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Are People Getting Misled by AnnualCreditReport.com?
Posted on Nov 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I'm a little peeved about the annualcreditreport.com site. And when I explain why, you might laugh or shake your head. But I have empirical evidence to back it up.
As you may know, AnnualCreditReport.com is the ONLY valid web site for getting the free annual credit report you are entitled to by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA).
I have been doing some live testing (actual users) and found an anomaly. The ACR.com home page is poorly designed.
When visiting the annualcreditreport.com site, where you SHOULD click to order a report is the pulldown menu where you select your location and then click "request report." However, you will see there are three logos of the credit bureaus very prominently displayed in the middle of the page. To inexperienced users, those logos appear to be a menu. So they click on one of them which takes the user to a credit bureau home page. The CRA home pages, unfortunately, very prominently market a RADICALLY different free credit report. For example the Experian web site currently says (in a huge font) "Get a free Experian® credit score and report." This is more than a little misleading. It is NOT free (credit card required for 30 day trial) and it is most certainly not the free FACTA credit report. In that situation, people are taking out their credit card, getting signed up for a "free" trial and after 30 days, if they dont cancel, their card is charged.
I bet that thousands of people have been duped by this misleading ACR.com web page. I have emprical evidence it is happening. I had people try this ACR.com site out a significant percentage of the people stumbled and thought they were supposed to click on the icons. And these people are NOT dummies. They just don't have deep knowledge of the credit reporting industry.
I won't accuse the bureaus of doing this on purpose, and I couldn't prove it if I thought they did. I just want it to get it fixed.
I know I am spinning my wheels, but here's my solution. Either (1) Someone at CentralSource LLC (the joint venture that runs ACR.com) make a change to the home page (unlikely), or (2) Someone at the FTC step up, get on the phone and apply some pressure to make it happen. Make the logos unclickable.
Any thoughts? Submit a comment.
Comments
credit history online on Aug 27, 2007
It deals with credit. Or in simple common language credit report deals with money matters. In any type of deal a clear-cut idea regarding monetary transaction is a must from both sides. The borrower must have a transparency about his/her financial status and the lender has every right to know about the borrower's position. Then can only take place a fair deal. Credit report is one such avenue that allows both the parties to carry on with their process of credit lending.
Information in your credit report in fact is enough to prove your identity. From the basic level of the means to recognize you till the tits and bits of your credit history and public record everything is put together in the credit report. Now won't you call it a safety tool of every individual who is at the same time a respective consumer?
In a consumer credited society you just can't turn your back towards the consumer report. Precisely it only secures your financial position but also is as important as your existence or being on this earth. It's no kidding but the real fact.
Matter related to your identity
marie nauth on Sep 14, 2007
I was dupped by freecreditreport.com. Very misleading. To get the credit report, you must agree to a free month of updates on your credit. Then they charge you $12.95 per month for the service. This should be stopped. When you try to call and cancel, you cannot get through. So your credit report is not free.
Credit History Online on Sep 22, 2007
I'm a little peeved about the creditreport-us.com site. And when I explain why, you might laugh or shake your head. But I have empirical evidence to back it up.
As you may know, CreditReport-us.com is the ONLY valid web site for getting the free annual credit report you are entitled to by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA).
I have been doing some live testing (actual users) and found an anomaly. The ACR.com home page is poorly designed.
When visiting the creditreport-us.com site, where you SHOULD click to order a report is the pulldown menu where you select your location and then click "request report." However, you will see there are three logos of the credit bureaus very prominently displayed in the middle of the page. To inexperienced users, those logos appear to be a menu. So they click on one of them which takes the user to a credit bureau home page. The CRA home pages, unfortunately, very prominently market a RADICALLY different free credit report. For example the Experian web site currently says (in a huge font) "Get a free Experian® credit score and report." This is more than a little misleading. It is NOT free (credit card required for 30 day trial) and it is most certainly not the free FACTA credit report. In that situation, people are taking out their credit card, getting signed up for a "free" trial and after 30 days, if they dont cancel, their card is charged.
I bet that thousands of people have been duped by this misleading ACR.com web page. I have emprical evidence it is happening. I had people try this ACR.com site out a significant percentage of the people stumbled and thought they were supposed to click on the icons. And these people are NOT dummies. They just don't have deep knowledge of the credit reporting industry.
I won't accuse the bureaus of doing this on purpose, and I couldn't prove it if I thought they did. I just want it to get it fixed.
I know I am spinning my wheels, but here's my solution. Either (1) Someone at CentralSource LLC (the joint venture that runs ACR.com) make a change to the home page (unlikely), or (2) Someone at the FTC step up, get on the phone and apply some pressure to make it happen.
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