It's a little nuts that we can't just get our *own* credit for free whenever we want it. Yeah, yeah, some will respond that it's a market and those who have collected the information have done so as a service, and it's all communist to demand that they give it out for free. But, the truth is, these companies (and they are few) have tremendous power over us, government-like power over us. And identity theft does happen.

If somebody is the sort who thinks that police service or firefighting service is something that should be paid for on either a contract or a per-service basis, then I will excuse you for thinking that it's reasonable that these companies don't have to tell us our own credit history whenever the heck we want to hear it, because you are at least consistent. Otherwise, these companies are acting as a de facto renegade government that controls the financial identity of everybody in this country. They make plenty of money selling our credit history to those who want to check it; regulate the heck out of them to let us verify our own credit whenever we please without fee.