I really like some of the commercials done by the folks at freecreditreport.com. They’re just plain funny.
I think they’ve made a total of six commercials to date, but I’m partial to two in particular.
Remember the first one with the guy dressed up like a pirate in some restaurant serving chowder and iced tea and fish to tourists in t-shirts. And then in the next commercial he’s singing about how he’s stuck living in his in-laws’ basement instead of having a nice home in the suburbs all because of his wife’s poor credit.
There’s one big problem with the commercials though. While they’re humorous and have a catchy tune, they also lead people to believe they can go online to www.freecreditreport.com and get their credit report with no strings attached. What people don’t understand from the commercials is that to get the credit report, they have to sign up for a trial membership in a credit monitoring service. And if they don’t cancel that service within the seven day trial period, they’ll be stuck paying $14.95 per month.
If yoo’d like to get your credit report without spending a penny, you can. Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), each of the big three credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union) must, when asked, provide every consumer with one free annual credit report.
To get a credit report that really is totally free, simply call the official toll-free number: (877) 322-8228 or go to annualcreditreport.com and order your report online or print out a form and put your request in the mail.
I also wrote about annualcreditreport.com in a previous post called “Check Your Credit Report After Receiving Your Bankruptcy Dishcarge.”
