What's more, their commercials are deceptive and provide false and misleading information. It's a fact that unless you and your spouse enter into a mutual contract with a loan and both default on the loan, then and only then will your credit score be reduced. Simply marrying someone with poor credit does nothing to affect your score, contrary to one of their commercials. At least some of the songs are catchy.

How are they allowed to call it "free" if it's not?

When the media first started talking about this semi-scammy service, I thought the AG would tell them to make the disclaimer more obvious or stop marketing themselves as free. Instead, they made more and bigger budget ads. Before, I would have been happier if they read the disclaimer in a fast, quiet voice, like in prescription ads or the bit after booze ads on the radio. However, it's gotten so bad we need them to incorporate the disclaimer into the songs, possibly contrast the pirate singing about how he wishes he wasn't frauded with the old folks sitting at the table talking about how they're now having $30 a month skimmed from their credit card...

Absolutely no sympathy here. It clearly says on the website that it's not actually free, and that it signs you up for a monthly service. This is why it's imperative to read the fine print.

They say at the end of each commercial that "the offer applies to enrollment in Tripple-Advantage." Are people just not listening? Don't blame FCR.com for the mistakes people make.

I signed up at FCR.com for a credit report just 8 months after obtaining my free annual one (which, by the way, I had to mail in to get since all three credit reporting companies said I couldn't do it online). Since I couldn't wait another 4 months, I enrolled online. There was a HUGE check box and a pop-up that warned me that I was being enrolled in Tripple-Advantage.

So, what did I do? I enrolled, printed my credit report, and then called the 1-800 number in the email they sent me and canceled it. Trust me, it's not that hard.

The whole freaking credit scoring system / credit reporting agencies are a scam. They are totally unfair and discriminatory.

I agree that sites like this and their purveyors should burn in your local religious hotspot, but it CLEARLY states that it is not free. It's a bit of a stretch to call that decent-sized text "fine print" at all. Many corporations have employees whose sole purpose is figuring out how to prey on ignorance, skirt grey areas, etc. to separate you from your cash. Don't go to the battle of wits unarmed.

I actually signed up for this a couple of months back. There have been some issues on my CBR, which I discovered when I received my free yearly report about six months ago, and I wanted to check to see if they had been resolved. I saw that freecreditreport.com would give me a month of no service at no charge, and...well, I like things that are free. Lucky for me I read the fine print; as soon as I had my credit report printed out, I called to cancel. It took a few minutes of saying "No...no...no...", but cancel me they did. I didn't get any sort of scammy vibe from them - their terms are plainly stated on the website, and I've never received any charges from them.

There is a new one out there too, Freetriplecreditreport.com Saw the commercial this weekend.

@ucdcsteve: FYI, you have your own score and there is also a combined score of you and your spouse. I know this because I review Equifax reports on a regular basis as part of my job (banker). We always use the individual score even if it's a joint loan (we enter both scores separately), but other banks may use the combined score.

@Tightlines: It is that funny little asterisk. That little symbol that links all sales blurbs to the legal descriptions. Fear the asterisk.*

*Extra fees, regulatory recovery costs, and taxes may apply. Enrollment in a highly overpriced credit monitoring plan is required to receive your free credit report. Not all consumers meet the stringent credit requirements to receive the best rates in this offer- usually just a couple of our company's executives only qualify. Your mileage may vary...

@Nogard13: The phrase "the offer applies to enrollment in Tripple-Advantage." should be
"the offer applies to paying for Tripple-Advantage."

But that wouldn't make the company money, would it?

@Pylon83: @koreanforrabbit: Agreed, I signed up for this a little while ago too to find out my credit score(you don't get that from the free government ones, but a lot is based off it, this always puzzled me). They make it fairly obvious that you only get this free for a month and after that they charge you. Also, it was pretty easy to cancel the service and the CSR was no ruder than any other one I've experienced. It is kind of mis-leading, but I thought they did a pretty good job letting me know that I was going to be paying for this after a month. I mean, the "fine" print isn't even all that fine.

Sorry, but you'll get no sympathy here. If you just keep clicking through the site without reading it, you get what you deserve. I can't tell you how many computers I've had to clean up when people have the same attitude with viral pop-ups: let's just click and install this application because it tells me to.

You should look at this as a cheap lesson learned.

The same thing happened to me recently. Though, I am very aware of the difference between annualcreditreport.com and freecreditreport.com. I had somehow been mislead and linked outward to the free site, only two find, two months later the charge on my credit card. The first time I saw it (because of the misleading CIC labeling) I was under the impression it was another charge.

