Subscribe to this BlogFree credit report ads: Stop the music!
The new credit card reform law is full of good consumer protections, but here's one you might not know about: It's going to require companies like FreeCreditReport.com (owned by credit bureau Experian) to clearly state that their services aren't actually free.
Who doesn't love those FreeCreditReport.com commercials? You know, the ones featuring the lovable 20-something singing about his credit troubles in a variety of musical genres? In the first, he's dressed in pirate gear and crooning about how he has to work in a seafood restaurant because his identity was stolen (it works best if you don't think too hard about it). My favorite jingle is the one that has him singing about how he married his dream girl, only to find out that her credit was bad, too. You can see all the commercials here:
The only problem, of course, is that FreeCreditReport.com is not really free. In order to get your report through the site, you must sign up for a trial membership in the site's "Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring" program. If you don't cancel your membership within a 7-day trial period, you're billed $14.95 a month. And plenty of people have fallen for the site's promise without realizing they were going to be billed. The Better Business Bureau has received 9,865 complaints about the site in the last 36 months, with some complainants saying that they kept being billed even after canceling membership.
But now, thanks to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, companies touting free credit report services must disclose in their ads that consumers are entitled by law to receive a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus, and that the official web site to obtain them is AnnualCreditReport.com. And radio and TV ads must clearly state, in both the audio and the video, "This is not the free credit report provided for by federal law."
That's good news, since the web-only public service commercials the Federal Trade Commission created in response to FreeCreditReport.com's ads need all the help they can get:
They recently got me.
If I did work for someone without them knowing it and they were unhappy and didn't want it I wouldn't charge them. It's nice being able to look people in the eye when you do business. Unfortunately, that is not the way our society is headed.
I thought I was doing the monitoring myself by going to "free"creditreport.com, Its not like I went to Payusreport.com
I'm hoping citibank will sympathize with me only on principle, hopefully monetarily.
I do have a parot now that squawks "can i have my money back! – can i have my money back!"
I found out a long time ago that all those "free credit report" ads
are all B.S. They are only looking for money.
Having said that, I still haven t been
able to get my credit report for a long time. But assume it is OK. A year ago, I applied for a Visa Card
and was approved with an extra for my wife as well.
Am still trying to find my credit score.
For what it's worth most people can figure out that it ain't free by reading the contract on the web site. We don't need the nanny state constantly intervening in our lives. The principal reason we are in such a overall financial mess is the general public's unwillingness to take responsibility for their own actions.
The key word is FREE which draws consumers time after time to all sorts of scams. So much for an "educated consumer" because over and over again our desire and belief that we can get something for nothing makes a large majority of the public put their guard down and do the wrong thing.
$14.95 fee per month? Make it $25.00. That’s not near as bad as a song that says “Happiness comes from buying more on credit with the same income.” After singing along for the 10th time I got up in front of the TV and told my kids, “That’s why the U.S. economy collapsed.”
If I truly loved all the U.S. citizens in financial trouble I would pray to God that all their credit ratings dropped by 10%. I’ll take a 20% drop myself. In 10 years I’ll have more cash AND more junk. I need a stronger prayer for Congress: infinity-10% = infinity. Quick math:
$1000 more car = $200 wasted interest over 5 years
$1000 more credit card bills = $100 to $270/year down the drain
My favorites are the restaurant & the first Renaissance Fair
I wish the Federal Government would produce just half the ads for AnnualCreditReport.com that they did for the digital TV conversion. I think the deceptive advertising about credit reports is far more harmful than the lack of TV signal.
I think it's sad that Congress set out to reform unfair credit practices, and all they could do was make FreeCreditReport.com put in more fine print. Make them report adjustments to your credit report immediately – not within 60 days!!
Of the three credit reporting agencies, Experian is by far the worse. My Experian credit report has numerous errors which they refuse to correct which do not appear on either my TransUnion or Equifax credit reports.. It doesn't surprise me that a sleazy company like Experian would be behind a sleazy misleading add like this.. As a credit reporting agency, Experian has zero "credibility" and it appears they are going the way of the sleazy money making companies and abandoning any hope of maintaining a reputation of accuracy and credibility.
