NWX-CFPB HQ 

Moderator: Heather Brown
October 24, 2018
12:30 pm CT


Coordinator:	Welcome and thank you for standing by. All lines are in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today’s conference. At that time you’ll need to press star 1 and record your name as prompted. Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn today’s meeting over to Irene Skricki. Thank you. You may begin. 

Irene Skricki:	Great. Thank you. And welcome everybody to our CFPB FinEx monthly webinar. We’re very excited to have all of you with us today. Looks like we have a big crowd today. We have some great speakers who will be talking about credit freezes, credit scores, and identity theft - always a popular topic. 

	So as federal employees we always start out with our disclaimer that this presentation is being made by a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection representative on behalf of the Bureau but it does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance, or advice. And any opinions or views stated by the presenter are the presenter’s own and may not represent the Bureau’s views. 

	I’m going to say a quick word. I do a kind of a standard introduction so that to make sure that everybody’s on the same page. And I’ll do that on this webinar. The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection -- and most of you probably know this -- is a federal agency that regulates the offering and provision of consumer financial products and services and educates and empowers consumers to make better informed financial decisions. 
	
	And it’s that part of our statement there that is really what we’re here to talk about today - educating and empowering consumers. That’s what the Office of Financial Education does. 

	And one of the signature things that we do is to offer this finance education exchange. As I always say, do not be afraid. I’m not going to go over everything on this slide but just wanted to give you a flavor for FinEx which is a network of financial educators, people anyone working with consumers on financial decisions -- so probably everybody on this call -- where we get our information out to all of you. We look for insight and feedback from you and offer different educational opportunities. 

	And I’m actually very pleased to tell everyone today that many of you have probably heard me presenting on these calls in the past, but we have a person who has recently joined the team, Heather Brown, who will be speaking shortly and will be doing a lot more of the managing of these calls and facilitating and running the FinEx network. So we’re really excited to have her here today and here in general. You’ll hear from her in a minute. 

	We are over about 3,200 people in the FinEx network these days, which is terrific. 

	And then just again as a review, all of our tools and materials that financial educators can use can be found for the most part in one easy spot which is our resources for financial educators Web page. The URL is at the bottom of the screen www.consumerfinance.gov/adult-financial-education. You don’t actually need that practitioner resources in there if you’re going directly to the URL. 

	So we urge all of you to look for any materials that you’re interested in. There’s an inventory there and a way to look things up by topic that we hope you will find useful.

	By the way, I should mention that if you are not currently in FinEx -- we hope that you are. We hope that most of you or many of you got a FinEx newsletter that told you about this webinar -- but if you are not, you can sign up. And again you’ll get essentially a monthly newsletter and occasionally some other information. You can sign up by sending an email to CFPB_FinEx F-I-N-E-X at CFPB dot gov. You can also go to that Web page I just showed you. There’s a sign-up box there where you can put your email address in and join. 

	So hopefully if any of you are not getting your regular newsletter from us, we urge you to sign up. It’s the best way to find out about these webinars and about other new things that are happening. 

	So today’s topic again is one I think will interest people very much -- credit freezes, credit scores, and identity theft. We are thrilled to have someone from the Federal Trade Commission who’s a real expert on this topic -- especially the new Credit Freeze Law that you will learn about today -- Lisa Schifferle. And then after Lisa we will hear from Heather Brown who I mentioned who’s here at the Bureau taking the lead on a lot of the FinEx work. And she will be talking about some things we’ve learned about consumer access to free credit scores through their credit card company or other lender. So we have I think some interesting insights from our quest for information that we did. 

	So we’ll hear first from Lisa and then from Heather. Before we jump in and turn it over to Lisa, I’ll just mention two things. One is if you want a copy of the PowerPoint, we are happy to send it to you. But you will need to email us to ask for it. If you ask for it through the Q&A function on the WebEx, we can’t keep that after the webinar’s over. So we might not catch your request. So email CFPB_FinEx@CFPB.gov -- and you’ll see that address will come up on the last slide later -- and just say you want a copy of the PowerPoint and we can send it to you. 

	And then secondly we will take voice questions after the presentation but if you have clarifying questions or want to tee up some questions for later, feel free to use the Q&A function in the WebEx. We will be monitoring that. And then at the - and if there’s anything urgent, we will, you know, we will ask any sort of clarifying question during the presentation. Otherwise at the end, we will also offer you the chance to open up your line to ask a voice question of Lisa or Heather as well. 

	So again, you can get the PowerPoint and we will have questions. Feel free to use the Q&A function as we are going through the presentation now. So with all that as background, I am thrilled to introduce Lisa Schifferle from the FTC. Lisa, the floor is yours. 

Lisa Schifferle:	Thank you. Thanks for having me. My name’s Lisa Schifferle. I’m an attorney with the FTC’s Division of Consumer and Business Education. And if any of you are not familiar with the Federal Trade Commission, we’re a national consumer protection agency. And I work in our agency of consumer business education where our job is to educate consumers and businesses about rights and responsibilities.

	So we’re going to be doing that today in terms of credit freezes and identity theft and then Heather’s going to cover the credit scores portion. So I’ll take a look at the new credit law -- how it changes people’s rights for credit freezes and fraud alert and in particular how it affects certain special populations. And then we’ll cover identity theft since the new credit law relates to identity theft protections and look at some trends and also tools that people can use if information is misused. 

	So the new credit law took effect September 21st of this year. It has a long title. It’s part of a much larger law called the Economic Growth, Regulatory Release, and Consumer Protection Act or S.2155. But basically it amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it does two main things which are to create free credit freezes for anyone in the country and year-long fraud alerts. 

