It’s good to check your credit report. It’s bad to pay for it. It’s worse to think you are getting it free and then you get charged.
Apparently, that is what these guys have been doing. They seem to have been doing a big advertising push lately, I have seen quite a few of their commercials. Have you?
You can read more about a personal story of someone getting ripped off by these guys here.
In the meantime if you are wanting to check your credit report go to AnnualCreditReport.com. While they do have services that they charge for, you can still get a copy of your report from the big 3 services through them for FREE.
And here is a little bit more reading to keep you busy…
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- 10 tips for college bound students
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- Camping for beginners
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This was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance
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Bob, you are right, total ripoff. I used them and saw the charge and googled the phone number which led me to a site showing you how to get the charges removed, which I did. They also have had 1 or 2 million dollar lawsuits against them but they claim several million signups, do the math, they are cleaning up, even if they only get half the people for 1 month.
@Chris
thanks for sharing your experience on this… it is just amazing to me that businesses can get away doing stuff like this
Thanks for sharing my article with your readers, and for the heads up on FreeCreditReport.com. Seems they should change their little jingle–F-R-E-E that spells free, not.
I got ripped off by them too. I thought it was free and didn’t look at my CC bill closely. They must have charged me about $60 before I realized what happened and canceled their service.
@pinyo
Bummer – well, the good side is that you caught it. I am sure there are a lot of people who do it thinking it is free, who NEVER look at their statements and will go years paying for it without ever knowing
Thanks for linking to my post. It’s my first link from another site – I’m so excited!
Using the “real” free site that you mentioned, you can get one free credit report from a different reporting agency every 4 months and always keep an eye on your credit without spending any money.