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Is FreeCreditReport.com A Scam?
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One of the best financial things you can do for yourself is to regularly check your credit report. Identity theft is a huge business with billions of losses each year, not to mention all the time it takes to unravel the mess, so checking regularly is a great way to catch a theft early. That’s why you saw so many FreeCreditReport.com commercials on TV with the guy playing a guitar and singing about his ID theft woes!
So what’s the deal with them? Weren’t they sued? Is it a scam?
Let’s find out.
How to get your real free credit report.
First, the best and only place you should go to get a no-strings-attached free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax) is AnnualCreditReport.com. It’s the website set up by the government to handle your requests and to give you more information about your rights granted to you by the various consumer protection laws governing credit.
While the name of the site is technically accurate, you do get a free credit report, it’s simply not the best place to go.
FreeCreditReport.com Settlement
Despite the name of the site, which is otherwise run by a reliable company (the ultimate parent company is Experian, one of the three credit bureaus), FreeCreditReport.com is free only if you agree to sign up to a trial membership to their credit monitoring service. They settled with the FTC in 2005 for deceptive marketing practices and were required to pay out nearly a million dollars.
The reason it was deceptive was because you would get your free credit report and scores after you signed up to a trial membership to their credit monitoring service, which cost $79.95 a year. Since then, they’ve cleaned up their act and it’s very clear now that to get your score and report you are enrolled into a 30 day trial of their credit monitoring service.
Why do people use them?
Some people go to FreeCreditReport.com because they don’t know any better. Some people go knowing full well they’re signing up to a thirty day trial but they want to get a free credit score out of it. The law requires the credit bureaus to give you access to your credit report once a year but they are not required to give you your score.
If you want your score, you’ll have to buy it or sign up for one of these trials (here’s a list of trials for a free credit score). By taking advantage of the trial offer, consumers get their score and they can get it for free if they cancel the trial within 30 days.
Verdict?
It is not a scam. They make it very clear on their website that you are signing up to their credit monitoring service, Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring, and they’re very clear about how much the service costs, $14.95 a month. They’ve also made it clear that they aren’t even the best place to get your credit report, with a link to the government website.
Now if only they would stop running those annoying commercials. 
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It is common to see this website, and many others with similiar trial periods, end up on ripoff report and scam review sites. It has become common for people to cry “SCAM!” instead of reading the terms and conditions to the box that they are checking before they click accept. I have a separate bank card that I use to sign up for these trial sites, and I set reminders in my Outlook a week before I have to cancel.
I agree. Not a scam if they disclose the terms and conditions, and you select “I accept”
Then call it trialcreditreport.com
Do you see see people selling milk in a bar only to offer alcohol if you sign up for a trial?
Deliberate misdirection is not good customer satisfaction. Thats like yelling at a customer because they show up to your store 5 minutes before opening. “Stupid customers. The should read the sign. And they blame me for being vain and snooty at them”.
I think the problem between “annual” and “free” – credit report, is that the annualcreditreport.com ends in .COM
If it is a federally mandated item, why not throw it on the ftc.gov site with a link only to annualcreditreport? I think this would solve a ton of problems
Actually if you go to annualcreditreport.gov it redirects you to :
http://www.ftc.gov/freereports
Which then explains that annualcreditreport.com is the government mandated site. They have it at the .com site since its not actually ran by the governemnt but instead ran by the credit bureaus.
I’ve used it in the past to see my credit score and then simply cancel the free trial. Of course, I had to say “no” in a varying degree of tones and volumes once I got someone on the phone, but they were polite and did what I asked them…on about the 6th request.
@My Journey
The problem is it’s a private entity not run by the government, therefore it’s not allowed a .gov address.
Also, there is a link to annualcreditreport on the ftc.gov website. Granted, I had to scroll down a bit to see it on the homepage.
You are right, “Annual Credit Report” seems to be sponsored by the 3 credit rating agencies.
That being said, not sure why the FTC can’t create its own site with the .gov ending? I couldn’t imagine one of the 3 rating agencies putting up that much of a fight against the FTC.
There’s a lot of fiscal conservatives that ironically would see a gov’t run site as a waste of money. So they push it off onto an industry trade group.
Even so, AnnualCreditReport.com is fraught with pitfalls trying to make you subscribe to monitoring services. TransUnion is the worst of them because they won’t let you see anything without signing up permanently with an email address.
Check out a site called Credit Karma (http://www.creditkarma.com/). They provide ongoing free credit scores as well as information on how your score changes and what impacted it. I’ve been using it since the beginning of the year and it’s interesting to see exactly how it changes over time. It also does a great job of explaining things think hard inquires, soft inquiries, and what makes up a good score.
Warning, their money-making technique is selling related products and services. It’s nothing intrusive and typically very useful.
Cheers,
Erik
Erik, I’ve been using Credit Karma since October of 2008! Awesome plug, my credit score went up almost a full 100 points since using Credit Karma!
It’s only recently that FCR added disclaimers and such to their site. For years they were running their business quite differently, leading people in with a promise of free credit reports, with no indication that they were not the federally-mandated website used to receive three annual free credit reports.
And even now, they make it very difficult for people to cancel, but that’s typical of lots of subscription-based businesses.
This just goes to show just how much affect that a commercial can have on people. I never understood why people don’t do more research before signing up for a product or service like to make sure there are not catches. Just because they have free in their name doesn’t mean that it’s a free service.
Those commercials are catchy I kinda like them
the domain name sucks but at least you’re told upfront. still, i would call it shady.
The domain name may be a little deceptive, but that’s great marketing. It grabs people’s attention and makes them curious about the service being offered:)
Appeal to the lowest common denominator. No wonder this country is in so much hardship.
Their commercials are so effective that Annualcreditreport.com has recently started running commercials of their own featuring some dude playing a guitar. If you can’t beat em, join em huh
THE TRIAL PERIOD IS ONLY SEVEN DAYS!!
A lot of people think it’s 30 days free trial period, when it’s actually only a week. Because of this misnomer, a lot of people are still being charged without their knowing a week after they sign up for their “free credit report.”
If there is a class action lawsuit going on again, I would like to get more information.
Free Credit Report isn’t free, the 7 day cancellation period isn’t clear and you can’t complain. They say they “hold the highest ethical standards” but make sure they keep your money. Never use Free Credit Report, its not a company, it’s an operation.