	So fraud alerts now last one year rather than 90 days, which is what the law was before September 21st. And credit freezes are now free for anyone no matter where they live and it’s a right under federal law. Before this law, credit freezes were governed by a patchwork of state laws and depending on your state law it may or may not be free. It was free for identity theft victims but not necessarily free for other people who wanted to put a freeze proactively. So now anyone anywhere in the country can get a credit freeze for free.

	Also, children under the age of 16 can get a credit freeze. And what the law refers to as incapacitated adults -- which I’ll talk about in more depth -- also people can get credit freezes for those individuals. 

	And one aspect of the law that’s yet to take effect but you can look forward to in May of 2019 is the law also requires the credit reporting agencies to set up free online credit monitoring for active duty military. And that will take effect on May 24th. And the FTC is in the processes of writing a rule which will detail the specifics about how that free online credit monitoring might work. 

	So let’s take a look at fraud alerts in a little more depth. You all probably know what a fraud alert is. We sometimes call it a one call fraud alert because in order to place it, you only have to contact one of the big three credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion -- and they have to notify the other two. 

	And the fraud alert basically requires creditors to take a good faith step to verify your identity before extending new credit. So if someone were say at Target trying to get a new credit card, then they might call me and say, Lisa is that really you at Target trying to get a new credit card,” and I’d say, “No.” 

	The fraud alerts now are good for one year. That’s the big change in the law. And you can renew it every year. So you can basically keep having a fraud alert for your whole life if you wanted to. 

	One thing the law does not change is the extended fraud alert. So identity theft victims can still get an extended fraud alert. That’s a seven-year fraud alert. You do have to have actual misuse of your information and be an identity theft victim to qualify for that extended fraud alert. Otherwise, if you’re just concerned about identity theft, you can place the regular one year fraud alert proactively.

	But that extended fraud alert will last seven years. People have to show they’re an identity theft victim by providing an identity theft report. And they can get that by going to identitytheft.gov and completing an identity theft complaint, filing their complaint with the FTC and they’ll get a personalized recovery plan and identity theft report. 

	I’ll talk to you more about identitytheft.gov towards the end of the presentation. But just wanted to highlight that while the new law changes the initial fraud alerts make it last a year, it does not change the extended fraud alerts. That right still exists in the same form for identity theft victims. 

	So now what does the new law do in terms of credit freezes? This is really the big news that a lot of people are focused on. As I mentioned before, credit freezes are now governed by federal law instead of a patchwork of state laws. A freeze as you probably know restricts access to your credit file which makes it harder for identity thieves to open new accounts. 

	Now, to place a freeze unlike a fraud alert it can’t be done with one call. An individual needs to contact each of the three credit reporting agencies each time they place the freeze and each time they lift the freeze. 

	The nice thing about what this new law does is it makes the freeze free every time you place it and every time you lift it. It also speeds up the process under this new law. If you make your request online or by phone, the freeze must be placed no later than one business day after the request is made. And if you request to lift the freeze online or by phone, it has to be lifted within one hour. So it makes it a lot easier for consumers to lift their freeze if they’re applying for new credit themselves. 

	Now of course if you do this all by mail, the credit reporting agencies have three business days from the time they receive the request to place or lift it. But if you’re doing it online or by phone, it is a faster process than it usually was under the old laws. 

	Now we found that consumers have a lot of questions still about these freezes. Sometimes they’re confused about whether they can still access existing credit -- which they can. Of course they can still use their credit cards. Sometimes they’re confused about whether their credit score can change. They think that they’re freezing their credit so their credit’s not going to change, their score is not going to change. But creditors can still report delinquent accounts and report past due charges and your credit score could go up or down. 

	But it does as I said restrict access to new credit even for the individual. So they will need to lift it to get new credit. 

	One other big question people ask is if they had a freeze in place then do they need to do anything new. And no, they don’t. That freeze stays in place and it’ll be free when they try to lift it. 

	So let’s take a look at some of the special populations that are affected by this new law. One of them is the military. I mentioned that in the future there will be free online credit monitoring for active duty military. But for now, military still has the right to an active duty alert, which is a special fraud alert good for the time of deployment. It’s actually a one year fraud alert but it can be renewed for the time of deployment.

	And when I first heard about the new law that gives everyone a right to a one year fraud alert, I wondered well why would anyone want to put an active duty alert on if you can just get a regular one year fraud alert. But there is a good reason for military to place an active duty alert -- because under the Fair Credit Reporting Act when you place an active duty alert, you also automatically get opted out of prescreen credit offers for two years. So that does not come with the regular fraud alert. So for active duty military there is that added benefit of the active duty alert even though both alerts are one year and renewable. 
	
	Now, what about children? This is a big different than in the new law as well. The new law provides for free credit freezes for children under 16 throughout the country. Again, that was governed by a patchwork of state laws. Some states had child credit freezes; some did not. 

	In order to get a child credit freeze, a parent or guardian has to show proof of authority -- like proof that they are the parent or guardian, like a birth or adoption certificate -- or if the child’s in foster care, then the child welfare agency can send a letter on letterhead showing that they have authority to request it freezed on behalf of the child. 

	After the age of 16, the young adult can request to place or lift the freeze for herself. So in order to place this child freeze, the adult needs to show both proof of authority and then also proof of their identification. 

