The Colorado Credit Report Freeze Act - PIN and private right of action, but too SLOW
I just had a very quick look at the Colorado bill:
Colorado Credit Report Freeze Act
It seems like there are good intentions, but the legislators are just not with it.
* 5 * days for a CRA to put a freeze on the report?
How about 5 minutes instead?
The CRAs provide the reports to businesses in literally just a few seconds.
Why should they wait 5 days when you call them because your wallet was stolen?
Maybe the legislators are 120 years old or reside on Mars and they don’t know that when you call a CRA, they look up your file and they SHOULD be freezing it WHILE on the phone and provide you with a confirmation number?
Another problem is that they are allowing *prospective* assignees to obtain the credit.
Literally THOUSANDS of companies could be obtaining your credit reports.
Let’s say a creditor wants to sell some accounts. They send out an offer to 3,000 collectors and EACH one of those collectors could run your credit.
That is absurd.
Of course the PROPER way is for the debt buyer to obtain the credit report from the owner of the account.
The good news is that this bill does provide a PIN as well as a private right of action:
(II) A CIVIL PENALTY IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR EACH VIOLATION PLUS ANY DAMAGES AVAILABLE UNDER OTHER CIVIL LAWS AND REASONABLE EXPENSES, COURT COSTS, INVESTIGATIVE COSTS, AND ATTORNEY FEES.
This is not a bad bill, the legislators just need to get a reality check. It’s 2005. Accounts are opened INSTANTLY - credit reports need to be frozen INSTANTLY.
Posted by Christine on 03/02/2005 at 08:53 PM
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