Florida’s new law will be very similar to California’s existing law. It will allow any resident of the state to freeze their credit file for any reason. By freezing their credit file, consumers lock out snooping marketers and they nearly eliminate the possibility of becoming victims of identity theft.

As in California, consumers who want to freeze their credit will be required to pay a fee of $10 to each of the national credit reporting agencies (CRAs). A freeze can be lifted by the consumer through the use of a PIN number. Freezes can be lifted to allow a specific merchant to run a credit check, or they can be lifted for a specific period of time to allow any merchant to run a credit check.

But according to the Florida Banking Association, credit freeze laws only hurt consumers. Anthony Dimarco, a vice president with the association said that many consumers may not realize how "inconvenient" a freeze on their credit files may be. "My biggest concern is if a consumer signs up for a freeze, then goes shopping at a department store and wants to get instant credit approval to buy something," he said. "Suddenly, reality raises its head. You can't unfreeze your credit instantaneously. The person may realize that's not really what they want."

What Dimarco failed to mention was that any consumer who finds that a credit freeze is too inconvenient for their lifestyle can permanently have it lifted at no charge, at any time.

Bowen’s goal is to make credit freezes considerably more convenient to consumers without inconveniencing them. Her new bill is very similar to proposals that have already been signed into law in Utah and New Jersey. As with these other laws, California would give the CRAs two years to develop and implement the appropriate technology for the instant lifting of credit freezes. The law, along with those of the other two states would go into effect in 2008.

But the CRAs and the financial service industry are adamantly opposed to both state-regulated credit freeze laws and data breach notification laws. Banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, and many other financial industry business groups are lobbying heavily to have Congress setup a national standard for both credit freezes and data breach notification. Based on the proposals that Congress is currently considering, if any of the proposed national laws passes, consumers will be in trouble.

Most of the laws being considered would set a very weak national standard for data breach notification. This type of law forces companies that store consumer data to notify consumers when that data is accessed and could lead to identity theft. Several states have passed very strict laws which require consumers to be notified without exception when their data is inappropriately accessed or displayed.

Under the proposed federal standard, companies could make a decision about whether the breach was likely to lead to identity theft. If they determine that ID theft is not likely, they don’t have to notify consumers. If they make this determination and they are wrong, they don’t face any penalties.

The federal proposals for credit freezes would set a similar week standard. They would limit the ability of people to freeze their credit file to those who had already become a victim of identity theft. The rest of us would be out of luck.

These federal proposals on both credit freezes and data breach notification would supersede any existing state laws; thus gutting them.

The real reason that the CRAs and other members of the financial services industry don’t want to allow consumers to freeze their credit file is simple. It all boils down to money. Your credit information is valuable. It is frequently used by marketing companies to target you for "special offers" – the stuff that most of us refer to as "junk mail" or "SPAM".

And in order to keep you from freezing your credit file, they are spending big dollars on lobbing efforts. They are trying to give you the best congressmen and senators that their money can buy!

Fortunately, as the mid-term congressional elections grow closer, it becomes less and less likely that this type of legislation will pass. But the threat is still there. ACCESS urges Congress to set a minimum federal standard for both credit freezes and data breach laws. Such a standard should leave in place any existing laws that are stronger than the federal standard, and allow each of the states to make regulatory law that is in the best interests of their citizens.