Viewpoint

Here, a monthly perspective from Consumer Reports on the latest challenges—and possible solutions—facing U.S. consumers today. See archived installments of Viewpoint.

20 million

The number of U.S. households each year that are victims of “cramming,” the illegal placement of unauthorized fees on monthly phone bills, the Federal Communications Commission estimates. Consumer Reports is asking Congress to crack down on the practice.

Consumer victory

Where

Washington State

The win

A new law governing consumers’ right to know the reason for increases in health-insurance premiums.

What’s in it for you

Consumers have been in the dark about why their health-insurance rates keep climbing. Weak oversight, little transparency, and a lack of public participation plague a state-by-state system of monitoring rates. But starting this fall, Washington State’s consumers can search rates, post comments, and sign up to get e-mail when their insurance company requests a rate change, at www.insurance.wa.gov/health-rates.shtml.

Guarding your credit score

The issue

Under-the-radar companies use unreliable information to create consumers’ credit scores.

Our take

The three major credit bureaus set scores based on credit-card payments and other obligations. Those scores help lenders and others determine a consumer’s creditworthiness.

But lesser-known companies, dubbed the “fourth bureau,” create credit scores based on data that fall outside the standards used by the major credit bureaus. Those companies may track gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, and other files considered unreliable for determining creditworthiness. Consumers often aren’t aware those files exist, nor do they know how to get errors corrected.

Existing standards for handling credit information don’t cover all the activities of the fourth bureau, and enforcement is spotty.

Consumer Reports believes that Congress and regulators should hold the fourth bureau more accountable. All data brokers should allow consumers to see their records, fix problems, and know when information is being used to make decisions about them.

Quotable

"We’re throwing away 4,000 fingers each year when safer-saw technology exists."

—Sally Greenberg, Executive Director, The National Consumers League Some 40,000 people are injured by table saws each year. New systems can stop a saw blade in a fraction of a second upon contact with skin, but they aren’t required or widely used. Consumer groups want stricter safety standards.

Annual meeting

Please join us at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, for a special 75th Anniversary Annual Meeting at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal, 87 E. 42nd St., New York, NY. An interactive exhibition on Consumer Reports’ past and present will be on display in Vanderbilt Hall Oct. 28-29. For more information, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/
annualmeeting.