When You Say Free Credit Report, It Should Be Free
from the just-saying dept
We already know that the various credit report companies think that being forced to give you access to your own credit report for free is un-American, and that they've been using the required free credit reports to trick people into paying for expensive subscription services (not all that different than what some fake credit reports are doing). However, it looks like the FTC is finally cracking down on the practice. It has forced one site to cough up nearly a million dollars for misleading people into believing they were getting a free credit report, when they were really signing up for an $80/year annual membership.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
Don't give them credit card info.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
Don't give any of those bastards you Credit Card info..... vultures
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Free Credit Report
There really is no reason to use the "free" credit report systems. There should never be a time when you say to yourself "I need to know what my credit is and I need to know now, because I have no idea." That shows irresponsible credit usage.
Of course, those free reports don't include a "credit score" that rates you compared to others, but then, that tells you nothing anyways.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Birds
Industries built on sham to begin with, tend to attract more of the same. The practice is in line with the ethics of the industry anyway. Birds of a feather..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
these companies are getting rich by peddling information they have gathered about people by spying on them. certainly the victims at least deserve to see what exactly the companies have gathered about them. charging a person to see what a voyeur has spied about them is a double injury. obviously they can earn more than enough money peddling the information they gather, at least force them to give it away to the victims for free.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]