	Now let’s look at some other protected consumers that are affected by this new law. You can get a credit freeze for someone if you have guardianship, conservatorship, or power of attorney over them. Again, you have to provide both proof of authority and proof of identification. For these purposes, proof of authority can include a court order or a fully executed valid power of attorney document. You also have to provide proof of identification for yourself and for the protected consumer which can include things like a social security card, a certified copy of a birth certificate, or a driver’s license or other state issued identification card. 
	
	So the credit freeze can be a very effective tool for children and other protected consumers who may not need access to their credit. 

	Now that we’ve talked about fraud alerts and credit freezes and the rights under the new law, you may be wondering where do you go to get these credit freezes or fraud alerts. And under the new law, it required each credit reporting agency to set up one Web site and one phone number where people can access and easily see all these services. It also require the FTC on our identifytheft.gov site to set up a page with all these contacts. 

	So if you go to identifytheft.gov/creditbureaucontacts you will find there the contacts for the big three credit reporting agencies for where you can exercise these rights to credit freezes or fraud alerts under the new law. 

	So that’s an overview of the new credit law. And now I want to take a step back to look more broadly at identify theft since the new credit law basically creates new ways to help consumers protect themselves from identity theft. Let’s look at identity theft more broadly and in particular at some trends. This…

Irene Skricki:	Hey Lisa?

Lisa Schifferle:	Yes. 

Irene Skricki:	Lisa can I - we had one I think very interesting question come into the Q&A. Could I ask that before…

Lisa Schifferle:	Sure. 

Irene Skricki:	…before we move on?

Lisa Schifferle:	Yes. 	

Irene Skricki:	And I’m sure this is on several people’s minds. The question is, what is the difference between a credit freeze and a credit lock? And I know that…	

Lisa Schifferle:	That is a very good question. 

Irene Skricki:	Yes.

Lisa Schifferle:	The credit lock is a new basically a new option the credit reporting agencies have created within the past year. The credit freeze is now governed by federal law under this new law and protected by federal law. And if the CRAs don’t honor your rights under the new law, then you have all the resources and repercussions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in order to enforce your rights to it. 

	The credit lock is a contractual agreement between you and the individual credit reporting agency. There may or may not be a fee. Credit freezes are now free by law. Credit locks are contractual agreements. So the credit reporting agencies can decide whether there is a fee for them or not. And they can change that, you know. It may be free now and cost, you know, $30 a month next month. 
	
	And so the lock is just in place as long as you have a contractual agreement with the credit reporting agencies. They operate very similarly, the freezes and the locks -- especially now that the new law kind of streamlines the timeline for credit freezes. But the credit freezes offer you the protection of federal law, whereas the credit locks offer you just the protections of the contract between the credit reporting agency and you. And the freezes also are by law free and the locks may or may not be free and that can change even if it’s free now.  

Irene Skricki:	Right. So the locks are essentially almost a product offered by the credit reporting agencies whereas the freezes are mandated by law. So it’s sort of like checking your credit report through annualcreditreport.com right, which is they have to do, opposed to buying your credit score or something from the company, right? Is that… 

Lisa Schifferle:	Yes. 

Irene Skricki:	…one way one could think about it? 

Lisa Schifferle:	That’s one way to look at it, sure. 	

Irene Skricki:	Okay. Thanks. 

Lisa Schifferle:	Yes. 

Irene Skricki:	Thank you. 

Lisa Schifferle:	And we’ll take more questions at the end. So people can feel free to put them in the Q&A box or we’ll take them by phone later. 

	But looking now at identify theft more broadly, identify theft was the number two type of complaint that the FTC received in 2017. And this is based on our consumer sentinel data. So if you’re not familiar with consumer sentinel, that includes complaints the FTC gets through identifytheft.gov and through our FTC.gov as well as complaints that are given to us from the CFPB, from Better Business Bureaus, from state AGs, from other federal, state, and local law enforcement. 

	So it’s a pretty wide network of complaints and based on those complaints we’ve received, last year the top three categories were first debt collection, second identity theft, and third imposter scams. For over a decade, identity theft was number one so it’s just in the past few years that it’s fallen to number two.

	And if you look on the next slide, you can see some trends within identity theft. Which is that next slide, please. Thanks. The tax identity theft is declining while credit card related identity theft is increasing. Now, a few years ago almost half of the identity theft complaints that we received at the FTC were tax related. Now it’s closer to only a quarter or a third of all the identity theft complaints that we receive. And credit card fraud or credit card related identity theft is increasing while the tax ID theft is decreasing. 

	The next slide shows that in a different visual representation of a bar graph. And you’ll see on the bar graph the middle part -- the bright orange -- the tax related ID theft. So you can see how it really spiked back in 2015 and was driving the overall spike in ID theft complaints.

	And then as tax ID theft has decreased over the past couple years, our overall ID theft complaints have also decreased and you can see at the same time that, you know, the first three columns -- the light pink or salmonish color at the top or peach color -- kind of is similar in size but the past couple years has grown. That’s the credit card related ID theft.

	So the credit card related ID theft is increasing while tax ID theft is decreasing. And a lot of people ask why is that. And of course we can’t say for sure because this is just based on reported complaint data. But we do know that the IRS has implemented a lot of different systems and algorithms to try to catch tax identity theft. So the hope is that some of those are working and that’s some of the reason why the tax identity theft is going down. 

	So what should people do if their information is misused. Maybe they placed a fraud alert or credit freeze but they’re still a victim of identity theft. Or maybe they didn’t place those and they’re a victim of identity theft. 

