FreeCreditReport.com (Scam Warning)

FREECREDITREPORT.COM IS MISLEADING.  DESPITE NUMEROUS ALLEGATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS BY THE FTC AND DESPITE “IMPROVEMENTS” TO THEIR WEBSITE, NOTE THAT YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CANCEL A TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION TO THEIR TRIPLE ADVANTAGE PROGRAM, AS IT SEEMS TO BE A ONE WAY TICKET TO MONTHLY CHARGES

I hate when I create one problem out of another.

…So I was suspecting last night for a moment that I might be a victim of credit fraud and in my moment of angst I turned to that little jingle in my head from the commercial for freecreditreport.com.  First rule of panic club, don’t panic!

In my panic I gladly overpaid for the 3-agency report that combines your credit report from Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.  I accepted all the silly terms and conditions, including the free trial of the Triple Advantage monthly reporting service, assuming I’d just cancel it when I got my reports.

This entire industry is marred with issues, but I’ll leave those aside for now.

When you login to freecreditreport.com, you have to authorize them to charge you monthly after a trial period ends in order to get your single free credit report from a single credit agency.  But they clearly state you can call to cancel to avoid recurring charges.  They post a phone number with the disclaimer, and since I was feeling familiar with them (due to the preponderance of commercials), and I was anxious about my suspected credit fraud, I just clicked ok and went along with it.

The report they provided was helpful.  While I did not find the fraud I was looking for (thankfully), I did find other items I had no idea existed, but again I digress.

In any event, I called today (the next day) to cancel my trial period subscription and of course the phone numbers do not work.  After an hour of research on-line I realized that I’m the idiot for following a commercial.  Apparently this is their scam.  There is no way to contact them to cancel the subscription, so I had to call the credit card company to put a block on any future charges from the multiple names they do business as.

I am hoping that this post will add to the dozens of warnings to unsuspecting future customers.  At this time I know of no recourse to officially cancel my subscription, if you do please let me know. The two numbers that are widely available do not work: 877-481-6826, 877-481-682.

Needless to say there are free ways to get the information I obtained, but that process is cumbersome as you generally need to contact each credit reporting agency separately.  I did appreciate the report I got, and will gladly pay for it, I just don’t want to deal with the recurring charges that I was told I could avoid by calling.  Ugh!

If you do need to see your credit report try AnnualCreditReport.com.  I am posting a link to an article from MSNBC here that talks about both.  I do not have any association or affiliation with either. WARNING: I have not used it.

DON’T FALL FOR FREECREDITREPORT.COM