How many of us have looked at anything offered to us for “free”? Not me? Of policy I have. In this day in age when gas prices are listed as “Arm” and “Leg”, providing condition guarnatee for your family costs more than some mortgage payments and the cost of raising kids looks like a hockey stick pasted onto a graph, you bet I look at offers to save money.
Therein lie’s the problem. It seems like the vast majority of American consumers are desperate to cut costs, any costs, and will jump too soon at offers promising to do just that. Sometimes when you integrate a cost cutting mentality with the point of credit, not only to buy the big marker items foremost to us, but more and more to simply survive in this economy, desperation happens. Unfortunately, the marketers know this too. So, without a exiguous study anything can get confused and the likelihood of being taken advantage of increases significantly. The good news is that just a exiguous study will save you plenty.
Take for example, the term “Free prestige Report”. It now ranks right up there with the ubiquitous, “new” and “improved”. “Free prestige Report” has become part of that lexicon of advertising buzz words that are in fact meaningless to me. But for many, there is much obscuring over this term. Why? I think in general because it has been announced that federal law dictates we are all entitled to a free prestige record on the front page of all the newspapers.
We know everyone wants a free prestige report, which is why we started the Iwantafreecreditreport.com site. Habitancy simply want something that is mandated by law to be at no cost, is front page news and is so incredibly foremost to each of us if we want to buy just about anything. We know Habitancy want their free prestige record and because most all of us work so hard for our money, we think Habitancy deserve hearing the truth about the subject. That is why we even put a section on our page entitled, “The Truth About Free prestige Reports”.
So, is it not true? Yes, it is true, it’s just that the devil is in the details and the resulting obscuring has been a bonanza for those seeking to cash in on the confusion. In fact, each of us in the good ole U. S. Of A. Is entitled to a free prestige report. But, how do you get it? Where do you get it? Who is giving it to you? Why is it being offered for free? And most importantly, who cannot offer you one for free?
Who cannot offer a free prestige report? Let’s start with the last one first because it shines a lot of light on the rest of the questions. Any company, web site or aid that is in company for a profit and is not named Experian, Trans Union or Equifax is not able to provide anything at any time with anything remotely resembling a prestige record free of cost. Period. End of story. Got that? Further, there is one place set up on the web to get free copies of prestige reports at no cost and it is: http://www.annualcreditreport.com . We’ll talk more about this site a exiguous later but, other wise, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.
How then are these offers being made? Look closely, the “Free” record is regularly offered initially upon signing up for a aid that charges your prestige card each month for monitoring your credit. If you cancel the aid just in the nick of time, before the fee is made to your card, you will get it at no cost. What a hassle! And the bet is you will wake up at least one, if not a integrate or more months later with some charges to your card. You think these guys make foolish bets?!
Then what caused a free prestige record to be offered on the front page of newspapers, who is providing them and how and where do I get one? Due to the point of buyer prestige history, identity theft and complaints from buyer rights groups about having to buy a prestige record in order to gain knowledge about the contents shown on personel buyer reports, even if it was reported inaccurately, a change was mandated. The Fair and definite buyer Trade Act (Facta), a revision of the Fair prestige Reporting Act, provided for one prestige record free of fee from the reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax) every twelve months, if and only if, you haven’t received a prestige record in the previous twelve months. The consumer, by whether mailing a written ask to the three major prestige reporting agencies or going to http://www.annualcreditreport.com one can regain the free record if they meet the criteria. This schedule was and is being phased in to sections of the country by the prestige reporting agencies starting in the western states, with the northeastern states at the time of this writing still to come.
However, Pamela Yip of The Dallas Morning News writes that even this has not been without its problems. “The Federal Trade Commission said Experian information Solutions Inc., one of the three major prestige bureaus, placed complaints that it "deceptively marketed 'free prestige reports' by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for a prestige record monitoring aid and expensed .95 if they didn't cancel within 30 days…. With the help of the Federal Trade Commission, the bureaus established http://www.annualcreditreport.com as the only authorized online source for consumers to get a free record under federal law. While many consumers haven't had any question getting their reports, others say they've been hit with sales pitches for products and services from the prestige bureaus or were diverted to imposter sites. The Ftc said the company led consumers to its [http://www.freecredit] report.com and [http://www.consumer] info.com Web sites. Radio, Tv, e-mail and Web ads promised free reports and "a bonus – free trials of a credit-monitoring service."
