I’m sure that by now most people have seen and heard the commercials for Freecreditreport.com – where the guy with the curly hair is singing the catchy tune with his pals in the background. I’ll admit that the commercial is cute – I find myself and my husband singing the song because the song is one of those that sticks in your head. And I’m sure that is what the advertisers and marketers were going for when they wanted people to go to their Web site and sign up.

But, that is exactly what you should NOT do. Sure, you can go to the site and get your free credit report from all three credit bureaus. Plus, you will get your credit score. All credit things to know and have, right?

But, do you know what hoops you are going to have to jump through to get that report and score? You are going to have to give up your credit card number, plus give out your social security number to a third party, because you are signing up for Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring service. The social security number is to access your credit report, but the service will be ongoing and cost you $14.95 per month unless you cancel within 7 days. Or is it 9 days? I checked the site, and it states 7 days in one place and 9 days in another. And is that business days? The site is not clear. Nor does it state how you may cancel your membership. Is that in writing, or can you call? From my experience in trial memberships before, I would venture that they don’t tell you during the signing up process.

The site does tell you that under Federal law, you are entitled to a free credit report from the site located at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/. The site also does give you a little information as to what exactly your credit score is and that as a consumer, it will not hurt you to check or monitor your own credit.

Let’s get in a few definitions for clarity, from Wikipedia.org:

“Consumer debt can be defined as ‘money, goods or services provided to an individual in lieu of payment.’ Common forms of consumer credit include credit cards, store cards, motor (auto) finance, personal loans (installment loans), retail loans (retail installment loans) and mortgages.”  

“A credit score is a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person’s credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information, typically sourced from credit bureaus.”

 “A credit bureau is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer credit information on individual consumers for a variety of uses. It is an organization providing information on individuals borrowing and bill paying habits. This helps lenders assess credit worthiness, the ability to pay back a loan, and can affect the interest rate and other terms of a loan. Most consumer welfare advocates advise individuals to review their credit reports at least once per year, in order to ensure that the reports are accurate. Consumers can do so at no cost. They are entitled to a free annual credit report from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Consumers can go to annualcreditreport.com, the Internet site maintained by the three companies, to get their free report.”

Now that we are all on the same page as to what all the terms mean, why is FreeCreditReport.com so bad? Because at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ you can do the same thing, for less.

• You can get your free (mandated) credit report annualy. In some states, namely Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, you may be entitled to more than one free report per year, but not at the annual credit report.com site.You would need to go directly to the consumer reporting agency site and request your extra copy(ies) if you live in one of those states.
• You can stagger your requests for your reports, as you are entitled to one free report from each of the three credit bureaus every twelve months; you need not request one all at the same time. This will help you find discrepancies.
• You can request your credit score - there is a small fee
• You can set up credit monitoring for about $15 per month with one of the credit bureaus and it will apply to all of them - and the credit monitoring is better than with a third party
• You have not released your personal information, like your credit card and social security number to anyone that does not already have it   FreeCreditReport.com may have a catchy tune and cute commercials, but in the long run, the savings to you do not add up. Getting your credit report free and staying on top of your credit yourself is more likely to save you money and less headache by going to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/.

Here is the information on the three national credit bureaus:

Equifax

 P.O. Box 740256

Atlanta, Georgia 30374

www.equifax.com

 

Experian

P.O. Box 9532

Allen, Texas 75013

http://www.experian.com/

 

TransUnion

P.O. Box 6790

Fullerton, CA 92834

http://www.transunion.com/

 

From the https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ Web site:

You may request that consumer credit reporting companies exclude your name from lists for pre-approved, unsolicited credit and insurance offers. To find out more, please call 1–888–5OPTOUT (1–888–567–8688).

To Your Money Pile,

Andrea LaGrow

Andrea@TheMoneyPile.com

Twitter.com/TheMoneyPile    

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