FreeCreditReport.com is NOT free
http://www.Printnpost.net/articles/8773/1/FreeCreditReportcom-is-NOT-free/Page1.html
lisa h
i'm a college nerd chick who likes to knit, crochet, look up stuff online and write about it. my survival depends solely on google. my ramblings can go from silly to informative to sarcastic. read on. =P By lisa h
Published on 08/25/2008
"Free Credit Report Dot Com Baby!" We all know the commercials with the dorky guy singing about checking your credit report for free. What we don't know is that it's a scam and apparently has already fooled millions of people.
"Please enter your credit card number."
I think we ought to adopt a general rule of thumb for entering personal or financial information online: if they ask for it, they're going to use it. If you're still trusting, read the fine print.
We've all seen the commercials for freecreditreport.com. My boyfriend and I both tried it. It asked for our credit card numbers and social security numbers. Almost immediately, we had our credit scores. We were happy, we closed out the website, and didn't give it a second thought.
About a month later, we both had a strange charge of $14.95 on our credit card statements. It was especially strange for him because he never even used his credit card. It said it was a company called CIC*Triple Advantage. Who's ever heard of that? So I googled it. Sure enough, there were millions of hits and they all complained of freecreditreport.com and its fine print that states if you don't cancel your account within the first seven days of creating it, you will be charged $14.95 a month. One of the first websites it took me too even gave a number to call and how to argue to get a refund.
I knew this company knew exactly what it was doing when I called the number myself. The very first option on an automated menu was, "to cancel your account, press 1...". It brought me to a live operator who sounded like she was reading straight out of a book. And let me tell you, this book had the answer to everything. She asked what I needed. I said I wanted to cancel my account. She read me a paragraph and asked why. I told her I didn't know I was going to be charged. She immediately bounced back with a paragraph citing three different spots on the website during the sign up process that mention the charge... probably in a size 2 font. I decided against arguing and figured I'd just get the account cancelled and be done with it. So I just "mmhmmed" at her. She then tried to get me to agree to 3 months of being charged $7 a month instead of $15. I repeated again that I just wanted to cancel it. She then tried to tell me that I had just started a new month and I could still check my credit and all that until September something and then I could think about cancelling the account. This was when I started to get a little peeved. I calmly asked her, "do you mean I'd have to call back in September to get it cancelled?" and she said yes. I responded, "No, just cancel it now, I really don't care." And she finally did.
My boyfriend called later that day to cancel his, but he's more of an arguer than I am, so he attempted to have his charges refunded as well. After being point-blank with the operator he reached, he asked to speak to someone about getting a refund. She put him on hold for about 10 minutes and then told him no one was available. He assured her that he would call back.
If you've signed up for freecreditreport.com, check your credit card statement. If there's a $14.95 charge from CIC*Triple Advantage listed, call (877) 481-6826 to cancel your account and/or have it refunded. Tell everyone you know. Stop this company from treating customers unethically.
We've all seen the commercials for freecreditreport.com. My boyfriend and I both tried it. It asked for our credit card numbers and social security numbers. Almost immediately, we had our credit scores. We were happy, we closed out the website, and didn't give it a second thought.
About a month later, we both had a strange charge of $14.95 on our credit card statements. It was especially strange for him because he never even used his credit card. It said it was a company called CIC*Triple Advantage. Who's ever heard of that? So I googled it. Sure enough, there were millions of hits and they all complained of freecreditreport.com and its fine print that states if you don't cancel your account within the first seven days of creating it, you will be charged $14.95 a month. One of the first websites it took me too even gave a number to call and how to argue to get a refund.
I knew this company knew exactly what it was doing when I called the number myself. The very first option on an automated menu was, "to cancel your account, press 1...". It brought me to a live operator who sounded like she was reading straight out of a book. And let me tell you, this book had the answer to everything. She asked what I needed. I said I wanted to cancel my account. She read me a paragraph and asked why. I told her I didn't know I was going to be charged. She immediately bounced back with a paragraph citing three different spots on the website during the sign up process that mention the charge... probably in a size 2 font. I decided against arguing and figured I'd just get the account cancelled and be done with it. So I just "mmhmmed" at her. She then tried to get me to agree to 3 months of being charged $7 a month instead of $15. I repeated again that I just wanted to cancel it. She then tried to tell me that I had just started a new month and I could still check my credit and all that until September something and then I could think about cancelling the account. This was when I started to get a little peeved. I calmly asked her, "do you mean I'd have to call back in September to get it cancelled?" and she said yes. I responded, "No, just cancel it now, I really don't care." And she finally did.
My boyfriend called later that day to cancel his, but he's more of an arguer than I am, so he attempted to have his charges refunded as well. After being point-blank with the operator he reached, he asked to speak to someone about getting a refund. She put him on hold for about 10 minutes and then told him no one was available. He assured her that he would call back.
If you've signed up for freecreditreport.com, check your credit card statement. If there's a $14.95 charge from CIC*Triple Advantage listed, call (877) 481-6826 to cancel your account and/or have it refunded. Tell everyone you know. Stop this company from treating customers unethically.