Predatory Economy: “Free” Credit Reports
At risk of making you mad at me because you get the jingle stuck in your head, you know those Free Credit Report ads?
Obviously they’re not buying all that advertising time to give you something that doesn’t benefit them at all. And of course, it turns out it’s not really free. Shocker, I know.
Basically, you go get your “free” credit report and they sign you up for an ongoing, not-free service. And then they make a lot of money—their business is even growing despite the lousy economy causing so much trouble for other businesses.
Even better, you can get a truly free credit report by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. The government requires it. So the “Free” Credit Report people are making money by bragging about something they’re giving you for free even though they’re then charging you a monthly fee for something you don’t necessarily want and the government requires them to give you the original thing you wanted for free, anyway.
Tags: credit reports, predatory economy
I hope the FTC is able to make their credit reports more visible, and accessible so that these scams will become less prominent. Or at least we need to educate people on where to find a credit report so they don’t rely on television commercials for their information.
Check out this video for some more perspectives:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/ftc_clamps_down_on_free_credit_report_scams
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I went to Free Credit Report and they automatically sign you up without telling you. I called and canceled it because a co-worker told me it was not free. They said you have 7 days to to look it up for free and in that time to cancel it. What a scam!
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