>> Frequently Asked Questions
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| What is a credit bureau?
How do the credit bureaus obtain information?
Do all three credit bureaus have the same information on file?
Who can look at my credit report?
How long does information stay in my credit report?
At what age do credit-reporting agencies start recording a person's credit history?
Why should I check my credit report?
How often should I check my credit report?
How do I dispute inaccurate information?
What is a Public Record?
What are Collection Items?
What are inquiries?
How long does it take for a closed account to be removed from my credit file?
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| What is a credit score?
What if I do not receive a credit score?
What is the credit score range?
How does my credit score affect me?
How often does my credit score change?
Do late payments affect my credit score?
Do inquiries affect my credit score?
Does co-signing a loan affect my credit score?
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| What are my delivery options?
How do I change delivery methods?
How do I update my mailing address or e-mail address?
How do I change payment methods? |
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| General Questions
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| How secure is the Identity Guard
Web site?
Very. Our web site uses the most advanced encryption
technology available: 128-bit encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) keeps
your personal information, including credit card number, secure from
unauthorized access. Netscape 4.0 and higher, Microsoft Internet Explorer
4.0 or higher, and most frame-enabled browsers support SSL. When you
begin a transaction, the rest of your visit will take place on our secure
server. You will see a small key or padlock in the bottom right corner
of your browser if you are using Netscape or Microsoft browsers, indicating
that your transaction is secure.
To further ensure that your privacy is protected,
Intersections has engaged ICSA.net, a nationally recognized security
firm, to conduct a security audit known as a TruSecure assessment. ICSA.net's
findings concluded that Intersections Inc. met or exceeded all requirements
for ICSA.net certification and –has a superior overall security posture.
Intersections Inc. complies with the requirements
of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and is in compliance with the processing,
privacy and security requirements of the national credit reporting agencies
(Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). |
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What is the Fair Credit Reporting
Act?
The 1971 Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) grants
consumers important rights regarding credit, credit reports, and related
matters. Congress recognized that American consumers deserve the right
to ensure that the data in their credit reports is correct. The 1996
amendments enhanced consumers ability to protect their information
by enabling them to look for inaccuracies and notify the bureaus about
correcting them.
Specifically, the FCRA gives consumers the right to:
- Be told by a credit bureau the nature, substance,
and sources of the information.
- Receive a free copy of your credit report if
you are denied credit, insurance, or employment, or are unemployed,
a recipient of public welfare assistance, or believe you have been
the victim of fraud.
- Review your credit report in person.
- Take someone (lawyer, friend, relative, etc.)
with you to review your file.
- Have disputed information investigated within
30 days.
- Have inaccurate information deleted.
- Have information deleted that cannot be verified.
- Know who has received your credit report in the
past year (or two years for employment purposes).
- Include a brief written statement as a permanent
part of your credit report.
- Have derogatory, credit-related information deleted
after seven years.
- Have listing of bankruptcy deleted after 10 years
(successfully completed Chapter 13 deleted after seven years).
- Be notified if a company has requested an investigative
report about you.
- Know the nature and the substance of the investigative
report but not the sources.
- Know the name and address of the credit bureau
responsible for preparing a credit report used to deny you credit,
insurance, or employment, or to increase the cost of your insurance
or credit.
- Request more information about the nature and
the scope of an investigation from a company pursuing an investigative
report.
- Have your name and address
excluded from "pre-approved" offer lists.
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What is Your Privacy Policy?
Intersections is committed to protecting your
personal privacy. We will not disclose any information to any outside
third party unless it is for the express purpose of delivering our products
and services to you or unless law requires it. We will not disclose,
sell, resell, or share your credit information, or any data derived
in our interaction with you, to other organizations or individuals for
any purpose, including advertising.
For Web site visitors, Intersections does not place
persistent cookies on your hard drive. Persistent cookies are small
text files recorded on a user's hard drive that track a visitor's usage
patterns each time they return to a Web site. We do however, track session
cookies that allow us to track your path while visiting our Web site
so that we can improve our Web site and product and service offerings
for you. Each time you visit our site, you will need to log-on again,
since we will not automatically recognize you as a previous visitor.
Intersections Inc. only asks for information that
is necessary for us to provide you with the products and services you
order. To verify individuals' identities that order our products and
services, we may require a Social Security number in addition to your
name, e-mail address, mailing address, date of birth, credit card type,
credit card number, and credit card expiration date. We must be absolutely
certain that we identify you correctly before we can fulfill your order.
Intersections Inc. does not disclose or sell any
confidential customer information that is obtained or derived from our
interaction with you. However, we must cooperate fully should a situation
arise whereby we are REQUIRED by law or legal process to provide information
about a customer.
From time to time, we also may collect voluntary
information from online surveys or site registration. This aggregate
information is not provided to any other organization or company and
is used exclusively by Intersections Inc. to better understand its customers
needs. |
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How do I contact customer service?
Credit Education Specialists are available Monday
through Friday, 8 A.M. to 11 P.M., and Saturday 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. Eastern
at 1-800-214-4791. |
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What should I do if I am a victim
of identity theft?
