If anyone has subscribed to these types of services, I'm sure you may of already determined this. 

From providing you a label to order your medical records to allowing you to pull your credit report daily, these services are feeding on consumer's fears.

However, none of them solve the problems - inaccurate credit information, predatory lending, identity theft, improper or unauthorized access to your file, unlimited access to your personal information, and no tracking on credit scores being pulled on you. 

Some monitoring services have gone so far as offering you "insurance" if your identity is stolen.  What a waste of hard earned money.

All these services provide a false sense of security and no protection. A recent Kansas City Star article "Stolen identities and lives: Kansas couple fights back," chronicals the many problems one family found with this system. 

To show how out of wack this service is, we need to digress into some history.

History of Consumer Disclosures

Since the formation of credit bureaus, consumers have always been able to review the credit information store on them.  

Before automation, this review was usually done in person.  You were able to sit down with an expert in credit reporting and discuss what was contained in your file.  Any mistakes were corrected within a few minutes, hours or days.  This review was done at NO CHARGE to the consumer.  After all, credit bureaus were responsible for compiling and dispensing "accurate" credit reports.  By reviewing the file with you the credit bureaus were assured that the information was correct. 

At that time in history there was only ONE credit file on you - not the four or more that we have today. And it was stored right in your local town.

The Automation Monster

In the 1970's, automation came to the credit bureaus.  There were numerous ASP's (Automated Service Provider) to chose from - Chilton, Pinger, TRW (now Experian), TransUnion and Equifax. There were also over 2,600 independent credit bureaus servicing our nation. 

With automation being so very expensive, these ASP's systematically destroyed the local credit bureaus. Their tactics of stealing the local bureaus' clients, price fixing and unfair trade practices completely undermined the local bureaus' ability to compete.  With that destruction, went your privacy and accuracy.

Fast Foward to Today

They project that the "credit monitoring" business will generate over $5 Billion dollars in unearned profits in 2006. 

These ASP's (as known as CRA's), only knowing the power of computers and lacking a basic understand of the FCRA,  began charging consumers for services which had always been free.

They even went so far as getting Congress to sanction the charge.  

Even though the law provides for consumers to obtain a copy of their credit report for free under certain situation;such as when you are denied most favorable rates, or when you are looking for a job, etc., just try to find this their websites. Find where you can exercise your rights under these conditions.  You are also able to get a free annual credit report - but find that on their systems.

No, these CRA's want to make money off of you and your information. For the annual free report, they are driving you to a third party website, where if you choose to "opt-out" you're unable to get your credit report on-line.  Hummm, does that tell us anything?   

If you are expecting the Federal Trade Commission or any other state or federal agency to step in and enforce your rights, you may have a long wait.

The federal government in general, and Congress in particular, have shown little propensity to enforce existing credit laws. In many cases, they have gone way out of their way to prevent the states from enacting and enforcing stronger laws when dealing with the credit industry. They did this by preempting states rights.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) guarantees consumers a variety of rights. These rights include giving consumers the ability to have false or inaccurate credit data removed from their credit report. Unfortunately, when Congress passed the FCRA in 1970, it had no way to foresee the computer revolution, or the sharing of electronic consumer data that it would become so prevalent.

Companies that engage in the unabased sharing of consumer data; such as banks, insurance companies and major retailers, contribute to some of the inaccuracies that appear on credit reports.  Protective creditors withhold important information, such as high credit balance, which unfairly causes additional problems for consumers and results in lower credit scores.

As mentioned before, consumers are guaranteed by law that these inaccuracies must be removed without charge. The credit repositories that store consumer credit reports are the companies responsible for removing inaccurate data without charge. And therein lies the problem.