I used them once to get a look at a “free” credit report. But it also signed me up for a $14.95/month credit monitoring service.
I called them in August to cancel, and I quit using the credit card that I gave them the number for. But I just found out the $100 emergency money I had on it is all but gone, because my cancellation didn’t go thru, and they’ve charged $14.95 every month since.
Free Credit Report my ass!
annualcreditreport.com is the real free credit report website.
The one with “free” in it and all the commercials is to be avoided.
The cancellation went through the same way bad food goes through.
I’m reluctant to bring this up, but freecreditreport.com is, and always has been, a scam. Sure, you get what you want, but then you get whacked with the fees if you miss the part about canceling the credit monitoring service.
The website you want to go to, the ONLY website you want to go to, is annualcreditreport.com. Bookmark it, write it in bold letters, whatever. Experian depends upon confusion between the two to suck people in.
You won’t get a credit score from anywhere for free. Just a credit report. And then only from annualcreditreport.com and only once per year.
The part about the credit score is correct, but the other part is not strictly speaking true. There are three reporting agencies, and you are entitled to a report from each one every 12 months. If you go to annualcreditreport.com and stagger your requests, you can get one every 4 months. They’re all a little bit different because of who reports to the companies, but they’ll be a fair representation of your credit at least.
The conservatives won’t be happy with this suggestion, but I’d love to see a law that anything that has “free” as part of the advertising must provide that good or service for free. Not “free with purchase” or even “free and you have to decline to sign up” but FREE, no strings attached. Anything labeled as free must actually be free. There can be restrictions such as “one per person” or “one per person per month”, for instance, but the good or service cannot be connected with any sort of charge or fee.
I see advertisements that say that this or that product is “free with purchase”. That’s not free. It’s a bonus, it’s not free, the price of the product has been added to the price of the required purchase. Anyone who asked for the free product would not be able to get it without forking over some money for the purchase. It’s just a marketing ploy.
I agree with Lynn, with one point of difference. I think most people realize that “free with purchase of…” offers mean something different from “free”: “If you send us $19.95 for Product X, you will also get supplemental Product Y at no additional charge.” IMO that is clear enough in “free with purchase” to warrant an exception.
But on her main point – if someone claims to be offering something for free, they should be held to what they claim – I agree in full. Lurking legislators and legislative aides?
Not only are they a scam, but they have the most irritating music of any commercial. I’m so glad my remote has a “mute” button.
Just fyi, if you ever get denied when applying for credit you can write to the bureau that they pulled and request a copy of your credit report for free.
Yes, I think that most people realize it. I just would love to stop the practice, and have something that’s labeled free actually be free. I want free to have a specific meaning by law. If it’s a bonus, or an added value, then that’s what they should say. But free should mean free.
Esp. the most recent ones-like the attempt to mime a “punk” sound (quoted word used very loosely here).
The second a “free” site asks me for my credit card number, I become suspicious. Usually, upon further reading of the fine print, my suspicions are realized.
In this timely story from just a few days ago, there’s a class action suit currently underway against Experian (the people behind FreeCreditReport.com) for deceptive business practices.
The FTC has tried slapping Experian down in the past for these ads, and has issued about $1 million in fines, but Experian makes so much money from FreeCreditReport.com that it just pays the fines and carries on. The last time i read about this, Experian was raking in about twice as much as its three biggest competitors combined in the credit reporting business, and almost all of it comes from FreeCreditReport.com.
The FTC recently solicited input from the public about how to improve their own real free credit report site, AnnualCreditReport.com, and also about how to rein in the scammers. They are required to issue new rules on this matter by February 22. Here’s what they’re trying to do:
If you’ve got a bunch of time on your hands, you can read the full explanation of the laws, and the proposed changes, here (50-page PDF).
And when you request a score, be sure it is the Fair-Isaac/FICO score:
You already have good advice where to go for truly free credit reports (once a year or so) and I agree that freecreditreport. com is a “scam” and I don’t want to sound condescending or anything here, but it is a scam that is easily avoided.
Their commercials are all kinds of misleading with their little jingles and such, but there is the voiceover at the end saying “offer includes enrollment in triple advantage” and it is also printed (albeit in tiny letters) on the bottom of the screen, and I can’t imagine that it isn’t also on the website where you sign up…wait one second…
Here it is on the screen before you enter your information:
Were it me, I would fight the charges where they charged after you canceled…that is definitely a scam…and pay more attention to whom and for what you give your credit card numbers.
Until we have a law (as suggested above and with which I fully agree) that anything offering something “free” should be held to that, it is the only real way to protect yourself from such business practices.
Actually, it’s more like:
“offerincludesenrollmentintripleadvantage.”
For 20 minutes.
I like their commercials. I love the one about the Renaisance (sp?) fair. Everytime that one comes on I have stop what I am doing and just enjoy the moment. I keep hoping they will do one based on a star trek or scifi convention.
The triple irony that you could end up with bad credit by not paying a credit reporting company for their credit reports is funny to me. No more credit for you, you go now!
Just think of your lost money as paying for advertising enterainment for silly, shallow, bad people like me.
Good luck.
What does this mean, the cancellation didn’t go through? If you cancelled it, it’s cancelled, right? And if they kept charging you anyway, seems like you might have a case against them for something or another.