Online Credit Reports

Want to see what’s in the credit file that companies like Experian (formerly TRW Credit services) have compiled about you? You can send in your request and a check and wait a few weeks for a hard copy to come in the mail or you can sign up for a new online credit information service provided by ConsumerInfo.Com.

The Orange-based company takes orders on the Internet and mails the information to customers. But in late June, ConsumerInfo will become the first company to provide Experian credit reports to consumers via the Internet. To promote itself, the company is offering a free 30-day membership in its CreditCheck Monitoring Service (www.consumerinfo.com), which includes one copy of the subscriber’s Experian report.

Credit reports will be delivered electronically within two hours of being ordered. ConsumerInfo’s founder and president, Ed Ojdana, says the response time should drop to a few minutes by early fall.

An annual subscription is $49.95 and gets members four free Experian credit reports a year as well as information about reading and interpreting the sometimes cryptic documents. Subscribers also will be notified of any inquiries into their credit files and of any negative information posted there. Subscribers also will be able to order, for an additional fee, the comprehensive “big three” credit reports that include all the information maintained by each of the three major credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax Inc. and TransUnion Corp.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at [email protected]