In the middle of the home page at www.freecreditreport.com, in big, highlighted letters, there is a big button labeled, "Get My Instant $1 Credit Report & Score". It also has some big bullet points directly above the huge button to "redeem" this offer:
- Get Your Instant Credit Report & Score for $1
- See your Credit Report & Score instantly
- Find out which factors affect your Score
- Be alerted when your Score goes up or down
Beware! There is fine print at the very top of the page that says when you order this $1 report and score,
you are also signing up for a $19.99 per month membership service fee. I didn't notice the fine print when I ordered the $1 service. I'm sure they make a lot of money from others not noticing the fine print. It's not located near the giant $1 offer advertisement.
Additionally, although you can order the $1 credit report and score online any time during the day or night,
you cannot cancel your "membership" without calling them on the phone during their daytime business hours and going through the directory, being put on hold, then discussing your reason for cancelling this "wonderful" monitoring service.
In my opinion these are
deceptive business practices:
- The fine print about the additional charges and subscription is neither prominent nor in close proximity to the offer they are advertising.
- The cancellation process is neither easy nor convenient.