Anyone who knows us knows that one of the most critical things you can do to manage your personal finances is to check your credit report once a year.

For years, we have been recommending www.annualcreditreport.com as the easy source to get a free credit report each year to confirm that all the information in it is accurate.

But no more! At least not until some serious changes to the site are made.

Why? Because after revealing some very private personal information, you are forced to navigate through a bevy of paid credit services BEFORE you can receive your free report.

Typical. A site that is supposed to be a service to consumers is really just a way to shill paid credit services.

We're not the only ones upset. The Federal Trade Commission has been receiving a lot of complaints that they are now asking for consumer comments regarding how to make the site more user-friendly.

The FTC is now proposing (where has it been all this time?) safety measures to help prevent identity theft and severely limit the commercial use of this site.

You can read the the text of the Federal Register notice with all of the proposed changes at the FTC.

We just sent in our comments demanding that the FTC remove ALL advertising and marketing messages by the credit bureaus before, during and even after the process of obtaining a free credit report and make www.annualcreditreport.com a COMMERCIAL FREE site.

We urge you to do the same.  You can submit your comments to the FTC electronically.

Comments on paper must be mailed or delivered to:

Federal Trade Commission
Office of the Secretary
Room H-135 (Annex T)
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20580

Comments must be received by Nov. 30.

Read More In: Credit Smarts