comments
List of Free Specialty Consumer Reports
Email
 Print
|
After my post on requesting your CLUE reports, Reader Bob sent me an exceptionally long and comprehensive list of all the specialty consumer reports that you are entitled to every year. When I wrote my first request your specialty report post, I had about half a dozen… this expands the list by a lot.
I was amazed by the sheer number of companies that collect information about me. I was aware of the credit report companies, LexisNexis, and ChoicePoint, but there are a lot of smaller companies collecting data like rental history that I’ve never heard of. While I’ve never been too fearful of the idea of Big Brother, the number of companies collecting information about me, and you, is a little disconcerting!
Credit Reporting
- Equifax, Experian, TransUnion – All available via AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Innovis
- Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC)
Employment History Reports
- The Work Number – Entitled to one copy of your Employment Data Report which includes employment and income information from your employers who send data to The Work Number, information about lenders, credit agencies, and other verifiers that have received your data, any messages, alerts, or statements you have requested be put in your data file.
- ChoicePoint – The ChoicePoint Workplace Solutions Inc. Employment History report contains information related to your employment history as well as other information regarding your background. Also available free once a year.
- Acxiom
Auto & Home Insurance Claim Reports
- ChoicePoint – CLUE Reports.
- Insurance Services Office (ISO) – A-PLUS will provide one free loss-history report in any 12-month period.
Tenant History Reports
- ChoicePoint – Tenant history report, the Resident Data Inc. Tenant History report contains information related to your tenant history as well as other information regarding your background.
- First Advantage SafeRent
- Tenant Data Services
- RentBureau
Full File Disclosure/Personal Information Reports
- ChoicePoint
- LexisNexis – Consumers can request their own reports for free.
Check Writing Reports
- ChexSystems – Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) amendments to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you are entitled to a free copy of your consumer report, at your request, once every 12 months.
- TeleCheck – Available once every 12 months for free via psotal mail request.
Health History Reports
- Medical Information Bureau (MIB)
- Prescription Drug Purchase History Reports – Ingenix MedPoint
- Prescription Drug Purchase History Reports – Milliman IntelliScript
Miscellaneous
- Social Security Statement – Social Security Administration
- Purchase Returns History Reports – Retail Equation
- Gaming Patron’s Credit History and Transaction Data – Central Credit
- TeleTrack
- Utilities & Telecommunications Reports – National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange, Inc (NCTUE) – Call 1-888-201-5643 for reports
According to Bob, he compiled this list of consumer reports by using information extracted from the following sources: ConsumerReports.org, PrivacyRights.org, Bankrate, ListSergeant.com, MyFico.com, and CreditBoards.com.
If you know of any specialty consumer reports that aren’t on this list, let me know and I’ll include it.
{ 31 comments, please add your thoughts now! }Related Posts
 By Jim |
 Stumble It! Bookmark reddit.comTags: AnnualCreditReport.com, ChexSystems, ChoicePoint, Equifax, Experian, Innovis, TeleCheck, TransUnion Feb 24, 2010 | Read more in Personal Finance |
Like this article? Get all the latest articles sent to your email for free every day. Enter your email address and click "Subscribe." Your email will only be used for this daily subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Wow…I had NO idea most of these were out there. And I’m curious what (if any) errors in info on me have accumulated in these reports.
Wow, great list. Thanks Bob for taking the time to put this together and thank you Jim for posting it.
Wow, thank you for this list. It is a little unsettling that if someone wanted to, they can find out anything able me.
Amazing what is availabel online now.
seriously, soon you’ll just put your finger onto a reader on your laptop and all your info will be available. for fee of course. maybe a laser eye scan.
How I wish there was an aggregated site with all this information for you to review at any moment without requesting each individual report…but that’d be too easy
Me too, but I guess I will just bookmark this page and then check each at my leisure.
Thanks! This is an amazing list. Where were you able to find even half of these?
It boggles the mind that my health history may already be out there in digital form, yet every time I see a new doctor I need to fill out my entire history on paper. I suppose someday (soon?) I’ll be able to authorize a new doctor to have access to a complete digital medical history. Hmmm…
It boggles the mind that my health history may already be out there in digital form, yet every time I see a new doctor I need to fill out my entire history on paper. I suppose someday (soon?) I’ll be able to authorize a new doctor to have access to a complete digital medical history. Hmmm… yeahhh
mind = blown. is it really worth all the time and energy it would take to review all of these? It couldn’t possibly be….could it?
I used to work for ChoicePoint (until they were purchased by Lexis Nexis about 1.5 years ago)and thought I’d share a few comments with your readers.
