounts," Perrick said.
But if they don't remember, commerce could be crippled, Perrick added.
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