	Now I want to talk a little bit about identitytheft.gov. It’s the federal government’s one stop resource for identity theft victims. It allows them to report identity theft and get a personalized recovery plan. Next slide, please. 

	It’s a great tool for advocates and financial counselors because it makes your job much easier once they report identity theft to the FTC. They get an identity theft report which can be used for things like that extended fraud alert that I mentioned for the seven year fraud alert. It can also be used for things like blocking information under the Fair Credit Reporting Act 605B. Identity theft victims can block information from their credit report and they need that ID theft report to do that. So it gives them that. 
	
	It also gives them easy to follow checklists of what to do and letters that are prefilled based on the information they put in their complaint. 

	On the next slide you’ll see that identitytheft.gov is available on mobile format and regular computer format. We also have a one pager that kind of explains identitytheft.gov. So let’s take a look at what identitytheft.gov would look like because I know if you refer people to it, you want to know what you’re referring them to. 

	Now on this slide you’ll see the screen that people get to first. And the whole identitytheft.gov is available in Spanish as well. You’ll see in that upper right hand corner in light blue you can switch over to the Spanish version if you’re working with someone who would prefer to do this in Spanish. 
	
	So here you click on get started and then you would come to this screen which allows you to report identity theft or tax identity theft or if your information was exposed in a data breach to get information about that. 

	Then on the next slide you go through six different screens which allow you to input information. And at the end you’ll get your FTC identity theft report. If it’s tax related you can file online directly with the IRS -- the IRS affidavit to report tax ID theft to them. And then you’ll get a recovery plan to walk you through the steps. 

	On the next slide you’ll see an example of that recovery plan. It shows you the steps to take. And if you were to click on each of those orange lines, it would give you more detailed advice and all the contacts you would need. 

	You also get your identity theft report on the next slide. This is what people can use to exercise certain rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And it will already be filled in with all this information based on the information they put into their complaint. 
	
	Similarly on the next slide you will see the tax ID theft affidavit from the IRS. It’s also called the IRS form 1-4-0-3-9. And that will be prepopulated as well based on the information the individual put into their complaint. And people can file that directly with the IRS through identitytheft.gov.

	This is important as tax season approaches if you’re working with someone who does have a tax ID theft issue. The only way to file that form electronically with the IRS is through identitytheft.gov. IRS doesn’t have an online portal themselves. So otherwise you have to print it out and mail it to the IRS. So this is a great tool for ID theft victims as well.

	And you also would get letters that could be sent to the credit reporting agencies and to creditors also prefilled based on the information put in there. 

	On the next slide you’ll see some of our print publications which are great to have in your office or if you do outreach events or if you’re just working with someone who prefers to have things in print. We have the larger recovery plan on the far left which walks through victims the steps to take. And then we have smaller, bifold publications just about identity theft, military identity theft, child identity theft, and then data breaches and what to do. 

	Now on the next slide you’ll see my disclaimer similar to the disclaimer that was already given which is that I speak for myself and not for the FTC. And the views I expressed in the presentation and when answering the questions are my views and not necessarily the views of the Commission or any of the commissioners. 

	So with that, I’ll turn it to Heather to talk a little bit about credit scores and then we’ll both be back at the end to answer your questions. 

Heather Brown:	Thank you, Lisa. That was a very interesting and informative presentation. I learned several things as well. And we’re going to entertain questions. I see that there were some questions that came in and we’re going to make sure that we have time to get to the questions that we have online. And we’ll also open the line for questions when the time is right. 

	I’m going to talk to you briefly about credit scores and specifically the CFPB issued an RFI last year that asked for businesses, consumers, trade groups -- all entities that were interested and interested parties -- to please respond to the RFI about providing consumers access to free credit scores. That was an initiative that the Bureau worked on and they wanted to get some feedback about how people felt that was going and whether it was beneficial or not. 

	And as a result, we basically received 66 responses to this RFI. And 63 of those we compiled. And so I’m going to talk to you about the responses we got and what people said about it and just to get some idea of the current thinking on what’s going on with credit scores -- and credit reports to some extent. 

	The first thing I will just say from the beginning is that there was quite a bit of confusion between credit scores and credit reports. And some people would talk about a credit report when it was clear they were only speaking of the score and vice versa. So there’s still a lot of opportunity for people in our financial education network to really work with clients on understanding the differences. And well talk about that a little bit as we go through. 

	But we looked at the 66 responses that were received. We divided them basically into individual responses and organizational responses. And there were twice as many individual respondents as there were organizations. And this includes coaching firms, nonprofits, banks credit bureaus, and other financial entities. Three of them we were not able to analyze because they were either nonresponsive or we didn’t have the correct data for them. 

	So some of the representative sentiments that we gathered from this sort of qualitative study is that first of all, many respondents felt that free access to credit information reports and scores was useful and empowering. Almost no one said that they did not feel it was useful, but the concerns that were expressed we’ll talk about in a second. 

	But we heard a lot of positive feedback. And the more people are educated on their credit scores it seems like the more empowered they feel.

	Second, a sentiment that was expressed is that there is a lot of confusion among consumers regarding the different information and sources of data in credit scores and credit reports. We had quite a few responses around those where people, you know, were complaining my credit score was different. I went to three different places. 

	And there are reasons for that. There’s different types of credit scores and different versions of scores. We have older scores and then they get improved over time or the algorithm gets changed and so they’re different but they lenders don’t always adopt the new scores immediately. So the reality is that there can be multiple algorithms that people are working with for credit scores. 

