Written by Michael Rivezzo
The term "free" is a popular buzz word for consumers, every company would use the term loosely in their commercials if it was legal, but companies can't just use the word "free" lightly, it actually has to mean something for nothing. Now the government is taking the initiative to investigate those annoying commercials offering "free" credit reports. After 11,000 complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau stating that consumers where actually charged a monthly fee of $15 dollars. Many complaints stated that the commercials are actually misleading and that the true information lies in the the small print.
The truth is there is only one website where people can actually obtain a free credit report, with no strings attached. Its a government owned website: AnnualCreditReport.com. Through this website everybody is allowed one free credit report a year. The credit-monitoring business is a $700 million dollar a year industry, where analyst saw that people do not need to be checking their credit so much, they can simply get by with the one free credit report a year.
Decision are soon to be made on whether the government will allow these "free" credit report ads to continue. I think they should allow the companies to change the way they market their service, then disallow them from using that stupid jingle.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/22/eveningnews/main5739490.shtml
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2009/11/free_credit_report_websites_wh.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/your-money/credit-scores/03scores.html
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