The Lexis Nexis reports and ChoicePoint reports now – for the most part – pull from the same data. Not all have been consolidated yet but the companies now are one and the same.
Secondly, if you go to request a report and end up at the site called “Choicetrust” keep in mind that everything here is pulled from public records data. Any background related things here will exclude most records that are governed by more strict laws (like criminal records, etc…) In short this means that a background check report you can order on this site MAY differ from what an employer may see. If an employer/potential employer pulls your background check report (they must have your permission btw) and something negative turns up, you have a right to see it and dispute it then, but this is a different report than you will get from the ChoiceTrust site. Do not assume that the report you get from here will be identical to what an employer sees.
Now there are laws that protect you and you are required to be notified if anything that may be considered derogatory turns up in a background check report and you have the right to dispute it. ChoicePoint/Lexis have whole teams of people who manage these disputes full time. yep – there are that many. Some are legitimate data errors. Some are people in denial about their criminal past
While there are also somewhat legitimate fears about “what people can find out about you” there are very, very strict and somewhat onerous procedures customers have to go through to get credentialed to order these reports. As a consumer you will go through several steps of identity verification before you may order your own reports. Customers on the business side go through a multi-step, highly audited process. Now that was ChoicePoint – has Lexis Nexis changed things – maybe? Cant say for sure, but the data isn’t as easily accessibly as some may fear.
Finally – if you are buying or selling your home I do really advocate the CLUE report. You will see what insurers have reported on your home ( I called my agent one time about a water leak that turned out to be minor, I never filed a claim but it is on my report). Really valuable to uncover things a seller may not disclose when buying or look for landmines when selling.
Sorry to write a novel. Enjoy!
Libby, please don’t be sorry and thank you for sharing all this wonderful information!
This is great information. My brother in law recently applied for a job and got a call from the employer who said there was an arrest warrant for him due to a 18-year old seat belt ticket. Well, turns out it was an error, he never got the seat belt ticket (it was issued some place he had never been), but he had to go to the county it was issued and go to court to get it taken care of. I imagine now knowing that we can check these reports, you may find an error like this before a potential employer has to point it out to you.
This is a great list and as others have noted.. it’s amaxing how much information is out there.
I will be sharing this.
Thank you
Well done lad, this is good compilation of list. I am reading and checking this.
Big list here, just shows that information is big business. A lot of big companies pay top dollar for all this type of information. I work in the same area as Acxiom so I was already familiar with them.
Consumerist.com just released a similiar article today: http://consumerist.com/2010/02/get-all-your-reports.html
Their article has a few more links. Either they plagiarized you or your reader Bob plagiarized them.
Bob must have sent multiple emails because he emailed me that list over a week ago… that’s messed up.
Eh, the information is good to be spread around. There’s not much to ‘plagiarize’ when it’s just a list of links – and the easier to find a list like this, the better, right?
That’s true, though I’m a bit miffed about it still… oh well.
You should copy the guys headline.. “Do a Total Background Check on Yourself” is a catchier title.
Great list – just think of all of the data that is floating around out there on anyone of us.
holy crap, that’s a lot of information! time to get my generator started and live off the grid!
There needs to be a relationship report where we can type in a potential boyfriend/girlfriend and see if they are crazy or not.
I worry about the health records becoming digital and the insurance companies getting access. Everything we do will become “prior” condition. How could you dispute a childhood doctor visit that somehow the insurance company is using to claim disqualifies you?
saladdin
saladdin-
There is. Or at least, there was at one point. I forgot the name of the site. Funny thing is, it’s different services for different genders. The first one was started by a women, so women could blacklist their boyfriends, but not the other way around. So a guy started one up in response, where guys can blacklist g/fs.
I’m torn about whether to request a copy. “The Work Number” wants proof of *current* address before they will send the records — which in effect gives them more information that they may not have.
I prefer the way credit bureaus set up record requests, where they ask you multiple choice questions regarding information they already know about you. This way you can prove who you are without exposing yourself more.
Damn! Lexis Nexis also requires proof of current address to get a report!
I’ve come up with a workaround. Go to ukpostbox.com, and get a free online snail-mail-box in the UK. Change your address on one of your credit cards to that address. Then use the next cc statement to satisfy proof of address (an address that you won’t keep).
Bookmarked! If only for the fear of Big Brother…
Thanks for this writeup and for the links provided! I will also be sharing this information to my masses! I appreciate finding this info about what is out there on each of us!!! Keep up the good work about getting all of this information out to us!