AnnualCreditReport.com The Real Free Credit Report Website

I was lucky enough to not fall for the trap laid out so smoothly by the website, freecreditreport.com and I happen to read an article in Consumer Reports (while at my mothers house) telling me to go to annualcreditreport.com to get a free copy of my credit report off of all three agencies, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax.

I read an article on the web which I will share with you here:

There’s nothing free about FreeCreditReport.com. Like so many other come-ons you hear on late-night TV, you just can’t trust that word “free.”

I’ll explain the Web site’s misleading advertisements in a moment, but first, here’s what you really need to know: When you want to see your credit report, you want to use AnnualCreditReport.com. There, you can actually get your credit report for free. Congress gave you the right to see your report every year for free, so there’s no reason to visit any pay sites – like FreeCreditReport.com – to plunk down money for it.

In fact, this month marks the one-year anniversary of the liberation of your credit report by Congress. In September 2005, every consumer in America was granted the right to obtain a free copy of his or her credit report every year.

If you obtained your free credit report at this time last year, here’s a reminder that you can get a fresh version now at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Also one year ago, credit bureau Experian was also slapped on the wrist by the Federal Trade Commission for misleading consumers at its FreeCreditReport.com Web site. The FTC said Experian didn’t make clear to consumers that they would be charged $79 for an annual subscription after they signed up at FreeCreditReport.com.

What the FTC didn’t say (but was abundantly clear to anyone with a brain) was that FreeCreditReport.com and Experian were benefiting from confusion over news stories telling consumers were entitled to a free copy of their credit report every year. And the site was designed to add to the confusion.

While not admitting wrongdoing, Experian agreed last August to give consumers refunds and make the terms of its product clearer. One year later, how is the company doing? The television ads are as misleading as ever. On the other hand, the Web site itself is improved, with a disclaimer featured fairly prominently. But it would be a stretch to say the terms are clear, the price is clear and consumers are being treated fairly.

Source:MSNBC.com

Also, being a listener to Dave Ramsey he suggested since you can choose which of the three credit report bureaus you want to use it would be good to split it up every 4 months, that way you can track your report on a more regular basis and not worry about identity theft or fraud being done to your name.

Also, lifelock is a service that provides protection against identity theft, but in reality, all they do is put fraud alerts through the credit bureaus which basically means you will get a phone call if someone tries get credit approved in your name (what they don’t tell you is this service is actually free) but I guess what you are actually paying for is the renewal of the fraud alert.  Another thing they do for you is request you be removed from any future junk mail lists, which is also free if you go to annualcreditreport.com.

To me, these are just another example of someone finding an opportunity to make some money of the ignorance of the masses.  Who if not informed, would not think twice about paying someone to do what is actually free if you know the right place to go…