	Additionally, there are different types of scores for auto lending versus mortgages. And so it’s really it can be somewhat complex. And as a result you may not be looking at the same credit score -- and you probably won’t -- that your actual lender is looking at. And so that has caused a lot of concern among both educators and the consumer. 

	A lot of times the free credit score that people are getting is often an educational credit score, which is not actually the exact credit score that’s being used. But most educators that responded did feel that it was still beneficial to their clients and to the consumer to have an educational score and to the extent that they could get one that was closer to what was being used by lenders. And of course, they felt that was better. 

	But definitely whatever access someone could get to a score that would put them in their range seemed to be something that people felt good about. 

	There were a lot of respondents that shared concerns over errors on their credit report and the challenges they face getting them corrected. And so that continues to be a significant issue. And many expressed times where they had, you know, written and gotten confirmation that it was changed and then it came back again. So a lot of people are responding and a lot of businesses as well saying there has got to be an easier way to make correction. So that was a concern. And we talked about the variations in score as well as one of the concerns.

	Additionally, there was concern over risk of exposing consumers to scams and marketing exploitation. Quite a few comments about that -- people commenting that when they went to try to get a free score, they got other offers. Or even a lot of credit counselors say that, you know, they like to work with their client when they’re actually trying to get a hold of the score because they want them to bypass offers that are, you know, sometimes it’s a small amount every month but still it’s an amount.


	And they don’t want them to spend money when they’re working on trying to build their credit unnecessarily having some sort of a subscription. They just want them to get access to it so that they can go over it with them. 

	So certainly a lot of education happening around credit scores. A lot of people feeling that the scoring needs to be more transparent. And even industry supported this as well. Several industry respondents expressed their support for the whole concept of providing free credit scores and reports, and that includes banks and other agencies. 

	But they also expressed that they did not support mandatory legal requirements to provide free credit scores and reports for obvious reasons. So the industry is seeing the drive from customers on having more transparency.   

	The other issue that I think is helping to push more transparency is the need for security. There were a lot of respondents that expressed concern over anxiety about security risks that go with applying for their free credit score. They don’t want to give their social security number necessarily online or by phone, which is understandable and consumers should be cautious about that. 
	
	So it’s probably for those that are working with populations and providing support -- educators or coaches or other intermediaries -- definitely helping them to be pointed to reputable locations to gather this information would be very important to protecting their security as well. 

	Okay. So moving from the sentiment that we saw there I wanted to point to a couple of the Bureau’s resources that are there for you to take note of. And the links to these sites are at the bottom but most of them are if you go to the portal and look under practitioner resources and adult education you can get to this information I’m showing you fairly quickly. 

	So we have a portal window that just talks generally about credit reports and scores and talks a lot about some of the things I’ve mentioned about why scores are different and how to better understand your score. There’s actually a graphic where you can look at a credit report and look at the different parts and see an explanation. So there’s a lot of very helpful tools online for this that we’d encourage you to look at. 

	We also have a resource for where to find free access to credit scores. This came from another RFI that we issued asking those who provide free credit scores and reports to consumers to please provide their names and information and then we did some vetting and we came up with a list and also there’s an online directory and document that are available. So if anybody’s having difficulty or they don’t want to go to maybe the obvious sources that you see a lot in the news -- want to find some alternatives or see advertised -- then you can find a list on our Web site. And the Web page is below. 

	But again, you can do a search on free access to credit score on our page and that’s an easy way to find it if you don’t want to mark those. 

	We do have a pretty strong write up on the differences between credit scores. It talks about why you may see slightly different numbers and that the timing can make a difference obviously. A credit score is not a static number. It’s constantly changing and it’s impacted by what’s happened in the last 30 to 90 days. And it also talks about different credit scoring models. 

	And the credit scoring algorithms and models are still proprietary information by those companies that provide them. So, you know, you’d have to go to the actual company to get the exact score the way it is. And that’s why some of the free credit organizations actually have, you know, slight variations -- because the credit reporting agencies are also frequently changing their method of doing their algorithms in an effort to what they’ll say improve the credit scoring. 

	And that kind of leads us to I think we had a question earlier about ultra FICO credit scores. And FICO has a pretty robust website that talks about it. So if you’re interested, you can go to FICO and look it up. 

	But essentially they’ve come out with a new ultra FICO score. And what the score does is it allows consumers to link their bank account and even savings accounts and I believe retirement accounts as well to their credit report and credit score. And that is something that obviously is going to be beneficial for people that have strong, you know, positive behavior in their banking accounts. But at the same time it’ll probably be not so beneficial to those that don’t. 

	What it looks at at a high level is evidence of saving and keeping a healthy average balance and maintaining an account over time as well as avoiding negative balances and overdraft and also how regularly you pay your bills. 

	There’s been a lot of press this week about it because it’s new and just came out. And you’re seeing basically two sides of people. A lot of people are supporting it and saying it’s a wonderful thing because it’s going to give others that may not have been able to have a credit score the ability to be scored. So in that way it’s beneficial. 

	But there’s also concerns from consumers and industry as well around privacy data. When you’re linking your banking account and people can see everything that you buy and all of your consumer behaviors, that is giving a lot more information as well. 

	So it’s something that, you know, you have a choice to do. It’s not something that’s mandatory. So, you know, there’s still some control there. But that is something that you know, we’ll probably keep a watch on. It might be worth doing a separate session on different credit scores and models at some point in the future. So if that’s something that’s of interest, please let us know. 

	Okay. So that takes us to the final resources page. And we’ve kind of touched on a lot of the resources in our adult education page but there’s quite a bit there on credit that we didn’t necessarily discuss. So definitely take a look at that if that’s something you’re interested in. 

