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FreeCreditReport.com Can Get Expensive

Opt-out credit reports can run up big bills quickly

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

January 10, 2007

However, it's not always all that easy.

Many consumers seeking their free credit report apparently go instead to a commercial service -- FreeCreditReport.com, which is currently advertising on TV with youth-oriented commercials.

Despite its name, the credit monitoring service which comes with the credit report is not actually free, as Martin, of Hollywood, Florida, discovered late last year.

"I went to check out the freecreditreport.com site," Martin told ConsumerAffairs.com. There was supposed to be no charge; I am still being charged by Freecreditreport. My bank account is totally screwed up and overdrawn."

Fib, a recent immigrant to the U.S. living in San Francisco is a good example of a confused consumer. He says he went to FreeCreditReport.com from Edmunds.com, where he was researching an automobile purchase.

"Being very new to the Americans' credit history checking, I thought that free credit report is allowed by government once in 12 months. I signed up and thought I was signing up for this FREE credit report which I see each time I login. When billing comes, my credit card was charged for several months."

Opt out

Connie, a consumer in Woodbury, Minnesota, said she was also tricked into signing up for the not-so-free service, and faults the company for using "a deceptive method" to sign up customers. The problem, she says, could be resolved by a few simple changes on the FreeCreditReport.com Web site.

"It is an opt-out set-up so that if you request the free report and you fail to call and opt out before the 30 day free trial ends, you are stuck with the service until you do cancel," she told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I told them they could just as easily set up their website to be an opt in process so a consumer purposefully makes the decision to sign up for the service or not.

"Their kind of deceptive service depends upon customers like me who missed the information that was buried in the material prior to asking for the free report. I guess in the end, nothing is never really free...you end up paying one way or another."

Responding to criticism, FreeCreditReport.com says it does its best to make a clear distinction between its commercial service and the government's free credit report program.

It does provide a report at no charge, but it's up to the consumer to take a proactive step to avoid being charged for its monitoring service – a practice known as "negative option" marketing.

"When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring," the company states in a prominent position on its Web site. "If you don't cancel your membership within the 30-day trial period, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership.

Long history

The company is a subsidiary of Experian, one of the three credit reporting agencies. It was established in 1995, long before Congress enacted the law allowing for a free credit report each year.

In August 2005, Experian settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceptively marketed 'free credit reports' by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for a credit report monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn't cancel within 30 days, in violation of federal law.

That case involved Consumerinfo.com, Inc., doing business as Experian Consumer Direct, another subsidiary of Experian.

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