Have you ever wanted to check your credit online only to find that all those “free credit scores” sites really aren’t free? You really have to read the fine print for these (in the Terms and Conditions section at the bottom of their websites) or most likely you will get burned. Always read the Terms and Conditions of any website BEFORE you pull out your credit card because sometimes they are so long and involved they will scare the living daylights out of you!
All you want is to be able to check your credit scores to see what they are. Nothing more and nothing less. But most of these so-called free sites want a dollar up front and they want that dollar so that they can get your credit card information. They might say the dollar is refundable so that they can technically say it is “free”. But the key is that you have to enter your credit card number and THAT is how they get you.
You see, they all have a “free trial period” which is most often 7 days and should you forget to cancel within the 7 days they will automatically charge your credit card $29.95 or some other amount that you obviously didn’t want to pay had you known the truth. You are then paying that monthly amount until you are able to get someone on the phone at their company and cancel. THAT is often hard to do.
Some of these fake “free” credit report websites are “freescore360.com”, “freecreditscore.com”, “freescoreonline.com”, “myfreecreditscore.com”, and many others. A general rule seems to be that if they have the word “free” in the URL name, they really aren’t free at all and a credit card is needed to get your scores. The credit card is the big warning sign that trouble is around the corner!
This type of free offer where you get charged at a later date is known as a “rebill” offer and you really have to be careful of them now days. The FTC has even gotten involved to stop these “rebill” type sites in some situations.
So, where can you find really free credit reports and scores online? I just signed up with Credit Karma and never had to pull out my wallet. I only got one of my three credit scores but hey, who cares as they are probably all similar. Credit Karma has an A rating with the BBB and they give you all sorts of charts and information that might be of value to you.
Right now everyone is pretty much in debt and looking for things like debt relief grants. But part of that is knowing what your credit scores look like as they can affect a lot of what you can do financially. It is a shame that so many of these credit score websites are misleading and really not free but it looks like Credit Karma is one of the good guys. They make their money by recommending products to you (that you don’t have to buy) and not by tricking you into a monthly fee.