	Of course, you can always sign up for the exchange by using the second Web address email address here for the FinEx exchange. Most of you hopefully are members but if you’re not, please sign up and you get notification of all events and resources that are coming up. 

	And then don’t forget our LinkedIn group. We’re trying to work to make it a little bit more robust discussions there. so if you haven’t had a chance to visit that, please do. And we’re also open to suggestions on that if you have some ideas for it. 

	And then our full RFI regarding the information I provided you on free credit scores is going to be found at the last Web site address that’s on this slide. And also you might also be interested in knowing that we’ll probably be putting out some additional information about the responses on that as well shortly. So stay tuned for that. 

	Okay. So we do have some questions. And Operator, I think we’re prepared to open for questions now. And while you’re opening the - Operator did you want to announce how the participants should provide their questions if they want to do it orally?

Coordinator:	Yes, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you’d like to ask a question or make a comment from the phones, it is star 1. Make sure your phone is unmuted and record your name to introduce your question. And to withdraw that request you may press star 2. Once again for a question or comment from the phones, press star 1 and record your name. And I’ll stand by for questions or comments. 

Heather Brown:	Thank you. And while we’re waiting for some of the telephone questions to queue up, I’d like to try to address some of the questions that we’ve already gotten. Let’s see. Someone has asked about they had a credit card stolen. It wasn’t their card. Their local police department had them file a report with IC3.gov and they asked if we were familiar with that and should this person had done it elsewhere. 

	Lisa, I’m not familiar with that Web site. Is that something you can address? Or are you…

((Crosstalk))

Lisa Schifferle:	Sure. IC3.gov is the Internet Crime Complaint Center. And it is a reputable place to report online crimes. We refer people there. 

	I would encourage the person to also go to identitytheft.gov because that IC3 complaint as far as I know will be used mainly for criminal law enforcement purposes. So you know, if they decide to prosecute someone who stole the credit card but it doesn’t really help the individual clean up their own particular situation that may have resulted from the misuse of the credit card. And that’s where identitytheft.gov can be helpful.  		

Heather Brown:	Excellent. Thank you so much. Another question that someone’s insurance company uses their credit history to determine their premium. How will that work if they freeze their credit report? 

	My understanding is that you would if you know that people are going to be checking your credit at the time like you’re applying for a loan or you’re applying for new insurance, that you’re going to request for your freeze to be taken off temporarily until they have a chance to check it and then you can put it back on again. Is that correct, Lisa?

Lisa Schifferle:	Right, exactly. When you go to lift your freeze, you can either lift it permanently or you can lift it for a period of time like a week or a month or three days -- however long you think it might be needed for the person you know who’s going to check your credit to check it. 

Heather Brown:	Okay. And I haven’t forgotten about those on the line. I’m just going to get through a couple more of these and then we’ll come right back to you. 

	There’s a question about opting out of offers. I think they may have been referring to Lisa you mentioned in your presentation that the service members could opt out automatically opted out for two years if they put a service member hold. 

Lisa Schifferle:	Correct. But other people can opt out as well. There’s a Web site optoutprescreen.com where you can go to opt out of prescreened credit offers. And the credit reporting agencies are supposed to include that information on their Web pages about freezes and fraud alerts as well. So you should be able to get to it through those three Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion main credit help pages that are available at identitytheft.gov/creditbureaucontact.

Heather Brown:	Okay. Someone else on line was saying that they tried to use the optoutprescreen.com but it never worked. It kept saying zip and state not proper format. Hopefully there’s a Web master or some email place to report problems on that page so that they can resolve it. It might be a browser issue. I’m not sure if you tried to use different browsers. Does anyone else Irene or Lisa have any suggestions for the individual that asked the question? 

Lisa Schifferle:	No. Those seem like good suggestions. 

Irene Skricki:	Yes, I agree.

Heather Brown:	Okay. Sounds good. All right. Operator do we have any questions on the calls?

Coordinator:	Yes we do. We have a question or comment coming from (Lisa Sloven). Your line is open. 

(Lisa Sloven):	Hi. Thanks. I have two questions. One is regarding freezing the credit of a minor, to my understanding at this point the way you have to do it is you have to mail in copies of the child’s birth certificate and the parent’s driver’s license. And in this day and age, it just seems really not secure	method to me. 

	So I wanted to know is there any other way to freeze the credit of a minor, like to do it in person somewhere or a secure portal.

Lisa Schifferle:	That’s a great question. We have heard a lot of people asking that since the new law took effect. Right now, the only way I know of is to do it by mail. So we’re encouraging people to take the documents directly to the post office and send them by certified mail return receipt so they can track it and so that it’s not just sitting out in a mailbox or someplace else that it could be taken from. 

	But certainly we have heard that people are looking for this type of secure portal. And while the law just says that the credit reporting agencies have to do the freezes and setup these Web pages, it does not mandate how they have to take the information. So we have certainly heard that and can talk to the credit reporting agencies about it to see if they would be willing to set up a secure portal. 

	Now of course, secure portals are only as secure as someone’s data security. So they can be breached, too. 

(Lisa Sloven):	You mind if I ask another question?  

Lisa Schifferle:	Yes. I mean no, I don’t mind. Go ahead. Sorry.

(Lisa Sloven):	Okay. Great. Thank you so much. If a person has already placed a credit freeze with all of the credit reporting agencies -- including Innovis -- does that person then also need to set up an account at socialsecurity.gov to prevent a fraudster from potentially trying to open an account? Does a credit freeze prevent this from being able to happen? 