Describing the detestable piece of garbage in those commercials as a "lovable 20-something" is the most inaccurate thing I've ever seen. Hearing that jackass sing makes me want to take a baseball bat to his head.
It doesn't help that he's helping to advertise a fraudulent service.
Hello Debbie of Texas. Please realise that not everyone is as sophisticated or worldly as you, and many of the people who view those commercials somehow aren't. Studies have for years shown that most people ignor the "fine print" in their documents to be able to get to what they perceive to be the jist of the argument. Probably not the best philsophy. Companies count on this. I know many intelligent and otherwise on top of it people who get caught out by not "reading the manual" and wind up in a situation they didn't anticipate because of it. In many cases it's not really their fault. Our society encourages the go for it right now solution by making a complex issue or situation seem to be a pick a catagory, select your options and go forward situation. And if it works in one situation, then another that offers a seemingly similar set of options must be as simple. It often isn't but that doesn't stop them since life floods us with "make up your mind now!" situations and if the options seem simple they must be. We as a society must adopt the more realistic attitude of examination and thoughtful consideration when dealing with EVERYTHING. It often takes the same amount of time to make a bad decision as it does to make a good one. Once people realise that and adopt an attitude of scepticism, that will be a step in the right direction. And to realise that a right decision or wrong decision can be made in the same amount of time given a little thought, they may start taking an informed view over a jump decision. It's not most peoples fault that they make the wrong choices so often. No one who wants your money wants to have an enlightened society that thinks about their choices. It affects the bottom line if people realise how they are being manipulated by those companies and individuals that want their dollars now. Many people will think why would they go through all that trouble just to get my $14.95 a month until they think (if ever) about the fact that a few thousand or even millions of people making uninformed decision adds up to many millions and the complaints of a few are a small price to pay for the benefits they gain from getting their hands on your money for even a small amount of time to get the relatively small amount of "interest accrued" by having it in their accounts. I agree that people are being manipulated. And that they should pay more attention. But all you have to do is catch someone at their most vulnerable, stressed out, wrung as tight as they can possibly be to fake them out and get enough of their money to make it all worthwhile. Bitch as much as you want but "it doesn't matter in the long run" is the corporate attitude these days and sadly many people are going to get a hard lesson from this before the law steps in. Even then you are still going to get those who after all these people have been ripped off saying that the government should stay out of our affairs. For a government to be most effective it must use a light touch and for the people not to need that light touch they have to realise that they control their lives and that a little thought and investigation will save them a lot of heartache and complaining. It's all of our faults. The ones who get duped, the ones who know better, and the ones who stand superior above them and critise rather than try to help them make better decisions.
You mean to tell me 9,865 people actually believed something they saw in a slickly-produced ad on TV? Those commercials cost uber-$$$$ to make and that money has to come from SOMEwhere! Just where on earth did these "poor victims" think the advertiser got them shot? "FreeAdsOnTV.com"???? …*sigh*…
Plus, when you actually go to sign up for these things? That monthly-fee-if-you-don't-cancel-by-the-deadline catch is ALWAYS in the "fine print".
puh-LEEZE – they deserved to get scammed …
The BBB is a horribily deceptive organization. The bussinesses pay a fee to be included. The BBB has more incentive to give a good report than a poor one. No wonder free credit report gets a B with that many complaints. But at least congress FINALLY acted. I hate to say it, but it would never have happened under Republican leadership!! Hopefully this congress will continue to give us more consumer protections.
This FreeCreditReport.com guys are Big Frauds. It is good that someone is taking notice of them. They ripped me off a lot of money ater I had cancelled the account and it took me a lot of pain and a BBB complaint to get it back.
That many complaints with the BBB and they still have a satisfactory "B"?
The BBB needs to step it up.
Freecreditreport.com commercials are just too annoying. Just for that alone, I hope they go under. I tell everyone I know that Freecreditreport.com is a ripoff and to go to annualcreditreport.com.
What I want to know is why are we only "allowed" to see our credit reports ONCE a year? Its our information – we should be allowed to review it anytime, as many times, as we want. Why is our information so difficult for us to get, or why should we have to PAY someone to tell us what they have been collecting on us (without consent) for years?