An article in the New York Times, “A Free Credit Score Followed by a Monthly Bill”, points out the simple irony of a website called FreeCreditReport.com – best known for its entertaining television commercials featuring a band consisting of three slacker friends singing songs about ruined credit report scores while waiting tables dressed as pirates or performing at a Renaissance Faire – that may not actually be free and could charge customers $14.95 per month.
According to IMPORTANT INFORMATION on the FreeCreditReport.com website, when consumers order their free credit report they also begin a free trial membership with a credit report monitoring service and will be billed $14.95 every month if they don't cancel the membership within a 7-day trial period. The website also discloses that, “under a new Federal law” (the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA, of 2003), consumers have the right to receive a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies – Experian (which owns FreeCreditReport.com), Equifax, and TransUnion – and to request their free annual credit reports consumers must go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
Even with information about free credit reports available, credit report monitoring services are approaching one billion dollars in sales with nine million people spending between $650 million to $700 million annually, according to the Times article. To end the confusion over free credit reports, the Times reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has tried for years to get Experian to follow disclosure requirements for its “free credit report” ads and even asked Experian to give it the FreeCreditReport.com URL, but to no avail. So the FTC created its own site at FreeCreditReport.gov that includes videos spoofing the FreeCreditReport.com commercials.
Most recently, Senator Charles E. Schumer (D - NY), issued a news release asking the FTC to force FreeCreditReport.com and other companies like it to give away the credit report before asking for customers’ credit card numbers to make clear to consumers that the sites intended to charge them for credit report monitoring and not to confirm their identification. The FTC also has proposed new rules to prevent deceptive marketing of so-called “free credit reports” by February 2010, the Times reports.
The bottom line? Consumers should never forget the Latin phrase Caveat emptor (“Let the buyer beware”) when making any kind of purchase. While – according to another old saying – there may be “no such thing as a free lunch,” there apparently is such a thing as a “free credit report” as long as you know where to get it (or remember to cancel your free trial membership in time).
Along with credit reports, consumers should also be aware of the contents of their criminal background checks. While most background check companies focus only on employers, MyBackgroundCheck.com – a pioneer in consumer requested background checks – allows individuals to perform “personal” background checks on themselves that help kept personal information is accurate, current, and secure. For more information on personal background checks, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. To follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter, visit www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.