Yea we all know the commercials, but have you ever been to the site?
A couple years ago when i was credit cardless(those were the days), i had a late payment on a credit card from my parents account, which also had me listed as a user. It was a payment for a school book and it screwed up my credit pretty bad. Every time i would apply for my own card, i would be declined due to a late payment. I was being declined left and right. So the next step would be to obviously check my credit score online.
Oh hey look! Catchy commercials telling me how to check my credit score for free! awesome
Needless to say i sign up for the website, fill out all my info, click agree to terms and get my score. I don't recall the number but it was pretty good i must say. Which caused a bit of confusion. But hey whatever, my score fine so im happy...... or am i?
You know those looney toons when Sylvester signs a paper by the devil but didnt read the fine print and it turns out he owes his soul to Beelzebub? Well I am the cat, and freecreditreport.com was satan.
In my print out of my credit score I noticed a tiny number deep in the fine print. When you see a big paragraph your eye just goes straight to the abnormality, which in this case were digits. I read the line that the number was on and it stated that although this credit report was free, next month i will be billed $14.99 to my bank account, and will be billed continually every month from then on..... WHAT?! This is far from free. What are they, cocaine dealers?
Post hastily i looked through all the pages and read all the fine print to find my way out. Luckily it wasn't that hard to break my devils contract, but it took a bit of digging. I mean $14.99 isn't the end of the world, but for someone who needs to know if there credit score is or isn't acceptable it could be. I'd say it's hardly an appropriate name for their website.
Maybe OneTimeFreeCreditReportAndThenWeRapeYouMonthly.com
Also, don't you wonder how a website pays for so much air time if their service is free?
that's how the devil lures you in, with songs about living in the basement at her mom and dad's. no i can't get a loan for a respectable home, all because my girl defaulted on some old credit card....
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