Lisa Schifferle:	That’s another great question. It does not prevent that from being able to happen. The credit freeze only restricts access to the ability to open new credit but it doesn’t protect things like your social security account. It doesn’t protect you from tax ID theft. Doesn’t protect you from medical ID theft or social media account takeover. So it’s not a panacea for identity theft. It does help with the credit related identity theft but yes, if you want to try to protect against other types of identity theft, you’ll need to take additional precautions because a credit freeze doesn’t protect against everything and doesn’t protect against those non-credit related account takeovers. 

(Lisa Sloven):	Thank you.   

Coordinator:	Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from (Nancy Smith). Your line is open. 

(Nancy Smith):	Hi. You’ve given us a lot of great resources. We’ve been directing customers to Credit Karma. And I just wanted to know what you thought about that to look at their credit and monitor. 

Heather Brown:	Well this is Heather. I can tell you what, you know, we saw from all the respondents because I actually don’t use it myself. I use it - I monitor through another tool. 

	But people had a lot of good things to say about Credit Karma. But I believe they use Advantage Educational Score so it often is not the exact score. So the only sort of negative things we heard about it was that it wasn’t, you know, a close score. And also that of course they try to market. And some people were very put off by the amount of marketing. But I think, you know, it always has to - if you’re getting something, you usually have to give something. 

	But other than that, there weren’t a lot of negative comments. The most, you know, I think people were just disappointed often that it was very different from what actually happened. So it didn’t help them with maybe they were having a goal of going to get a particular loan and thought they were okay. And in many cases, people felt it was higher. But that’s not statistically proven or anything. It’s just what the impression is from the comment. 

	So I hope that helps answer your question. 

(Nancy Smith):	Yes. Thank you.    

Lisa Schifferle:	And just to add to that, I do encourage consumers and financial counselors when they’re thinking about a company like Credit Karma or Life Lock or others to check whether the FTC or CFPB has already sued them and settled charges with them. 

	For example, Credit Karma the FTC did settle a case with them alleging that they did deceive consumers by failing to securely transmit sensitive personal information. So…

(Nancy Smith):	Right. 	

Lisa Schifferle:	…that’s something people may want to take into account when they decide whether to use a company like that. 

(Nancy Smith):	Okay. Thank you. 

Heather Brown:	Thank you, Lisa. 

Coordinator:	Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from (Mary Jane Locke). Your line is open. 

(Mary Jane Locke): How do we download the slides? 

Heather Brown:	If you send an email to the CFPB FinEx box -- which is the number two sort of bullet here without a bullet -- and ask for a copy of the slides, we will send them to you. 

	Operator are there any other questions? 

Coordinator:	Yes. Our next question or comment comes from (Jeff Moore). Your line is open. 

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. I too think that there’s some (unintelligible). That’s awesome. I had several questions. So if this is due to (unintelligible) under the Isaac Fair Credit Act under the new updated version was that a rewrite, update, upgrade? And (unintelligible) the DMV? That’s one question. 

	And then on (unintelligible) June 20th was victimized at a work site. (Unintelligible) as well as stolen identity. So one of the things that I am showing folks and Verizon recommended to follow the process. And so I’m putting a direct freeze on both my personal as well as business. 

	So we also provided an absolutely stolen identity according to electronic tracking…  

Heather Brown:	Excuse me. Can I interrupt you just a second? It sounds like you have some good questions. One, I’m having trouble hearing you. You’re in and out a bit. And two, it sounds like some of the questions are related to personal situations that you’re encountering. So I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind emailing your questions to CFPB FinEx and I can follow up with you or maybe put you in touch with one of our coaches or something so that we don’t, you know. 

	Because one, I didn’t really get the first question at all and the second one sounded like it was individual. So could you do that for us?

(Jeff Moore):	Actually it’s individual as well as business wise. 

Heather Brown:	Okay. So repeat the question… 

((Crosstalk))

Heather Brown:	…business quickly though because we want to get some other questions in, please. 

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. So under the new updated (unintelligible) the new law allows for more educational and as well as enforcement protection. In my situation I was able to get a credit freeze and at the same time of course that credit freeze did not have no idea that it’s affect my personal for 60 days in terms of us carrying on business as usual, so to speak. 

	So that’s - I hope you heard me.  

Heather Brown:	It sounds like you were saying that you didn’t realize the credit freeze was going to impact your ability to do business in other areas. Is that correct?

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. That’s correct. 

Heather Brown:	Okay. 

(Jeff Moore):	On identity…

((Crosstalk))	

Heather Brown:	So I think the challenge is that once you freeze it, no one can check your credit without you lifting that. So if you freeze it and then you apply for loans, then it will have a negative impact on you trying to get those loans because they don’t know whether someone, you know, whether you authorized it or not. 

	So it’s really important if you have a freeze that you remember anytime you apply for a loan or anytime someone’s going to check your credit -- maybe it’s a job background check or anytime you’ve been notified or given someone permission to do that -- then you want to make sure that you lift the freeze. 

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. 

((Crosstalk))		

Heather Brown:	Operator, are there any other questions? 

Coordinator:	Yes. Our next question or comment comes from (Kelly Springer). Your line is open. 

(Kelly Springer):	Hi. Hello. So two quick ones if I can. Touching following up on the Credit Karma apps, how do you folks feel about apps in relation to this, number one? And then number two, has there been any update as far as the Equifax breach which had occurred and impacted half the nation? Thank you. 

