The High Cost of a 'Free Credit Report'

Posted by ArmadaIG under Finance
From http://www.nytimes.com 5739 days ago
Made Hot by: on August 9, 2008 3:00 pm

Kris Steele used FreeCreditReport.com check on his credit, but a couple of months later, Mr. Steele noticed the site had been charging his credit card. While he believed he had signed up for a free report, he had actually enrolled in a credit-monitoring service that cost $14.95 a month. He says he never expected that it would cost anything.

Consumer groups have long objected to sites like FreeCreditReport.com. Consumers may obtain a free credit report each year from the three major agencies, as mandated by an act that Congress passed in 2003. The only authorized site for that is AnnualCreditReport.com.

The three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, are required to offer reports through the authorized AnnualCreditReport.com, but the bureaus also make money from their own credit reports.

Experian, which owns FreeCreditReport.com, increased both its site visitors and new member sign-ups by 20 percent in 2007. The company attributes those increases to its catchy ads.

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Comments

Written by emd5005
5739 days ago

I really wish there was a comment section on the page the article appears on- thanks so much for submitting this article. It's fascinating.

I was aware that freecreditreport.com wasn't exactly, "free" but didn't know how they got you. It's one of those annoying programs that say "sign up and we'll send you this stuff for free, but we'll start charging you monthly unless you cancel." We all forget to cancel, and don't have the option to say "i'll take the free stuff but I don't want to be charged" up front- so we get charged for that first month, when we realize it happened and we finally cancel.

I wonder what the cancellation percentage is at that time period.

Can you imagine working at THAT customer service department? You'd get call after call of "why are you charging me." If your customer doesn't know why they are being charged. Then you ARE DECEIVING them, plain and simple. It doesn't matter if its "legal" or not.

I hate how they say they are targeting younger individuals, as well. Why do you think their targeting that age? They're comfortable online- giving their credit card number is no big deal, and they don't read the small print. They probably haven't gotten fooled with these tactics before so they're likely to be less cautious and not read the small print.

Just bad business is what it is.

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