Back when Mandy and I decided to buy a house, I signed up for FreeCreditReport.com to get a copy of my credit report. They force you to sign up with a credit card for their one-month trial and then start billing you after the month is up. I no longer need their services, so I called up today to cancel.
Wow, talk about an upsell. First I had the wonderful benefits of the site re-explained to me twice, then offered the service at half price for six months, then offered a free month (after which they’d start billing me again), then told to pull up my credit report because I had not in a while. With each offer, I simply responded “No thanks, I’d just like to cancel my account.” I got to say that seven times.
Fifteen minutes later, account is canceled.
So just be warned. Like so many subscription services these days, it’s easy to get in, but painful to get back out.
7 replies on “Cancelling a FreeCreditReport.com account is an exercise in pain”
Might be beneficial to get that in writing.
-rphillips
They sent along an email confirming cancellation, so I’m reasonably sure it’s done. Just have to watch the CC to make sure.
There was actually a settlement involving these guys and their predatory signup and cancellation practices a few years ago … I think I was offered monthly monitoring as part of the settlement. I see they haven’t changed much.
You better make sure it is canceled. They might just have said they canceled it, and then not actually cancel. AOL did that to me.
I was recently a victim of freecreditreport.com – Somehow they got my credit card # and charged me a total of 74.75.
I sent the following letter to
ConsumerInfo.com
Attn: Customer Care
PO Box 19729
Irvine, CA 92623-9729
Please refund me $74.75 that you have mistakenly charged me for a service I never consciously requested.
I never knew I was being charged or that I even signed up for the service for that matter.
I used a yahoo e-mail address that I never look at because it fills up with spam to the point that it is useless.
I find it hard to believe that I actually entered my credit card number online, but I may have thinking that it was a security measure. A lot of services charge your card $1 to verify the account is valid.
I spoke with 3 separate customer service representatives about my situation. The first guy just hung up on me because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise (I was not swearing, just extremely frustrated)(
The second woman was very understanding and sympathetic and did a good job easing some of my frustrations by refunding September charges.
But as I thought about it more, it really was eating away at me because I NEVER sign up for free trials that require me to voluntarily cancel. So I called you a third time and found out the exact day and time that I signed up February 25th, 2008 at 9:25 am. I accessed my credit report at 9:26 pm and never again after that. The method I used to reach your site was tagged as “search engine” so the page I landed on was not the front page where your disclosure statement is quite clear. As I recall, I used a website that linked me in to different sites directly to the request forms for the 3 credit agencies. The premise of the service was that this is totally free.
Why would I expect to be being charged for something by a company whose name says it’s free? I find your business plan extremely effective, but very unethical.
I am attaching the credit card statements that show the charges that I would like returned to me. You started charging me in April and continued until August. That’s 6 x 14.95.
I have already been refunded the last payment so I expect a refund of 14.95 x 5. That comes out to $74.75
I keep wondering? Do you not see that something is wrong with your business based on the sheer volume of people complaining about fees they were unaware of?
Please refund my $74.75 as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Trevor Jordet
They refunded me 29.90 which really made me angry, so I sent them the following letter:
Dear “free”creditreport.com,
Are you Kidding me?
What is the problem? I sent the attached letter requesting a full refund of $74.75 and you refunded me $29.90
This isn’t some third world country where you barter down your debt.
It’s like pulling teeth to get you to do the right thing!!! Give me my money back you cheating lying #%$#%$#!!!
You owe me $44.85.
I swear I will do everything in my power to let everyone know that freecreditreport.com is a scamming operation that is stealing millions of dollars daily.
You owe me
$44.85
Give me back my money!!!
Thank you,
Trevor Jordet
I sent an e-mail copy of it to Support@FreeCreditReport.com and almost instantly received this reply:
Dear Trevor Jordet:
Thank you for writing and we apologize for the inconvenience.
We have already initiated a refund of $44.85 to your account. This refund should appear on your next billing cycle.
Thank you for using FreeCreditReport.com.
Sincerely,
Beth G.
Customer Care Representative
I just canceled mine. It was extremely easy and it took me only 5 minutes :D I sent an e-mail also just to be sure :)
GOOD LUCK!
At least you were able to cancel yours over the phone. Every time I called I was put on hold for hours, until eventually they would send me to a voicemail (which wouldn’t accept a message), and say that the office was close and to call back tomorrow. This went on for weeks. Finally I bombarded them with literally hundreds of emails and they canceled my account. It wasn’t fun. I love the irony of a company designed to help you repair your credit that traps you in a cycle of endless payments, and is in itself, just another credit risk.