by Chajuana Thompson

Created on: February 22, 2009

Those great commercials! I find myself singing that little tune every time one of those catchy, cute commercials comes on. Then I tried them. Not as great as the commercials at all. Freecreditreport.com is a company that allows their customers to receive one free online Experian credit report online. But read the small print carefully. This is only a seven day trial period, and if you do not remember to stop your membership, your credit card is continuously billed $14.95 monthly until you cancel the membership.

Now in much smaller print the website has information that says you can cancel your membership at anytime within nine days from the date of enrollment. Hmmmmmmm, is it nine or seven, I recommend you cancel in three, just to be certain you make the deadline. Furthermore, during your trial offer you may only be able to view your Experian credit report and score. It may take a few extra days before Equifax, and TransUnion information becomes available to access. With no surprise this usually takes place after the trial period has ended.

Cancelling a membership can be a nightmare! When I called to cancel my membership it took them four additional months to stop charging my card monthly. Now they credited those four months back to my card, while taking two hours to try to convince me not to cancel membership. They even offered me a thirty day trial period if I stayed with the company, which I really didn't need since I had four previous months of credit reports to view if I had any concerns.

This website does supply the mandatory information that a consumer can receive a copy of their credit report once every twelve months free of cost. These reports do not contain a credit score, though if you have a lot of charge offs, or delinquencies, it wouldn't be nave to assume that the scores may be low.

Some of the reasons this website provides to use their services are that they monitor all three credit reports daily, inform you of any changes, and allow you to check for inaccuracies that may appear on your reports. It also states that knowing your credit score can help you when applying for loans to receive lower interest rates which can save you money.

The truth is that you don't need this service to perform these important tasks. In addition to your legal rights to a free annual credit report from each credit reporting agency, if you apply for any type of credit, and are denied, you can request a free copy of your credit report. When applying for home, auto or other types of loans, these companies will request you credit report and score, so the necessity for a monthly credit monitoring service seems unnecessary and redundant.

Now those commercials, can we join a monthly service to keep those great advertisements coming? That would be worth the $14.95 a month.

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