• According to the U.S. Attorney General's
office, the Secret Service oversees identity theft, and this office
advises you to:
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Report the crime to the police immediately. Get a copy of your police
report or case number. Credit card companies, your bank, and the insurance
company may ask you to reference the report to verify the crime.
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Immediately contact your credit card issuers. Get replacement cards
with new account numbers and ask that the old account be processed as
"account closed at consumer's request" for credit record purposes.
You should also follow up this telephone conversation with a letter
to the credit card company that summarizes your request in writing.
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Call the fraud units of the three credit reporting bureaus and ask that
your accounts be flagged. Also, add a victim's statement to your report
that requests that they contact you to verify future credit applications:
- Equifax Credit Information Services - Consumer
Fraud Div.
P.O. Box 105496
Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5496
Tel: (800) 997-2493
www.equifax.com
- Experian
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, Texas 75013-2104
Tel: (888) EXPERIAN (397-3742)
www.experian.com
- TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Dept.
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
Tel: (800) 680-7289
www.transunion.com
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Keep a log of all conversations with authorities and financial entities.
And follow-up! Make sure that all creditors or credit bureaus have received
what they need from you.
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal clearinghouse for
complaints by victims of identity theft. Although the FTC does not have
the authority to bring criminal cases, the Commission assists victims
of identity theft by providing them with information to help them resolve
the financial and other problems that can result from identity theft.
The FTC also may refer victim complaints to other appropriate government
agencies and private organizations for further action. If you have been
a victim of identity theft, you can file a complaint with the FTC by
contacting the FTC's Consumer Response Center.
| By Phone: |
Toll-free 877-FTC-HELP (382-4357)
TDD 202-326-2502 |
| By Mail: |
Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20580 |
| On the Web: |
www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm
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| For Consumer Information: |
www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
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Review your reports regularly and make sure all changes you requested
have been effected. |
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What is the Consumer Fraud Resource
Center?
Consumer Fraud Specialists are your powerful allies
after a fraud or identity theft attack. They walk you through all the
steps required to restore your credit and will:
- contact the three leading consumer credit reporting
agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) on your behalf to place
a Fraud Statement in your credit file.
- assist you in contacting affected creditors and
law enforcement agencies.
- assist you in filing disputes with the credit
reporting agencies.
- send you a Fraud First Aid Kit containing important
contact phone numbers and addresses, and a Contact List that you can
use to keep track of all phone contacts made when trying to clear your
credit and name. |
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What is the Federal Trade Commission?
The Federal Trade (FTC) commission enforces a variety
of federal antitrust and consumer protection laws, including the federal
Fair Credit Reporting Act, the law that regulates consumer-reporting
agencies, those who use credit reports, and those who furnish information
to consumer reporting agencies. The FTC ensures that all three parties
(consumers, consumer reporting agencies, and lenders) are treated in
a fair and equitable manner.
The FTC's mission is to help the nation's markets
function competitively and efficiently, unhampered by needless restrictions.
It works to spotlight and eliminate acts or practices that are unfair
or deceptive. In general, the FTC tries to stop actions that threaten
consumers' opportunities to exercise informed choice. It also performs
economic analyses, when asked, to support its law enforcement efforts
and to contribute to the policy as set forth by Congress, the Executive
Branch, other independent agencies, and state and local governments.
In addition to carrying out its statutory enforcement responsibilities,
the FTC advances the policies underlying Congressional mandates through
cost-effective non-enforcement activities, such as consumer education. |
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| Payment/Delivery Options
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What are my delivery options?
All members registered on the Web site have the
choice of delivery via e-mail or regular mail, plus the added feature
of choosing either a text-enabled cellular phone or pager.
If you provided your e-mail address during enrollment,
you will automatically begin receiving service to your e-mail account.
If you have not provided your e-mail address, your method of delivery
will be to your postal address on file. |
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How do I change delivery methods?
You can change your delivery options at any time.
Once you have logged on to the Web site, you have the option of choosing
either mail or e-mail in addition to selecting notification via text-enabled
cellular phone or pager. To change the method of delivery of your products,
visit the member settings page. |
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How do I update my mailing address
or e-mail address?
Contact our Credit Education Specialists directly
at 1-800-214-4791 to change your mailing address. You can change your
e-mail address under Member Settings on the Identity GuardSM web site, http://www.identityguard.com/members. |
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How do I change payment methods?
To change your method of payment, contact our Credit
Education Specialists directly at 1-800-214-4791. |
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| All About Credit Reports
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What is a credit bureau?
Credit bureaus, or credit reporting agencies, are
basically clearinghouses for information about consumers' credit. When
you apply for credit, they provide this information to qualified requestors.
There are three main credit bureaus: Equifax, based in Atlanta, Georgia;
Experian, based in Allen, Texas; and TransUnion, based in Springfield,
Pennsylvania. |
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How do the credit bureaus obtain
information?
