Wow those commercials work! Some are funny and some are amusing. Like the pirate commercial. That one shows pirates singing about identity theft. In any case, I still got tricked by this guys. 
I wanted to check my credit report because I know I've been late with some of my bills and credit card. Then BAM! it hit me, I need to check freecreditreport.com.
I hop on the website and the first thing I see is the familiar band. So right off the bat I feel giddy and jolly and so I sign up for the report and enter all my pertinent required information. Everything went smooth. I did see my score. From what I understand you get three score from three major credit score trackers, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Only one gave me a score and that is Experian.
I'm glad to see a GOOD green bar of 701!
WOW ok so all was well until I get my credit card bill from Bank of America.
I was browsing through the bill and something stops my tracks. I see a $14.95 charge from info.freecreditreport.irvine ca . Flood of thoughts came rushing in.
1. Yes I signed up a FREE credit report. I thought it was free
2. Why is there a charge? I didn't sign for any extra service at all!
3. I hope this is not a monthly subscription or one of those companies that just keeping on charging
4. Time to cancel!
I hop on to free credit report website and check to see if they have anything about cancellation. The front page has Nothing about cancellation(of course not why would day)? So I log in and right of the bat it directs me to the experian website. It was getting annoying because there wasn't any place to find anything about cancellation. So I hopped on to google and typed free credit report charges. Bam! A bunch of people had the same experience.
You have to call the company to cancel! wow... To find the phone you have to scroll down the FAQ page and there you will find membership cancellation.
Contact number of Freecreditreport: 1888 829 6560
I check the website again and saw that it does state there on the frontpage about automatically signing up:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM. If you don't cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period**, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership.
So I called them with Skype. The first thing you hear is a voice offering more credit report products. Then after about 5 minutes of ads it finally takes you to the customer service. I was surprise it wasn't an overseas person. Anyway she asks my name, my mom's maiden name, and my social security number. Here's the conversation after:
me: i signed up for a free credit report online on your website and i see charges on my credit card... i thought it was free
o: well sir you are automatically signed up for free monitoring service when you sign for a free credit report with us. there is a trial period of 7 days and if you don't cancel a charge of 14.95 will be assesed on your credit card.
me: well ok i want a refund and cancel my subcription.
o: i'm sorry to hear that sir we will go ahead and cancel your subscription. as for the refund i'll have to see what i can do. you might need to check back with us within 10 days. ok?
me: ok make sure you cancel that and i'll check again to see if i got the refund.
o: and is there anything else i can help you with?
me: no. that's all thanks ... click
I was surprise she didn't hesitate to cancel or offer me other products. I don't think I will see the refund. I'm sure they say the same thing with other people trying to cancel. "I'll have to see what I can do about the refund" means I won't see the money forever. Well at least I got it canceled.
Further research tells me that the company has not connection what so ever with experian, TransUnion or Equifax.
ConsumerInfo.com, Inc. and Freecreditreport.com are not affiliated with the annual free credit report program. Under a new Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. To request your free annual report under that law, you must go to www.annualcreditreport.com.
Check next time: Annualcreditreport.com
No more freecreditreport.com for me.
Do you have similar experience? Please comment!
