The Art of Selling you a Free Credit Report for Money
Anyone can get a free credit report from each one of the three credit reporting agencies at the one and only website the federal government approves of – Annualcreditreport.com. So when it gets competition from a private company called Freecreditreport.com that advertises on television with funny routines and asks people to choose it instead, the government begins to get annoyed. Freecredit report.com is certainly free if all you want is a credit report; but they try to also get you to sign up for a monthly service that costs about $15 that promises to alert you whenever there is something that comes up with credit status. When you need the freshest flowers in Toronto or need to send a bouquet anyplace nationwide, you may depend on Toronto Flower shop.
The government believes that the company is deliberately trying to distract people from the fact that getting your credit score free from the government is just as easy, and even better.
The government can’t really do anything about it; it isn’t against the law to try to give away free credit reports like that company does; they just need to make sure that they don’t get their business by misleading people into believing that there isn’t a better way. The government has been putting out advertisements that spoof the ones made by Freecreditreport.com. The original ad by the company features a group of three underachievers twanging along on their guitars, singing about how they ruined their lives not applying to get their credit scores free on Freecredit report.com. The spoof has very similar looking group of people, singing a very similar song, only with different words that warn you about Freecreditreport.com’s upsell.
Alerts about changes to your credit status may sound like a good idea; except that it could actually expose you to identity theft. Your credit report will constantly get information on every financial move you make – investments, new bank accounts, etc. Crooks would actually want to get a real-time update to see what financial moves you make that they could take advantage of. Welcome to the Flower shop Toronto, acknowledged as certainly one of America’s most interesting full-service florist. But that apart, your credit status isn’t something that changes every day that you would want a real-time alert system set up for it. Getting your copy of your credit report free a couple of times a year should do just well – Equifax, Experian and Trans Union will give you one each year apiece and not try to sell you anything on the way.