CreditReport.Com: What You Need to Know First

If you visit CreditReport.com, the first thing you see is an offer to "Get your FREE 2010 Credit Report & Score." The website offers access to a three-in-one credit reports with reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Signing up for your report takes a matter of minutes, and as soon as you're done registering, you are presented with a brief summary of your credit score and credit report. While this may sound like a great offer, there are several factors you must be aware of before signing up for anything through CreditReport.com.

Free Credit Report?

First things first; know who you're dealing with. CreditReport.com is not the same website or service as FreeCreditReport.com. If you have been attracted to the service by those catchy jingles, make sure you head to the right website. However, you should also be aware that while both sites may advertise free credit reports, and offer the same three-in-one report, you are really signing up to try out their credit services. You should also be aware that neither site is affiliated with the government program offering you a free credit report once a year. If you are simply looking for a free credit report, you want to visit www.annualcreditreport.com, the official site of the Annual Credit Report Request Service.

"FREE Report"=Free Trial

As stated above, when signing up at CreditReport.com for your free report, what you are actually signing up for is a trial of their services. Rather than the three-in-one report the full service offers, you will be presented with a single report, provided through TransUnion. While it is technically a free trial, you will see a charge of one dollar on your credit card statement, which is used by the site to verify your credit card information. (Note: This means you must have at least one dollar available on any bank, debit, or credit card you use to sign up for your trial, or else risk the chance of receiving an overdraft fee or other credit card penalties.) The free trial lasts for seven days, at the end of which you will be charged $14.95 for the full service. Once again, if all you are looking for is your free report, you should visit the AnnualCreditReport.com website.

Avoiding Charges

Many people have complained online about receiving unwanted charges from CreditReport.com after viewing their free credit report. Unfortunately, what many of these people seem to not realize is that they signed up for a trial; at the time they were charged, the trial had ended, and they had officially entered a contracted consumer agreement with the site. Failing to cancel your trial within the seven-day trial period will result in a $14.95 monthly fee, whether you knew that's what you signed up for or not.

How to Cancel

However, unlike some sites that allow you to cancel the same way you signed up-that is, via the website or through an email-CreditReport.com does not accept email cancellations. Instead, you must call their toll-free customer service number (which I have included at the end of this article) and speak to a customer support representative. If you think it will be as simple as saying "I want to cancel my trial," think again! Instead, once you state that you are looking to cancel, you will be asked a series of questions regarding both their services and personal questions regarding your subscription to any other service. The questions will include asking you if you are registered elsewhere for similar services, what they offer that CreditReport.com does not, if you are aware of all that CreditReport.com does offer, and how much you pay for your other service or services. It is important that you know you should not feel obligated to answer these questions; it is an invasive way of the company to both get more information out of you than is ever needed to cancel a service and to try and convince you to stick with their service. Most of the questions are prefaced with "May I ask ...?" Simply say no-or, as I was forced to do at least once during the cancellation process, make clear to the representative that the answer to the question being asked is really none of his/her business-and express that all you want to do is cancel your trial. This process will also involve offering you a one-time discounted membership price of $9.95, which you should also feel free to reject and, if necessary, remind the representative that you called to cancel a trial, not register for a discounted service. After being placed on hold for a minute or two, the representative will inform you that your membership or trial has been cancelled, and you will receive an email confirming this.

The tendency of some people will be to wait for the email and simply delete it; the representative did say, after all, that your account had been cancelled. However, this is one case where you should think again. Rather than simply confirming your cancellation, the email from CreditReport.com will essentially take you through the exact same process you just went through on the phone. You must log in to your trial account and click a button that says "De-Activate Monitoring Subscription." Once you click this button, you will once again be asked why you are cancelling the service. You will soon learn that the one-time special offer you received on the phone is actually offered for any reason you cancel, and will be offered again during the online part of your cancellation. You are not offered a way to avoid answering any more questions about cancelling; instead, no matter what reason you select for wanting to cancel on the first screen, you will be forced to click a button that reads "What can you do to help?" This takes you to the screen offering the $9.95 service. On this screen, you are presented with the choice to sign up or say "No thank you" to this offer; make sure you switch the selection from accepting to turning down the $9.95 price (the choice to accept is automatically selected, and if you overlook it and click "Continue" you will be charged). At this point you will have cancelled your service, and will be made aware that you may still receive emails throughout the remainder of your trial period. You should be diligent in checking your credit, debit, or bank card statements to ensure both that the $1 hold has been removed and that you are not charged for any further services.

For more information on CreditReport.com, see their website, or visit the Better Business Bureau national website and research them there. If you have signed up for a free trial with CreditReport.com and wish to cancel, or to speak to a customer service representative about what CreditReport.com offers, you can call their customer service line at: 866-883-3309. Note that their customer service line is open seven days a week, 8am-midnight EST Monday through Friday and 8am to 8pm EST on Saturdays and Sundays. You may also contact them through their support email line, support@creditreport.com; do not, however, attempt to use this address to cancel your trial membership. To check your free annual credit report score, visit the AnnualCreditReport.com website.