FreeCreditReport.com a “Ripoff”

by Doug Pollack

I’ll admit I’m a fan of Clark Howard. For those of you that don’t know him, he has a very popular radio show, The Clark Howard Show, and is a advocate for consumers in their financial affairs.

On today’s program, he became very animated talking about Freecreditreport.com. This is a website from one of the three large credit bureaus, Experian, that oddly enough requires that you pay for their service, despite the interesting name.

I thought that it would be useful to highlight some excerpts from his comments. He is obviously not a fan of this offering, and believes that their mass media advertising (who hasn’t seen the television ad with the kid in the seafood restaurant singing about his identity theft?) is deceptive.

The following are quotes from his show today:

“Freecreditreport.com, the ripoff non-service from Experian, is ripping you off, stealing money right out of your wallet…charing you a ripoff fee month after month after month”

“If you are currently subscribing to Freecreditreport.com, stop it! You are throwing your money away…why pay for it, they are liars at Experian. Liars, liars, liars.”

I have always found it amazing that Experian can advertise their service under that name when they require that you purchase their “triple advantage” service for a monthly fee of around $13 a month in order to get a “free” credit report. Maybe I just don’t have a good grasp of the english language. Doesn’t free, mean without cost?