TRW to Provide Free Credit Reports : * Personal finances: Consumers will be able to obtain the documents upon request starting next week.

ORANGE —  TRW Inc. will begin next week its long-awaited program to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit report upon request.

“We’re encouraging consumers to take advantage of it when it will benefit them the most-- prior to a major purchase,” TRW spokeswoman Susan Murdy said. “It will help consumers understand our role in the credit granting process.”

TRW announced last October that it would become the first of the nation’s three major credit bureaus to offer free reports. The offer came as the company was combatting unrelenting criticism from consumer groups about widespread errors, alleged privacy breaches and mismanagement of the records it maintains on the spending habits of 170 million Americans.

At the time, it appeared likely that Congress would pass a law to require all credit bureaus to offer the free reports. That threat, however, has since waned, and TRW’s major competitors, Equifax Inc. in Atlanta and Trans Union Corp. of Chicago, plan to follow suit.

Still, TRW’s free report offer is the latest sign of how credit bureaus are suddenly competing to appear the most consumer friendly after years of focusing their efforts primarily on their customers for consumer credit information--car dealers, department stores and other lenders.

TRW’s Information Services division, based in Orange, had always charged the public $15 for credit reports, except in states such as California that require reduced rates. TRW cut the fee to $7.50 earlier this year as part of a settlement to lawsuits brought by more than a dozen states’ attorneys general seeking to reform the company’s credit bureau practices.

The company said it has no idea how many people will accept its offer for a free report. Last year, it said it had 2 million requests for reports, most of them from consumers who were denied credit and wanted to find out why.

The free report will be available nationwide only in writing and only at this address: TRW Consumer Assistance, P.O. Box 2350, Chatsworth, Calif., 91313-2350. The request should be made on plain paper or stationery--an attempt by TRW to weed out requests from the credit repair clinics that the credit bureaus so despise.

Consumers need to furnish TRW with their full name, current and previous addresses, Social Security number, year of birth and spouse’s first name. The company is also requiring for the first time that consumers supply a photocopy of their driver’s license, a utility bill or another official document to link their name with their address. TRW, or the other major bureaus, have never asked for copies of such documents in the past in order to receive a report.

Consumer group representatives said that while the step of providing identifying documents will add an additional chore to the process of obtaining a report, they agree that it could help protect privacy.