# Free Credit Report You Suck **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130 "2009-04-06T14:54:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/21 "2009-04-07T02:49:57Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > 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/](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.” If I might add, Equifax is the agency that matters. Experian is a bunch of punks. I had a credit union that ONLY reported on Equifax; one lender made some serious mistakes in their appraisal of my risk profile due to using Equifax only in issuing a $25K unsecured line of credit to me. Way to go, MBNA… loan out $25K to a guy who’s trying to borrow his way out of debt without spending the extra $10 to pull a tri-merge. Seriously, you don’t want to know your Experian number… and last time I paid for my “score” with them they didn’t even give me a FICO, just their proprietary number, where the scale isn’t even related to any of the regular scores. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/22 "2009-04-07T03:54:21Z")
> [@Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](#): > > If it’s just the score you are looking for, [Credit Karma](http://www.creditkarma.com/) is free. CreditKarma is a FAKO (Fake Score) It does not use the scoring model that Fair Issac has created. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/23 "2009-04-07T06:32:53Z")
> [@Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](#): > > If it’s just the score you are looking for, [Credit Karma](http://www.creditkarma.com/) is free. This sounds interesting…But I’m assuming that if I register, I’ll have to give up valuable personal info. To whom is this info being given? ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/24 "2009-04-07T07:06:07Z")
> [@bobo t](#): > > This sounds interesting…But I’m assuming that if I register, I’ll have to give up valuable personal info. To whom is this info being given? They don’t sell your info. They make money by using targeted ads, based on your score. It’s a one way deal, so while they show the ad, the company being advertised doesn’t actually get any info about you unless you give it to them. I’m pretty leery of giving out personal info, but based on everything I read, I signed up several months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/25 "2009-04-07T14:17:04Z")
The Federal Trade Commission came up with a couple of PSAs to promote the [annualcreditreport.com](http://annualcreditreport.com) website and which parody (sort of) the [freecreditreport.com](http://freecreditreport.com) commercials. [Here](http://www.slate.com/id/2215447/) is a Slate magazine article on them. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130/26 "2009-04-07T14:27:28Z")
Here is a link the [FTC.gov](http://FTC.gov) and the PSA’s…and some helpful info and/or links to the issue at hand. > **[Consumer Advice](https://consumer.ftc.gov)** > > The official website of the Federal Trade Commission, protecting America’s consumers for over 100 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-credit-report-you-suck/492130.md?page=1)