Like you, I called, threatened to have it charged back by my credit
card and report them to the state's Attorney General. They quickly
processed my request and I saw the refund within a week.

Nonetheless though, I am fully aware of where to get my real FREE
credit report. Yet somehow, I was linked outside of this site and
taken advantage of without my knowledge. Be very careful about what
offers you're getting linked to outside of annualcreditreport.com

-Doug

It's kind of obvious that you are signing up for a year of credit monitoring. Well, when I did it back in January you had a whole month to cancel, and I cancelled over email and it was easy. Now it says you have seven days. They are getting slicker!

How was it charged to you if you didn't put in your credit card info? Quick lesson, if you're on a website advertising "free" and then asks for a credit card, chances are it isn't and you should read the parts you skipped.

There is a lot of common sense that goes into saying you shouldn't sign up for this. But you know, there's also a lot that's said for fine print and fast mumbling at the end of your commercials that just screams "scam". So maybe you wouldn't fall for it, but a lot of people would, and just because you can see through it doesn't mean it's right.

On a semi-related note, damn those jingles are the "Garfield 1-23-23" of our time. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you must not be from Cleveland... I don't know what a similar phenomenon that took place nationwide would be... cha-ching, maybe?

As with others I have no sympathy. A little common sense goes a long way. Over the last few years I have used this service a couple of times, each time cancelling immediately after I sign up. And after each time I cancelled I was still able to use the service for the free 30-days they advertise.

How are they allowed to call it "free" if it's not?

Because of their participation in the Free Market.

If you're supplying a credit card number to be charged for something...

It's not free!

thanks to consumerist I've been getting free reports for the last year now (every 4 months)... ever since my free one year of credit monitoring expired, which I got when the new company I work for lost a laptop from payroll. >_<

Meg,

You would get blown away by the amount of people I explain this to, and they all act like it doesn't matter. They always say, "does annualcreditreport.com give you your credit score?" and they don't so I say "no". Then they say something like "well I don't mind paying because I want my score." I tell them that annualcreditreport.com sells you your credit score for about $10, but they act is if I'm trying to scam them, or like I'm getting some sort of kickback for referring people or something.

i worked for experian back in the day and it all boils down to reading the fine print. call, complain, get your money back and next time read the fine print.

i tell people this every day - DO NOT give someone your card # unless you are ready for them to charge your account for something. i don't care what it is - handing over a METHOD OF PAYMENT kind of precludes that something is free, doesn't it?

I got caught up with this company back when it first started, with those cute little "get your free credit score now!" ads on websites. I didn't mind paying for the service, but I could NEVER access my credit reports, so I finally decided to cancel. When I called, the woman on the phone tried every trick in the book to get me to not cancel. I must have said "I want to cancel" 50 times before she finally cancelled my account. Good riddance.

I tried getting my honest-for-goodness annual credit report that everyone here gushes about and STILL couldn't get one. Seems I had ordered one when getting scammed by freecreditreport.com but it was never actually delivered. Doesn't seem to matter and if I start to argue with such people on the phone, someone is going to die.

File a complaint with the BBB. I had done this (stupid decision) but I called and canceled within the 30 days. It didn't cancel. I called, re-canceled but they refused to credit me because they have no record I called and I know I did.

Filed a complaint with the BBB, and magically got my $15 back.

Thanks to The Consumerist's reporting this a week or so ago, I observed the latest commercial for this trap (dressed as musician pirates at restaurant..how charming) and the ending does have (in small print) that the advanced features are for the fee-based service only.

There is nothing free with this company.

I'm rather PO'd at the channel that airs these marketers (Grill Daddy!, Those weird vacuum lids and the slurring fat chef, weed control machines, that computer video training crook,...)

This is entirely the fault of the Federal Trade Commission, which approved of freecreditreport.com's fraudulent practices.

The Free Credit Report.com lead singer is in fact, not singing, nor is he even American. He's French Canadian.

Deceptive marketing practices, indeed.

BTW, do you really see something coming at you like an "atom bomb"? As most nuclear weapons are airburst, you'd have to be looking at the sky at the minute it went off, and even if you did, it would be the last thing you'd ever see, due to flash burns from the detonation.

I've used this service. I've signed up for it a few times to monitor my credit during some major life changes. It's very clear that they're not a free service, and that only the first credit report is free.

I knew I had 30 days to cancel, or I would be charged with a membership fee.

The OP was acting extremely irresponsibly. If he doesn't read over a website in which he has to disclose extremely personal information carefully, there's not much helping him.

