State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, R-Morris, is sponsoring legislation to allow Jersey residents to take three free looks at their credit reports each year.

He says with the storm of concern over recent hackings and ID theft stories, Jersey consumers should be permitted more than one peek at their report each year.

Currently, New Jersey state law only allows for checking your credit report for free once annually.

"Our most sensitive financial information is held in massive online databases that we're promised are secure," said Pennacchio. "Too often, however, we've found that the financial institutions and retailers that we trusted weren't able to keep our private information safe. Their repeated failures have put virtually every American at risk for credit fraud and identity theft. We need to give people the tools to fight back."

Pennacchio says his bill is a compromise.

"If it was up to the myself and the constituents, I would say do it for nothing, and do it all year round," he said. "Empower us, for crying out loud. Do not charge us, especially in the wake of what just happened to Equifax. They should be bending over. We should not even need legislation to do this."

Pennacchio adds that that the limit could be increased in the future.

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