Credit bureaus collect information from banks, savings
and loans, credit unions, finance companies, and retailers about your
credit, which they store in a computer database. |
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Do all three credit bureaus
have the same information on file?
No, because lenders send information to some and
not others. Credit bureaus receive more than two billion pieces of data
each month, so it's a given that mistakes are going to happen. (An independent
study by Arthur Andersen, however, showed that only one-fifth of 1 percent
of these errors led to someone being denied credit.)
Credit reports are available from three main reporting
agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and these "big three"
do not exchange information with each other. Therefore each of them
may have different information, depending on who and what was reported
to them. What is on one report may differ from another. |
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Who can look at my credit report?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act stipulates that lenders
to whom a consumer has applied for a loan can view credit reports —
for example, credit card companies and financial institutions supplying
auto loans and mortgages. But the list continues: landlords, utility
companies, phone companies, hospitals, doctors, dentists, insurance
companies, credit unions, finance companies, banks, retailers, department
stores, credit card companies, car dealers, mortgagers, investigators,
lawyers, courts — most anyone who can give the bureaus just cause can
view your credit report. |
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How long does information stay
in my credit report?
Public records and collection items stay on your
report for seven years with the exception of bankruptcies, which stay
on for ten years. Unpaid tax liens remain for 15 years. Positive information
remains indefinitely, although agencies can remove it after seven years.
Inquiries remain for two years. |
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At what age do credit-reporting
agencies start recording a person's credit history?
At 18 years of age, your credit is compiled
and reported to the credit reporting agencies. |
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Why should I check my credit
report?
Just as you have medical and dental check-ups
periodically, so should you check your credit report. Knowing what's
in your credit report arms you with the information you need — your
credit standing -- when trying to secure favorable rates for a mortgage
or other loan. Also, if you regularly check your credit report, you
can guard against identity theft, one of the fastest-growing federal
crime in the nation. |
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How often should I check my
credit report?
With the explosive growth of identity theft,
experts recommend checking your credit report as routinely as you check
the weather. That way, when there's a change you don't recognize, you
can take steps to halt what could be illegal pilfering of your personal
information. |
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How do I dispute inaccurate
information?
Immediately call and write the credit bureau
that reported the inaccurate information (send by certified mail, return
receipt requested, and keep copies). The bureau will then check with
the original source. If this inaccuracy persists, add a statement to
the credit report specifying why the item is wrong. This dispute process
can take up to 30 days. |
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What is a Public Record?
Information on tax liens, lawsuits, bankruptcies
and judgments that relate to the consumer's debt obligations. Most public
record items are listed for seven years including successfully completed
Chapter 13 bankruptcies. Other bankruptcies are listed for 10 years.
Tax liens are listed for seven years from the date paid. |
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What are Collection Items?
Collection items are accounts sent to a collection
agency, which are listed in your credit report for seven years from
the date the account was 180 days delinquent with the original creditor. |
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What are inquiries?
Companies that have requested your credit
file within the past two years. Companies that inquire for marketing
purposes do not affect your credit rating. |
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How long does it take for a
closed account to be removed from my credit file?
The file will be updated in 30 to 60 days,
but reportable information stays on seven years from date of the last
activity. |
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| All About Credit Scores
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What is a credit score?
A credit score, calculated from variables in your
credit report and other factors determined by the lending institution,
is a rating tool used by lenders to gauge an individual's creditworthiness. |
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What if I do not receive a credit
score?
A credit score can't be generated if there's no
information in a credit report, so individuals with little or no credit
history will generally not have a score.
To remedy this situation, consider applying for a retail, gas or secured
credit card to establish credit. Then keep your debt low and pay your
bills on time to establish your credit history on a positive note. |
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What is the credit score range?
Credit scores range from 350 to 850 -- a higher
number represents a stronger financial position. |
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How does my credit score affect
me?
Credit scores, calculated from such information
in your credit file as total debt, types of accounts, number of late
payments, age of accounts, and number of inquiries, give lenders a subjective
rating of your creditworthiness. Lenders then consider this rating when
deciding whether or not to extend you credit. It's in your best interest,
therefore, to keep your credit as robust as possible so you can secure
favorable rates and terms. If your credit score is weak, you can often
strengthen it by minimizing outstanding debt, avoiding overextension,
and limiting new credit applications. |
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How often does my credit score
change?
Your credit score fluctuates as often as
information in your credit file changes. |
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Do late payments affect my credit
score?
Yes, late payments negatively affect your score
-- paying your bills on time is the single most important contributor
to a good credit score. |
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Do inquiries affect my credit
score?
It depends on the type of inquiry. Inquires
for marketing purposes do not affect your score. These include consumer
requests for a credit report, lenders using credit information to review
an account, or a potential employer looking over someone's credit. Inquiries
initiated by the consumer, such as mortgage, auto loan and credit card
applications, however, do affect your score because studies have shown
that too many are a red flag for credit risk. Inquires do not weigh
as heavily, however, as past payment history or number of delinquent
accounts. |
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Does co-signing a loan affect
my credit score?
Yes. Any loan or credit card account affects
your score. |
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