((Crosstalk))	

Heather Brown:	Good question. Lisa do you want to take that one over something that I don’t really know that I have a good answer for but I can give it a shot if you don’t. 	

Lisa Schifferle:	Well I was just going to say in terms of the Equifax breach, we can’t speak to that now because it’s currently a case under investigation. In terms of apps, that’s going to depend on the security features of the app and also how you’re using the app. If you’re using it over public Wi-Fi, my concern with apps is that people often use mobile devices in settings that are not the most secure settings and then if they’re transmitting personal or financial information over public Wi-Fi that’s a danger. And that’s more likely to happen with apps than otherwise. 

	But apps are not necessarily per se bad as long as they’re used securely and they have good security protocols themselves. Does anyone…  

Heather Brown:	Thanks, Lisa.

Lisa Schifferle:	Do you want to add to that? 

Heather Brown:	Yes. I would say that also reading carefully the agreements for anything you’re doing online is important. I think sometimes we just get in the habit of clicking through things. But a lot of times they will - I mean they have to by law tell you. And a lot of times if you read the details you’ll see that you’ve agreed to, you know, sell your information, give it to other people -- all kinds of things. 

	So it’s really important to take the time to read those things and make sure it’s something that you want to commit to before you agree to it and put, you know, because it can be contractual so. 

(Kelly Springer):	Thank you. 

Heather Brown:	Operator, are there any other questions on the phone?

Coordinator:	Yes, we do have more questions. Our next question or comment is from (Beth Hanes). Your line is open. 

(Beth Hanes):	Hi, yes. I just don’t have access to the slides right now, the visual. Can you please repeat the email address that I would need to send a request to receive the slides?

Heather Brown:	Sure. And I’ll put it - you don’t have the chat either probably. 

(Beth Hanes):	I don’t.

Heather Brown:	CFPB_FinEx F-I-N-E-X at CFPB dot gov. 

(Beth Hanes):	Thank you.

Heather Brown:	Yes. 

Coordinator:	Thank you. Our next question or comment come from (Joseph Warner). Your line is open. 

(Joseph Warner):	Thank you very much for the good information. A question for Lisa -- I’m not online. I’m just on the phone. Did you say that I can freeze my credit by calling just one bureau and they’ll notify the other two? Or do I have to notify each one? 

Lisa Schifferle:	You have to notify each one. It’s for the fraud alert that I said you can just call one or contact one online and they notify…

((Crosstalk))

(Joseph Warner):	The fraud alert, okay. I understand now. Fraud alert just you can do that. But credit freeze you have to call each one then. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.  

Lisa Schifferle:	Sure. You’re welcome. Are there other questions on the line?

Coordinator:	We have one other question. We have another question from (Jeff Moore). Your line is open. 

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. On the ultra FICO does it have - of course I know FICO has it. Do you have a little bit more explanation in terms of - I’m also speaking as a business credit because I’m also looking to provide information so as long I get in gear? And I understand that the banks and other financial institutions are unless it’s educational they’re not too happy about educating the consumers. Is that my understanding? 

Heather Brown:	No. I don’t think that they are going to - not necessarily. I mean, a lot of banks have people that are dedicated to educating consumers. But, you know, they are for-profit businesses. So but I think it’s important to note that they realize that, you know, consumers want more transparency so there’s a lot of pressure moving in that direction and it’s helping business. 
	
	In fact, the JD Power and Associates study for this past year showed that consumers really liked their credit cards when they had access to free credit scores and credit information. So that helped with their, you know, brand loyalty for credit cards. 

(Jeff Moore):	Yes. 

Heather Brown:	So I hope that answers your question. I still wasn’t able to hear the first part of it, but I feel like that answers your question. 

(Jeff Moore):	Actually the limitations from the consumer on the business side, is that usually across the board ten years or better? 

((Crosstalk))

Lisa Schifferle:	That’s going to vary based on state law. I’m not sure what statute of limitations you’re referring to but that’s usually governed by state law. So you should confer with someone in your state. 

(Jeff Moore):	Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. 

((Crosstalk))	

Lisa Schifferle:	Operator do we have other questions?

Heather Brown:	It looks like we’re right at 3:00 too. So I know that, you know, that was our official time to end. You know, I think that maybe we can stick around, ask a few more questions if people want. But how many more questions are on the line, Operator? 

Coordinator:	We have one other question that just queued up from (Lisa Sloven). And her line is open. 

(Lisa Sloven):	Thank you. Just one other quick question. Do you have any thoughts on doing a freeze at the National Consumer Telecommunications and Utilities Exchange that checks credit for people who are applying for mobile providers? 	

Lisa Schifferle:	I mean, certainly if someone’s concerned that their credit may be misused to open a mobile account, it’s certainly worthwhile freezing the credit there too. They just have to remember to unfreeze it there when they are looking for any sort of credit that that entity might be checking credit for as well. 

(Lisa Sloven):	Thank you. 

Coordinator:	Thank you. And that was our last question or comment at this time. 

Heather Brown:	Thank you so much, (Carolyn). Everyone, thank you so much for being engaged participants and there’s probably much more we can say and more questions we could take. I’m sure we’ll be doing some more webinars on related topics. 

	But, appreciate your time today and we’ll definitely let you know the next date coming up for our next webinar. So thanks again and everybody have a great afternoon. 

Coordinator:	That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time. 


END
NWX-CFPB HQ
Moderator: Heather Brown 
10-24-18/12:30 pm CT
Confirmation # 8216343 
Page 1