Been curious ever since the kerfuffle broke out on Monday about the non-free-ness of freecreditreport.com about whether there would be any intimation of the controversy on the freecreditreport.com site. Methinks no. Yes, there is information on the home page in the bottom left corner disclosing that, oh, BTW, after a 7-day free trial, users will incur a monthly fee, but what's on the site now looks very much in keeping with how it was described in The New York Times story that brought the non-free-ness to light. It says " ... that language is in small print on the side of the home page on a subdued background, versus the large font and rich colors promoting enrollment." I don't expect the folks at freecreditreport.com to change so radically that they'd change the name of the site to, say $14.95/monthcreditreport.com, but at a time when consumers have access to the full range of pluses and minuses about a service, it seems that the best route to go is to be transparent, and freecreditreport.com's stance so far is to mislead. The days of being able to get away with stuff like this are numbered.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Free Credit Report home page same as it ever was
Been curious ever since the kerfuffle broke out on Monday about the non-free-ness of freecreditreport.com about whether there would be any intimation of the controversy on the freecreditreport.com site. Methinks no. Yes, there is information on the home page in the bottom left corner disclosing that, oh, BTW, after a 7-day free trial, users will incur a monthly fee, but what's on the site now looks very much in keeping with how it was described in The New York Times story that brought the non-free-ness to light. It says " ... that language is in small print on the side of the home page on a subdued background, versus the large font and rich colors promoting enrollment." I don't expect the folks at freecreditreport.com to change so radically that they'd change the name of the site to, say $14.95/monthcreditreport.com, but at a time when consumers have access to the full range of pluses and minuses about a service, it seems that the best route to go is to be transparent, and freecreditreport.com's stance so far is to mislead. The days of being able to get away with stuff like this are numbered.
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I recently saw this website - http://www.freebiecreditreport.com - claiming that you can get a credit report and credit score 100% free. Ha! Yeah as long as you remember to cancel the 7 day trial. Consumer beware, sign up for these services if you must, but remember to cancel before trial ends or be billed up to $30/month. Yeah well needless to say I neglected to cancel within the free trial and had to shell out the dough.
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