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Posted on Sun, May. 07, 2006


Credit reports pose language barrier
Spanish speakers can be stymied if assistance needed
BY HARRIET JOHNSON BRACKEY
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - You can do your banking in Spanish, talk to the IRS or ask a counselor to help you with your debts. But if you want to get a free copy of your credit report, it's no habla Espanol.

The system that the major credit bureaus set up for ordering free reports, which is a Web site and a toll free phone line, operate only in English. There are no other languages available for placing your order.

What's more, two of the three major credit bureaus don't make credit reports available in Spanish.

Not having multilingual credit bureau operations goes against the trend of the financial services industry, where Spanish is an option for just about any transaction consumers might want to make from banking to buying investments to deciphering debt.

At Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Palm Beach, Fla., for example, half the staff speaks Spanish and the agency chief would like to find a way to add Creole speakers to the mix. "We really struggle to make sure we are beefed up for that. We are always looking for bilingual staff," said Jessica Cecere, head of the organization.

All consumers are entitled to a free credit report once a year under a recent federal law. Checking that report closely for signs of fraud has become one of the best methods for fighting identity theft, which hits Hispanics more than any other ethnic group, according to a major study on the crime.

They can't access "an effective identity theft fighting tool and a means of promoting financial literacy," according to a letter that Consumers Union, the organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, recently sent to the three major credit bureaus.

Consumers Union has called on Equifax, Trans Union and Experian, the nation's three major credit bureaus, to create a Spanish-language option for ordering free credit reports.

"Experian has looked at Spanish-language reports in the past. It is not a priority right now, although almost certainly we will revisit this in the future," said Experian spokesman Rod Griffin.

"We're maintaining in our database 200 million credit files that are constantly being changed and updated. We do it for the integrity of the system, one language keeps everything as consistent as possible," said David Rubinger, a spokesman for Equifax.

Equifax publishes credit education information in Spanish on its Web site, but it does not publish credit reports in Spanish. Neither does Experian. Trans Union is the only one of the three major bureaus that will publish a report in Spanish, if the customer requests it.

All three major credit bureaus have Spanish-speaking customer service staff, but their staffs don't take orders for free credit reports.

Those have to go through the centralized ordering system.