Getting a Free Credit Report

There are some pretty funny commercials on television for free credit reports. You’ll also run across offers for free credit reports in newspapers and magazines as well as online. People will see these and think they sound pretty good, and decide to go for their free credit report from one of these places. They don’t stop to think that someone had to pay for that glossy print ad in the magazine, take out that full page ad in the newspaper, or have that cute commercial produced. Why would someone do this? To make money! They call it advertising, and it is! However, sometimes there is a little more involved.

Many people are not aware that they can ask for, and get, a free credit report with no strings attached. Those who do know aren’t too sure where to go to get it! The Federal government has a web site in place just for this purpose. You can get one free report each year from each of the three agencies. This has not been widely advertised by the government, nor have they addressed the fact that there are companies whose sole purpose is to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers who want a free credit report.

These are the companies who are putting out the commercials and advertisements for free credit reports.

They are really good at what they do – the ads are extremely persuasive as well as very well done from an editing standpoint. The companies do not lie at all in these ads, and that is probably the reason why nothing has been done about them. You are told how important it is to have a good credit score, and shown what can happen to you if you do not.  All of this is true. Then, you are told how you can get your free credit report.

People go for it all because it seems fun and easy. Just call a telephone number or go online. And it is easy… but it certainly won’t be fun if you don’t pay close attention to what you are doing. You go online or make the call, and are either filling in your information or giving it to the operator, when you are asked for a credit card number.

“Wait!” you might say. “I thought it was a free credit report!”

Oh, it is free… the credit report, that is. But in order to get it, you are asked to sign up for a trial membership in a service. Exactly what kind of service varies from company to company, but it is usually a credit monitoring or shopping service. The trial fee is never very much at all… maybe a dollar or a little more.

In order to get the free report, many people will sign up for this service thinking they will cancel it later. But, 9 times out of 10, someone forgets to cancel and is then surprised to see a charge of $20 or more on their next credit card statement. That free credit report ended up costing them $20!

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