Central Credit Bureau

Many have demanded the central credit bureau supply free copies to consumers on request, rather than charging $15 to $35 as some do now. "If there is readier access to credit information, consumers will be in a better position to blow the whistle on inaccuracies," said Elgie Holstein, executive director of Bankcard Holders of America," a consumer-credit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

"Letting consumers have their reports at little or no cost will go a long way to taking care of that situation." Such changes have met stiff resistance from the credit industry, which has invested heavily in seeing that lawmakers keep their attention fixed elsewhere. Walter Kurth, president of Associated Credit Bureaus, a credit-industry lobbying association, takes issue with the idea of free credit files.

He maintains that such a policy would ultimately be detrimental to the consumer. "The cost of providing free credit reports will be passed on to consumers in the marketplace," he said. "No question, there is a perception out there that the credit industry has some problems. But the costs of free reports will have to be recovered. Those resources could be better utilized in areas such as consumer education." The credit industry insists that it is in its best interest to keep credit reports as accurate as possible, and that is certainly true to a point. However, the sheer volume of information processed by bureaus and the aggressive way in which data is marketed and compiled make accountability for errors a very difficult thing to police. Because most people never see their credit report, mistakes are never discovered until they already have become a problem for the consumer. And that can lead to nightmares.

In Barber's case, it took three months before her credit record was cleared of mistakes.

Still, she is lucky in comparison to some consumers who have done battle with credit bureaus lately. In July, a New York woman named Lora Clowes filed a lawsuit against Trans Union after the same incorrect information repeatedly appeared on her credit report for three years.

Each time she went out of her way to have the mistakes removed, only to have them reappear time and time again. "Trans Union's records show me having a delinquent student loan, but that's impossible because I've never had a student loan in my life," she said. Clowes even went so far as to get the U.S. secretary of education to write a letter to Trans Union in her behalf stating she had never had a student loan.

It helped get the information erased -- but did not stop it from reappearing. "I'd tried everything I could to get this situation remedied," she said, "but these people are ruining my life. I have proof that my report contains incorrect information, but Trans Union keeps on re-reporting it no matter what I do. It's criminal what they're doing to me." Consumer advocates also are protesting the disparity between the information that bureaus provide to credit grantors and what they allow consumers to see in their credit reports.