I always wondered how a company like Freecreditreport.com could afford all those fancy television ads and provide a free service to consumers. If it's "free," who pays for the ads? This falls under the category "If it sounds too good to be true, it is."
The folks at Experian, the company that owns Freecreditreport.com, didn't flat out lie or anything . You do get a copy of your credit report at no charge but only after you enroll in a $14.95 a month credit monitoring service.
Turns out the Federal Trade Commission has been working for years to try to force Freecreditreport.com to more clearly disclose that "free" refers to the one time credit report you receive AFTER you sign up for their credit monitoring service. It was reported that the FTC fined Experian twice for deceptive advertising - once for $950,000 and another one for $300,000. Meanwhile, London based Experian posted earnings for 2009 at $3.9 billion. Even when you consider the costs for the Freecreditreport.com ads are estimated at $58 million dollars a year, these fines amount to nothing more than a light slap on the wrist.
The good news is that there is a way to get a TRULY FREE credit report. It's called AnnualCreditReport.com. By Federal law, consumers are entitled to receive a FREE copy of their credit report once a year from all three credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.
You can also protect yourself against identity theft by putting a freeze on your credit. Instead of paying $200 a year for a credit card monitoring service, just sign up online with all three bureaus and freeze your credit. The charge to freeze or "temporarily thaw" your credit by using a personal identification number (PIN) is typically less than $10 per bureau depending on where you live.
Here are a few websites to get you started:
https://www.freeze.equifax.com/
http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html
https://annualcreditreport.transunion.com/fa/securityFreeze/landing
Consumers should always be cautious when signing up for anything that claims to be "free." Rarely are there no strings attached. It's important to always read the fine print especially with cleverly designed online ads. You can also check the Better Business Bureau for a list of complaints.
