Coalition of State Attorneys General Urge Credit Reporting Agencies to Offer No-Fee Credit Freeze

Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security State Attorney General Consumer Finance Security Freeze

On October 10, a coalition of 37 state attorneys general sent letters (here and here) to the CEOs of two major credit reporting agencies (CRAs), urging them to stop charging fees to consumers seeking credit freezes as a measure to protect against identity theft in light of a third CRA’s massive data breach. On September 15, as previously reported in InfoBytes, 34 state attorneys general sent a letter to the breached CRA’s legal counsel requesting it disable fee-based credit monitoring services. The October 10 letters note that currently seven states prohibit CRAs from charging fees to consumers for credit freezes and at least two other states have proposed legislation that would require CRAs to offer free credit freezes.