For a long while now, Americans have been subjected to unfortunate campaigns of deception by credit monitoring companies on the whole matter of “free” credit reports. When a change in U.S. law demanded that citizens be privy to a free copy of their credit reports once each year, offers of “free” credit reports began popping up in great numbers. The problem? Only one service provider to this end, AnnualCreditReport.com, was explicitly created by the three major reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to offer a once-a-year report to consumers that’s truly free. The rest? The offer of a free credit report has been merely an act of deception designed to trick consumers into buying other services, like ongoing credit monitoring coverage.
It’s a little surprising that it has taken so long for a clear case of deception against consumers to be addressed in a meaningful way, but we should be grateful that the changes are now in place.
As an aside…does this mean that the guys in the pirate hats will be singing the new disclaimer as a part of their various and catchy songs? I guess we’ll know soon enough.
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