FreeCreditReport.com Review

FreeCreditReport.com is a great service to see your credit report online for free, offered by Experian, one of the top 3 credit bureaus in the US. The offer allows you to view your current Experian credit report online for free for 30 days. However, you must provide your credit card information to access it, and if you do not cancel within the free 30 day trial, you will be charged $12 per month for their credit monitoring service.

The interface is very simple to use, and provides all the information you need to be able to dispute items on your credit report that may be inaccurate. There is even a link to Experian to dispute those items.

I had no interest in monitoring my credit monthly to receive alerts when items changed on my credit bureau report, I just wanted to see what Experian had on my report and dispute an entry I knew was inaccurate. I did not cancel the account immediately after viewing my report, because I did dispute an entry and wanted to re-view my report when the dispute was resolved. Three days before my free trial was to expire, I attempted numerous times to access my account, however, I continuously arrived at an error page when attempting to log in. Without being able to log in, I wasn't even able to get the correct telephone number to cancel the account over the telephone.

Not surprisingly, I was able to log in the day AFTER my free trial ended and I was charged for the next month of credit monitoring. When I called for a refund, it took over half an hour to talk to someone and then they were unable to give me a refund, and instead, offered me an extra month of free monitoring. Hmmmm, give me something I don't want for an extra month for free instead of giving me a refund of what I paid for that I didn't want. Just their way of hoping I will forget to cancel before they get another month's fee out of me.

I do recommend using the service, its a very valuable tool to check your credit history and prevent identity theft. However, after you view your free report, if you don't want to pay for monthly monitoring, cancel immediately. I was able to receive the results of my dispute directly from Experian even after cancelling the FreeCreditReport.com membership.