Credit Reports not allowing me to look at them

[Anonymous]

Went to get my free annual credit report and got my equifax one just fine, but the Experian one wouldn't even bother letting me get it. Just said I had to mail the request. Then the TU one wouldn't verify me either, even though I answered all the verification questions correctly. Said I have to mail in the form to get the info. 

WTH?

I have never had an issue getting the free annual reports before, and now two won't even let me get them online...

[Anonymous]

I have thesame problem as well.   Always been easy before.  Maybe something changed in their security measures.

[DaveInAZ]

For both of you having a problem it makes me wonder if they're intentionally tyring to make the free annual report more difficult to get, I'm sure they hate having to give it out for free. But their security questions can be tricky sometimes, I flubbed it on one of them a couple years ago. When they ask questions like what was my phone # when I lived in Las Vegas, where I moved from in 2005, I'm thinking "give me a break, I'm lucky to remember my current phone # as I rarely call to talk to myself".

[rmduhon]

It could be something simple. Hubby had to send of for 2 of his reports because they had his birthday wrong on both and 1 had my ssn as an alternate number.

[Gunnar419]

Sorry you're having the problem, OP. I've also run into that situation. I don't know whether this will apply to you, but I've found that if I'm using anything that disguises my IP address (a proxy service, a VPN, any kind of anonymizer), I get refused. If I turn off the service, I can go right back and get my report.

[Anonymous]

Yeah not sure what is going on. I just hate trying to mail a bunch of personal info via snail mail...I have seen too many letters where the flaps arrive open just at my home. I have checked my credit reprots online every year, and never found anything off, but never means it can't ever happen. I do have the alerts through myfico, but not sure how good it is vs. credit reports.

[Anonymous]

I have had these issues before and just as you said I refuse to mail my personal information to them.

There has to be a better way to get access then mailing in photo copies of your PII.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't able to get my TU this year due to a mixed file (there is a person with the same first name, last name that starts with the same letter, and one digit variance in SSN.) I only found out there was an issue when Chase called to verify my identity and told me what the problem was.

[Anonymous]

I've never yet been able to get my Equifax annual report online for some reason; never had that problem with Transunion or Experian.

[RobertEG]

Credit reports obtained via annualcreditreport.com are legally restricted only to the named consumer, as they are permitted to include information that is barred under the FCRA from view to anyone other than the named consumer, such as soft inquiries.

It is thus legally important that they take precaution to ensure that you are the named individual, and not any other party.

Their precautions also extend to situations where there is a higher liklihood of potential unauthorized access, such as requests made from outside the U.S.

I for one have been unable to use the annualcreditreport.com web site to obtain my credit report from any of the CRAs whenever requested from an IP address outside of the US.  That is obviously a barred access provision that limits access only by way of written request.