We’ve all seen those commercials, but if you haven’t it is a small band of guys that messed up their credit and now they are driving a dinky second hand car and playing at a renaissance faire. So they sing about "free credit report dot com" and tell the consumer to head over there so they can keep an eye on their credit.
But how free is freecreditreport.com? The good news is you can get a free credit report once a year on your own through the Annual Credit Report website on all three of the credit reporting agencies. Use this website once a year to gain the free reports of all three agencies without charge. The website was commissioned by the government as per federal law and is as secure as websites come.
The other news is freecreditreport.com isn’t free, because you need to sign up to another offer and pay fees, so nothing here is actually as free as one might think. It’ll even state that on the commercial if you can read the tiny type at the bottom of the screen before it goes away. This is usually some two year sign-up for a credit reporting agency that you don’t really need. Many people who don't read the website terms feel this is a scam, because they say it is free and it isn’t.
There will be a trial period for Triple Advantage, but if you don’t cancel this within a week or so, then you’ll be charged for this service. On top of this, you only get one of the three reporting agencies in that ‘free’ credit report which is Experian, who sponsors the site, but there are two others that are needed as well Equifax, and TransUnion. If you don’t have the full reports, then one may be reporting something that the other isn’t.
One other problem to be aware of is if your name gets on the ‘free’ report agencies then they can sell your contact information to third party companies, who send you offers in the mail. So the best thing to do is make sure your information is private and take stock on those that promise privacy and do offer the free report.
Greg Johansson - Gregory Johansson has been a Web marketing consultant for nearly a decade and has published copy on dozens of websites ranging from online ...