He got ripped off by freecreditreport.com? So that explains why he's dressed up like a pirate in this restaurant and driving off the lot in used subcompact.

Those catchy ads are really paying off for them.

I personally don't think they should be able to advertise the way they do, even though they have fine print that explains what the service really is. Why not let all businesses do it?

BRAND NEW CORVETTE FOR $5,000!*

*Corvette is actually a 2002 Cavalier.

I got signed up for FreeCreditReport.com when I ordered an actual service from Experian.

I ordered a one-time, full credit report with FICO score etc (the free ones don't have this) for $4.95. I never got the PIN I needed to log into said credit report or account, and suddenly two weeks later I was getting the $14.95 Triple Advantage bill, too.

Luckily, by the time I got suckered in like that, Consumerist was rife with stories and I was a reader, so I had the numbers handy and had pretty much no trouble getting them to cancel my "service."

For the idiots who keep stating that "consumers should read the fine print", and "they know what they're getting into";
why doesn't FCR advertise this deal as "Enroll in Triple Advantage and get a free credit report"? That seems to make more sense. I could probably make a ton of money by saying "Get a free glass of lemonade...after you sign up for my unnecessary credit monitoring service". They don't advertise it for what it is, they plug the free stuff and shove the actual commitment to the side in the hopes that the consumer is not paying close attention. Deceptive advertising at it's finest.

That, and if I ever see the band members who sign those ridiculous songs, I'm going to run them down with my truck.

@ucdcsteve: THANK YOU. That commercial drives me particularly nuts, since the only way that her credit could be standing in the way of him having a house is because she makes plenty of money and he doesn't. Thus, he needs to file for a mortgage loan jointly in order to show the combined income, but is then affected by her bad credit.

And how do I know he doesn't make any money? Because he's hanging out jamming with his stupid garage band while his wife is doing all the housework! What a choad!

Yes, I know I'm overthinking and overreacting to this silly commercial, but it sticks in my craw nonetheless. :)

Memo to industry: Police yourself before government does it for you!

@shadax: But it also clearly states that it is free. It's right there in the name and the jingle. If the clear statement that it's paid contradicts another clear statement, I don't think it can be called "clear."

The credit reporting agencies are sleazy scammers to begin with.

So what part is free? None at all.

I'll sheepishly admit I fell for this, but it was back in early 2003 - before the days of the annual credit reports. When I was hit with an $80 charge 1 year later, I called to complain. I got my money back, although the fact they were so willing to capitulate made me more suspicious. And then I learned they were affiliated with Experian and was disgusted.

FYI - FreeCreditReport.com is run by Experian. I have a friend who has worked there for a few years as a "user experience manager" for FreeCreditReport.com.

In regular size print, directly over the submit button (on the page where you provide your credit card number)... They basically give you one "drink" for free and you have to pay if you want to keep on drinking on a regular basis...

Payment Information
When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring. If you don't cancel your membership within 9 days of enrollment, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership. If you are not satisfied, you can cancel at any time to discontinue the membership and stop the monthly billing; however, you will not be eligible for a pro-rated refund of your current month's paid membership fee.

Click "Submit Secure Order" to accept the Terms and Conditions above, acknowledge receipt of our Privacy Notice and agree to its terms, confirm your authorization for ConsumerInfo.com, Inc., an Experian company, to obtain your credit report and submit your secure order.

OP probably has spyware on their computer also. 50 dollar gift for free, sure. Nude pictures of Barbara Bush, sure. Broklyn Bridge.

I fell for this about a year ago, and the worst part is that they don't show you your FICO score! When we applied for a loan for a car, our bank said that there was a ding on my wife's credit report. Having no idea what it was, we signed up for the service. They gave my wife a "PLUS" score of 730. When we actually saw her FICO score, it was 638.

Always read the fine print

Always read the fine print

Always read the fine print

Always read the fine print

Always read the fine print

I was buying a house, got my credit report to see what was up, and then got my actual credit score from the mortgage company. Just ask for it, they don't mind telling you.

The person I talked to also told me where I was relatively to other people's scores, and also how that would affect my loan.

I think it's sick that a company (Experian) which is part of the industry that not only basically makes identity theft possible, but makes it the life-destroying threat that it has become is allowed to make money exploiting the fear of the consequences that are only possible because of their other services.

@COELACANTH: I have too. I signed up because I wanted to see how my credit score changed each month as I was paying off credit cards and because I was getting ready to buy a car. But, I knew I was paying for the service. It says it when you sign up and asks you for credit card info. It's a lesson to people to make sure you always read everything on what you are agreeing to.