Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act - FACTA

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA, was passed in 2003 as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Phew. Now that we've gotten all those words out of the way…

FACTA makes the three U.S. consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) give consumers a free credit report once a year, if they ask. Which means that all Americans are legally entitled to three free credit reports a year. Because transparency.

To request these freebies, annualcreditreport.com was created.

FACTA also did things like legally oblige these same companies to place alerts on consumer’s credit histories if consumers request it. It also makes them securely dump consumer data. Both practices help reduce identity theft.

Now you have the facts about FACTA, so go out there...on the interwebs...and get your free identity theft alerts and credit reports.