Freecreditreport.com Complaints

• I am somewhat mystified how freecreditreport.com is allowed to continue in operation as they have been the subject of two FTC enforcement actions. "Consumerinfo.com, Inc., doing business as Experian Consumer Direct, has 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." FTC press release, August 16, 2005. Experian paid $950,000 as part of this settlement. Then in 2007, the FTC announced Experian "will pay $300,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that ads for its 'free credit report' offer failed to disclose adequately that consumers who signed up would be automatically enrolled in a credit- monitoring program and charged $79.95. The FTC alleged that the failure to clearly disclose the enrollment and charges violated a previous settlement." FTC press release, February 21, 2007. Federal law requires that credit reporting agencies allow consumers to request one free credit report per year. The three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) formed AnnualCreditReport.com as the centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports required by law. AnnualCreditReport.com is truly free. "FreeCreditReport.com" is a money making venture designed to charge consumers fees for some sort of vague credit monitoring service. It's beyond me where this is explained to consumers in the catchy FreeCreditReport.com advertisements.
  Posted by: JJR 8-12-2009.
• Surprisingly, FreeCreditReport.com gets a B- rating from the Better Business Bureau despite 10208 complaints over the past 36 months. By far the #1 complaint listed against FreeCreditReport.com by the BBB is "Making a full refund, as the consumer requested". Also, one finds loud complaints against FreeCreditReport.com sprinkled over the web. Below is a sample of the complaints:
  • "Well I had heard about freecreditreport.com from an ad online and decided I wanted to check it out. When I registered, I made sure everything I was getting was FREE, because I didn't want my debit card charged for overdraft purposes. I had exactly $1.48 in my Wells Fargo account (the account I DON'T USE) and figured it wouldn't make a difference because I was not getting charged. Come to find out, I got charged. I was checking my account two days ago and figured it was free, I never clicked on upgrade, I never clicked on anything that would charge me a penny, yet I found a $12 charge on my account and a $33 overdraft fee because of it. Now I have to go through the troubles of contacting the bank to clear this up. " Link.
  • "Beware of freecreditreport.com . The commercials are cute and the diddies are very catchy, but they mask a very shady business practice that Experian should really be reprimanded for. Freecreditreport.com IS NOT A SITE THAT SIMPLY GIVES YOU ONE FREE CREDIT REPORT. " Link.
  • "I've often written about the freecreditreport.com scam. The website is run by the credit bureau Experian. Over at Smartmoney.com, in her story FreeCreditReport.com: Not So Free -- Still, reporter Stacey Bradford points out two key astonishing facts. First, that the site is ratcheting up its advertising: FreeCreditReport.com spent a little more than $19 million on advertising during the third quarter, an increase of 28% from the same period in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence. A vast majority of that money -- roughly $14 million -- was spent on television ads. Second, that the cancellation period to avoid being locked into the $14.95/month credit report monitoring service that the company sells is down to only 7 days -- and consumers are complaining that it is really hard to cancel." Link.
  • "Cancellation didn't go through and I've been getting charged every month since. Three $14.95 charges." Link.
  • "I was charged the $79.95 for the so called "free credit" report without warning or receiving an email about the upcoming charge." Link. In fairness, it should be noted that this is an old complaint: 4/19/03.
  • "My 'FREE' credit report cost me $214.75." Link.
  • "Freecreditreport / CIC Triple Advantage stole 129.50 from me!!" Link.
  What exactly has changed such that the FTC allows FreeCreditReport.com to stay in operation? Makes no sense.

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