I know I can’t be the first person to write about this, but…I finally get up enough nerve to check out my credit rating and I go to the site whose clever jingles have been running through my head for years and what do I find??? It’s not free at all!!! It costs the same as any other credit report service. HOW do they get away with this, and how come no one has made them shut up as far as making this completely false claim?
What you want is www.annualcreditreport.com. They provide free (as in actually free) credit reports, once per year, as mandated by federal law.
Note that that’s the report only. If you want FICO scores you will have to pay for them.
Their claims aren’t false – the fine print in the ads indicate that you get the free credit report if you enroll in their service.
If you want a free credit report, go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com
The real free site is annualcreditreport.com, I think. I’d bet the freecreditreport.com somehow hooks into that functionality, but includes add-on functionality for which they charge you.
Which strikes me as being indistinguishable in practice from saying, “It’s free just as long as you pay for it.”
I understand that the service is distinct from the credit report, and that they’re probably within the letter of the law (has the FTC or other relevant agency looked into them?), but I still find their marketing practices deceptive and distasteful. I believe one of the news programs highlighted their practices a while back–60 Minutes, maybe.
Its pretty scammish, imho. Its like sites that charge you a 10 dollar “downloading fee” to download OpenOffice or some other free software. By law you can view your credit report free once a year. These people are taking advantage of this system and put up misleading ads. Im surprised the FTC hasnt cracked down on them. You can file a complaint with the FTC here:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
You’ll see similar scams that target senior citizens and English as second language speakers, especially mailings that look like checks and in the past telemarketing “deals.”
Freecreditreport.com is run by, and owned by, Experian. It is their direct to consumer service, as opposed to the traditional biz-to-biz model they’ve run. They have been in trouble with the FTC over it and had to more prominently reveal how the subscription works and all that. I believe they reached a settlement.
TransUnion’s similar service is TrueCredit.com.
Equifax just sells their’s as Equifax…at Equifax.com
AnnualCreditReport is maintained by all three mentioned above and was mandated by the Feds and the FTC worked with the three reporting agencies on it.
Everytime I see that commercial I want to take the singer’s guitar and smash it over his puffy-shirted ass. Dammit, now I got that song stuck in my head.
He should have seen that coming…
Like an atom bomb.
IIRC, there is no charge for the first 12 months of service so it is free as long as the service is discontinued within those 12 months.
For a moment, I thought “You Suck” was my free credit report. I mean, I know it’s not perfect but c’mon…
Who wants to bet that there will be a lot of difficulties in ‘discontinuing’ this service?
Rather like AOL or Norton or similar companies.
When I paid for it, it was “no charge for the first (single) month” but it was impossible to get through on the line designated for discontinuing service. You could sign up for it online, but not discontinue it online. And you couldn’t leave a message. They were “experiencing a higher-than-expected volume of calls due to our recent fantastic offer”… for weeks. :mad:
For what it’s worth, I signed up for the free trial a few days ago, and I just cancelled it today with a minimal hold time. It allowed me to get my credit score, in addition to the report, for free.
Well, thank you, my people. I’m still not signing up for it and they still suck.
First clue is that they can afford prime time television advertising. Who is paying for that if the reports are free?
If you apply for credit and are denied you can also get a free copy of every report that, the company that denied you credit used to arrive at that decision.
If you paid by credit card, dispute the charge when the credit card bill comes.
I think mine at this point is a recording of hysterical laughter. As in “You have to be kidding, you want credit??? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!”
I’m working on it, but it’s going to be a while.
They do say indirectly you have to pay at the end of the commercial. It’s real quick, but the announcer says “Free with enrollment in Triple Advantage.”
If it’s just the score you are looking for, Credit Karma is free.