I’m sure you’ve all seen the commercials for FreeCreditReport.com, with the irritating guy who says “I’m thinking of a number between 350 and 850… it’s my credit score, and mine happens to be 720.” Blah blah blah.
I’ve maintained the opinion that it can’t just be a free report, because the ad spots cost money and they’re everywhere. This week, I decided to find out what the catch is. It’s a service for $12.95 per month that gives you your Experian credit report. The only thing that’s free is the first month, and you have to sign up in order to get the free report. By the time you’ve gotten your “free” credit report, you’re locked into a $150/yr service.
But wait! Experian is only one of three credit reporting agencies. What if you want all three? Well, then you have to upgrade to their premium service, which costs $24.95. Wow! Can you imagine how many people must go there hoping for a free credit report, only to get locked into a ridiculously overpriced information service for $300.00 per year?
The site is littered with advertisements for credit cards, home loans, and debt consolidation services, which — in my opion — reveals the true nature of the people behind freecreditreport.com. It may not be illegal, but it’s awfully immoral.
When you decide to cancel, you’ll find no hints at how. That’s because they don’t let you cancel from the web site — even though you can join there. The only place you’ll even find the word “cancel” on their site is one time, hidden in the middle of the FAQs (thank you for text search, Firefox) that says you have to call them to cancel. At least it’s a toll-free number.
When you call, you’ll likely get the message informing you that they’re only available from 6am to 6pm, Monday through Friday, Pacific Standard Time. The touch-tone menu offers cancellations as the first option, which apparently directs you to their sales staff.
After indicating that you want to cancel, they first try to talk you into staying for the benefits they offer. Next, they offer to add additional (and mostly useless) services to your account. Then, if you still want to cancel, they actually try to bribe you! I was offered $30.00 if I would agree to keep the account open for two more months.
Only then — after you turn down their bribe — will they finally cancel your account. The whole thing makes me very nervous, honestly. I wonder if something weird is going to suddenly appear on my credit now that I’m not paying them to monitor it.
If you want a real free credit report, go to AnnualCreditReport.com, where you get reports from all three agencies, and they really are free.
April 7th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Just another way “financial agencies” try to screw people who are already too poor to make ends meet! This is the exact MO used by those “secured” credit cards for people with bad credit - by the time they have added up all their charges and fees, your first bill is $300, and you haven’t even charged anything. It’s a vicious cycle of poverty.
This is also exactly what Sprint, my cell carrier did to me - they overcharged me, admitted their mistake, said I could have a free service for a month, I said I didn’t want it, they said they were adding it, they added TWO services (w/o my consent) and then CHARGED me for them! Also no way to cancel via website - had to go through their heinous phone system. Jeeeez!