When you get a strongly-worded letter from your bank with big deadlines printed on it, and words like “THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW” and other “RECORDS REVIEW” and other ominous phrases, one might think, “Hey, this is something important I have to do.” Or maybe it’s actually just an offer for a free credit report that you can just toss.

Cary writes that she was peeved to discover such a “direly-worded” letter from her bank, US Bank.

“It starts out posing as an offer for a credit score check (which is weird in itself), but it’s actually an enrollment form for a “credit monitoring” service a la FreeCreditReport.com. For some reason I thought my own bank would be above that, but I guess not. I think this may well be the last straw for me… time to check out the local credit unions.”

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