The Ftc said consumers "were assured that: 'Your card will not be expensed while the free trial period. However, valid prestige card information is required to form your account.' "
What the Web sites didn't adequately disclose is that consumers would be expensed the .95 each year fee if they didn't cancel within 30 days, the Ftc said.
"ConsumerInfo billed the prestige cards that it had told consumers were 'required only to form your account,' and, in some cases, automatically renewed memberships by rebilling consumers without notice," the agency said.
As part of the settlement, the Ftc required ConsumerInfo.com, an Experian company, to "give up 0,000 in ill-gotten gains."
Experian also has agreed to provide refunds to consumers who purchased credit-monitoring products and ordered a free prestige record in the middle of Nov. 1, 2000, and Sept. 15, 2003.
"It's unfair and deceptive to promise consumers something for free and then trick them into paying for products they didn't want in the first place," said Lydia Parnes, director of the Ftc's Bureau of buyer Protection.
"It wasn't an effort to mislead at all," said Peg Smith, an Experian menagerial vice president. "We in fact deny any wrongdoing." She does retort that consumers may have been confused.
"To the effect that our product contribution has caused that confusion, we in fact regret that," Ms. Smith said. "We encourage consumers to read the language in any disclosure on any Web site, together with our own."
The Ftc also requires ConsumerInfo.com to state clearly that its free prestige record offer isn't linked to the federal program.” http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=list&p_topdoc=21
And in the interests of full disclosure, no one prestige record or aggregate of three prestige reports by and of themselves is adequate to educate oneself about where you stand as a buyer in the eyes of a lender. Imagine a high speed race boat zooming over a lake at top speed without a steering wheel. Where it is going is a complete mystery but one thing is for sure, it will crash and crash swiftly unless you get control. That’s right, you. Because without your prestige scores and the knowledge about what they mean, how they were calculated or how a lender views them, you are headed for a crash.
No bank, prestige card issuer, mortgage company, sell store or any other prestige supplier will grant you any item, aid or product without seeing almost exclusively at your prestige scores and the median person has no idea what their scores are and even if they did, many if not most, wouldn’t know what they mean.
For example, most Habitancy don’t even know that repeated “pulling” of your prestige reports by inherent prestige grantors lowers your scores by as much as four points per “pull”. You start “shopping” around for the best rate on a prestige card by allowing each prestige issuer to run a prestige record on you and your score will take a dive. The disagreement in the middle of a 699 score and a 700 represents thousands and thousands of dollars in interest.
Often, prestige issuers don’t make it perfectly clear that your prestige history is being accessed when you retort to their offer for a new card over the phone. The call center sales representative also doesn’t elucidate and state clearly to you, that your prestige history will show an “official inquiry” which counts against your scores whether you are proper or rejected.
Most Habitancy don’t know that a maxed out prestige card lowers their scores even if they pay on time every month. Many don’t know until it is too late that one late payment on one prestige card will cause the interest rate expensed to skyrocket not only on that card but any other cards that have a balance! Most also don’t know that a prestige card equilibrium showing less than thirty per cent of the ready equilibrium improves the score. Most don’t know that in calculating prestige scores, your payment history counts as 35% of the score, amounts owed count 30% of the score, distance of your prestige history counts 15% of the score, new prestige is 10% of the score and types of prestige in use is 10%.
What is the truth about free prestige reports? The truth, is that consumers need to read the fine print very, very carefully and get educated. The truth about prestige reports in normal is that only part of the story is being told by one. The truth, is that knowledge is power and without it your money is being taken from you, your buying power and therefore your time to come is being dictated to you rather than by you and that the cost of everything together with guarnatee is based on your scores.
If asked for my advice to the median consumer? Worry less about getting a “free” record and more about the real cost of being ignorant regarding credit. Worry more about the immediate and long term costs of not taking operate of what is reported on your prestige record both the definite and incorrect. Gain some prestige knowledge. It is easy to do and will in fact save you a fortune. One thing is in fact for sure, your money and time to come and your children’s time to come will be severely impacted by your credit. How, is up to you.
The Truth About Free credit Reports