by Allan M. Heller

Created on: February 23, 2009

The main advantage of Freecreditreport.com is the expediency with which the requested information is delivered. By law, Americans are entitled to one yearly credit report at no cost, which they can obtain by simply visiting the URL www.annualcreditreport.com and supplying their personal information, or by calling a toll-free number and doing the same. This process may take a few weeks, however. Freecreditreport.com delivers an instant e-mail credit report, which remains online for a month. But the company will not mail a hard copy, so individuals using shared computers might not wish to compromise their credit score. Freecreditreport.com falls under the aegis of ConsumerInfo.com, which is in turn overseen by Experian, the largest of the three credit reporting agencies. The others are Equifax and TransUnion. These agencies are publicly-traded companies, and not affiliated with the federal government.

Freecreditreport.com is in business to make money, and does not do so by issuing free credit reports. Users must first sign up for a trial membership in a program called Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring, which provides oversight from each of the three credit reporting companies for $14.95 per month. This supposedly alerts consumers to suspicious activity, as well as to who is investigating their credit scores. Here a discrepancy arises: on the home page, in a paragraph above a disclaimer regarding www.annualcreditreport.com, it reads that customers who do not cancel their trial membership within seven days will be billed the monthly charge of $14.95, but in a footnote to that claim it reads that customers have nine days in which to cancel to avoid the charge.

Restrictions stipulate that the free credit report only applies to new customers, and that residents of New York state are ineligible. Those unable to receive a free credit report for either of these reasons can still purchase one from Experian for $14.95, or from all three agencies for $25 more, by following a link on Freecreditreport.com . People who need a second credit report in one year might also purchase one here, but the $39.95 triple report seems redundant.

Identity theft is a major concern today, and an entire industry has sprung up to both combat and capitalize on this pervasive problem. Freecreditreport.com states that it will reimburse customers up to $50,000 for losses incurred through identity theft, if said identity theft occurs while customers are subscribed to the Triple Advantage credit monitoring.

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