My husband and I were thinking about buying a new house a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to check our credit scores. I searched through the 3 main companies (Equifax, Transunion, and Experian), and I decided to order the scores/reports through truecredit.com (owned by Transunion). It includes reports and scores from all 3 agencies. The website claims "no obligation, cancel anytime" and in the service agreement section, it says that there was a 30-day free trial and that my credit card would not be charged until the end of the trial.
What a nightmare. My card was charged almost immediately. Today, I called to cancel the service, waited on hold for an eternity, and then was told that they would cancel the service but would not refund my money. Apparently, the main product they advertise (which is the reports/scores from all 3 agencies) is not eligible for the free trial. OK, I admit, I was dumb to even think it would be easy to cancel this service. I should never have bothered in the first place. I should have checked the BBB website before I did this - True Credit is ranked a "D"!! I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and am hoping to have my money refunded.
I would suggest staying away completely from purchasing any type of credit monitoring service. The official website for obtaining your free report is www.annualcreditreport.com. You can request your credit report from all 3 agencies once per year. When you get your free report, if you want, you can buy one score or the score from all 3.
On a separate vent - I can't believe we have to pay for our credit score. That really is ridiculous. If we as consumers want to be prepared to negotiate when we are making a big purchase (i.e., car or house), we should have the right to access our score for free!! Just my opinion.
You offer some really good
You offer some really good advise regarding something I wasn't entirely familiar with myself. Thank you, and I'm sorry you took the "hit."
I agree with you, it does
I agree with you, it does seem ridiculous that we have to pay to know our credit scores. Thank you for the info though, sorry you had to learn the hard way. Your advice will certainly help others.
Hobbymommy, 38, is a discussion leader from Mesa. She is a happy stay-at-home mommy to a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.
It does seem awful to have
It does seem awful to have to pay for something that is uniquely your own. However, I have had good luck with myfico.com. I usually buy all three agencies, so that I can check each score and make sure that all of my credit holders are accurately reported.
www.annualcreditreport.com
www.annualcreditreport.com does the job. It doesnt give you very much detail but its enough to find out on your own.
Wouldn't your mortgage
Wouldn't your mortgage broker or bank/lender run all that for you, at no cost anyway? Anytime you ask?
I seem to recall getting our scores for free from our bank, BofA, once we were refinancing, buying, etc. etc.
Happy2BMommy, is a stay-at-home mom who just turned 40 (argh!) with a 6 yr. old daughter and a 4 yr. old son, and is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Scottsdale.