Hourly Update

House Rules Committee won't hear bills allowing credit freezes

PHOENIX -- A single state legislator is standing between Arizona consumers and their ability to gain some new protections against identity theft. Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, has refused to give a hearing to legislation which would let consumers "freeze" their credit reports. That would prevent unauthorized persons from gaining credit and running up bills on a legitimate consumer's identity. Robson can do that because he chairs the House Rules Committee, through which all bills must pass. He initially told Capitol Media Services he is not against the concept. Instead, he said the legislation needed some corrections -- changes he said cannot be made this year. The biggest, said Robson, is putting an actual dollar figure on what it will cost consumers each time they want to freeze their credit at each of the three credit bureaus, and each time they want to life that freeze to buy something. Robson said the legislation says only that each of the bureaus can charge a "reasonable" fee. Robson, however, gave Sen. Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, a list of objections to her version of the bill, even questioning whether credit freezes actually are good for consumers. And Robson said the fact that this kind of law already is available to residents of more than half the states does not necessarily make it a good idea here. Right now anyone who has an individuals name, date of birth and social security number can apply for instant credit. Retailers normally check the person's creditworthiness through one of three credit bureaus. These bills would, for a fee, let individuals block any credit requests unless credit report was "unfrozen." And that could be done only by the individual calling, writing, e-mailing or faxing the credit bureau with a secret code. There would be a fee for each unfreeze, with another one for re-freezing the report. The legislation does not spell out how much each credit bureau could change, saying only the fee had to be "reasonable." McClure said Robson told her people already can freeze their credit reports. McClure said that is true -- but only for people who have been the victim of fraud or suspect their identity has been stolen. This, said McClure, extends that same protection to everyone. "You have to give them a number" to allow credit in your name, said McClure. "If they don't have that number, they know it's not you." Robson, in written comments to Aguirre, said a new law won't stop all identity theft. Aguirre, however, said more than 26 states already have these kinds of laws. "We're not going to prevent 100 percent identity theft," Aguirre said. "But it's just one more mechanism that consumers will have to avoid that. Robson, in those written comments, did not dispute that a credit freeze can work. "It can be a powerful tool to prevent identity thieves from entering into transactions and stop problems before they occur," he said. But he said it also can hurt individuals. "Just as a credit freeze stops identity thieves, it also can stop consumers," Robson wrote, saying it could delay transactions for several days. Aguirre's legislation, however, requires a freeze to be lifted within 15 minutes of notification, a provision insisted upon by auto dealers.