Consumer Law

Deceptive "Free" Credit Reports to Avoid

By Kemnitzer, Anderson, Barron, Ogilvie & Brewer

Consumers Union has released a report on the "free" credit reports available on the Internet that are not really free. The study looked at 24 sites were consumers are enticed to obtain free credit reports but only if they agree to pay for their credit scores and other services at the same time. Some sites offer free credit reports and free credit scores, but only if the consumer signs up for a credit monitoring service.

Almost all the sites discouraged consumers from going to annualcreditreport.com, which is the one site where consumers may, once a year, get a free credit report from all three of the major credit bureas.

According to Consumer Reports, very few people need credit monitoring services. Consumers can check with their own credit for free or at low cost by periodically going to the credit bureaus own sites and paying a small fee ($5.95 for Experian and $7.95 for TU and Equifax).

Once a consumer signs up for credit monitoring, it can quite difficult to cancel. In 16 of 18 cases, the consumer has to call someone to cancel after going through an initial sign in process on the site. All to discourage consumers who want to quit.

Turns out Experian and TransUnion between the two of them own 15 of the sites. For example, Experian owns FreeCreditReport.com and TransUnion owns free-creditreports.com

Bottom line--don't go to any site other than annualcreditreport.com and the credit bureaus individual sites (Equifax.com, Experian.com and TransUnion.com).

Full post as published by California Credit Law Blog on September 04, 2007 (boomark / email).