FaceBook
Twitter
RSS
Email
FTC Cracks Down on Free Credit Report Scams with Catchy Parody Spoofs
The FTC is finally cracking down on the ‘free credit report’ companies who lure you in with the promise of a free credit report, and then upsell and switch to paid memberships. You know the ones with the catchy jingles, right? (I won’t give them the link).
New FTC Regulations on Free Credit Report Advertising
Starting April 2nd, new advertising regulations will go into effect for all companies claiming to offer free credit reports. This, from the FTC:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued new regulations regarding the advertisement of “free credit reports,” which will go into effect April 2nd, 2010. The new regulations are designed to protect consumers from being misled by offers for “free” credit reporting, monitoring or other products or services that actually cost money.
Beginning April 2nd, the FTC will require prominent disclosures in all advertisements for “free credit reports” to prevent deceptive marketing. This disclosure will inform consumers that they can receive no-strings-attached, federally mandated free credit reports AnnualCreditReport.com or (877) 322-8228. The disclosure (found below) must also include a clickable button to “Take me to the authorized source,” along with clickable links to AnnualCreditReport.com and FTC.GOV.
Any website that offers free credit reports must include the following disclosure at the top of each page that mentions “free credit reports”.
The FTC has also upped their game by creating some catchy spoof video parodies of one of the websites the new regulations will impact. Wow, really? The government running funny advertisements? That’s a first.
Here’s one of them:
AnnualCreditReport.com is the Only Trustworthy Free Credit Report Site, Mandated by the U.S. Government
Over two years ago, I highlighted how to get 3 free credit reports annually, spread over the course of each year. The advice in that post is the same today. The only authorized credit report site (by law) that provides you with three free credit reports annually is annualcreditreport.com. You can get one free from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
I, for one, applaud them for cracking down on shady bait-and-switch advertisers.
Free Credit Report Discussion
- Have you been duped by the catchy jingle or other advertising for free credit reports? What was your experience?
- Do you approve of the FTC stepping in to regulate the advertising?
- Are you using annualcreditreport.com?
Related Posts:
My name is G.E. Miller and 
I was surprised they weren’t doing this sooner.
So many credit report companies were using fraudulent methods to incite people to sign up.
@ Smarter – Yes, it’s probably one of those things where you get enough people complaining about the business practices, the government takes action. They had to build a case before jumping in and regulating.
We ladder our credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. I’ve never fallen for the catchy jingles even though I do get the songs stuck in my head…
So many credit report companies were using fraudulent methods to incite people to sign up.
Has anyone stumbled upon the actual magical formula that the Big 3 use to compute your credit score? There has to be an actuarial model somewhere…
@ Brian – the closest thing I’ve seen is % makeup. I’d be really interested to see that as well.
I’ve just spent an hour trying to get my free annual report – can’t get through because I get error report that I haven’t correctly entered the letters/numbers. I’ve tried the alternat, which is a group of numbers. It looks like there’s a space between each letter. I’ve tried both ways and still get message that I haven’t correctly entered the numbers. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I’ve never had trouble entering letters/numbers on any other site. It’s like they don’t want to send the annual free report the law says I’m entitled to.