Is this a scam? A “cheap” credit score that costs a lot more

Carolyn Soucy thought she was getting a good deal on a credit score: Just $1 through a company called Experian Credit Monitoring.

But now that she’s seen her final credit card bill, she says she feels scammed.

On its website, Experian promotes a service called the Experian Credit Tracker that appears to be available for the low price of just $1.

But after you click on the offer, you’re eventually charged $14.95 for the membership.

The site is a little confusing. As you can see from the above screenshots, the red button clearly says “Limited Time Offer; Get your credit score and report for $1!” The yellow button only states “Get Your Credit Report and Score”. But both buttons go to the same page.

Soucy received no receipt, only a charge of $14.95 to her credit card. According to the customer representative she contacted, this non-refundable purchase was explained to her in its terms.

It is also spelled out just below the offer:

When you order your $1 Credit Report & Score, you will begin your 7-day trial membership in Experian Credit Tracker. If you don’t cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period**, you will be billed $17.95 for each month that you continue your membership. You may cancel your trial membership anytime within the trial period without charge.

The company added,

We sincerely apologize, but the credit report and/or credit score you purchased from Experian Credit Monitoring is a one-time only, transactional product and is not part of any membership.

Once the credit bureau pulled the credit report and/or credit score and made it available to you, the credit report and/or credit score became a non-refundable purchase, as stated in our Terms and Conditions.

If this “one-time only” product is not part of any membership, then why can’t she get a partial refund? Well apparently, even if you are a member you still can’t get a refund. According to the Terms and Service Agreement,

If for any reason you are not satisfied, you can cancel at any time to discontinue the membership and stop the monthly billing; however, you will not be eligible for a prorated refund of any portion of your current month’s paid membership fee.

Soucy believes this offer is bogus.

“They have not addressed my question,” she says. “I thought I was paying $1 for a service, though in the end was charged $14.95. They don’t seem to be listening.”

But is this a scam? Technically, Experian has made the required disclosures, although its site is confusing to customers like Soucy and may be leading others to make a purchase they don’t want. (Incidentally, she’s entitled to her credit report at no charge through this site, so she may have spent the money for nothing.)

But from a customer-service perspective, this Experian offer leaves a lot to be desired. Soucy feels duped — and rightfully so.

  • Anonymous

    I actually had to use the $1 report deal recently–my ex-husband’s debts were showing up on my credit reports.  I know this because, as you note, you are entitled to free reports from annualcreditreport.com, and I usually pull one report from each agency in January, April/May, and September/October.  When I found out that one agency was reporting my ex-husband’s debts, I needed to check all of them.  Experian wanted $1 because I had already pulled my report from them earlier in the year.  

    It was clear that I needed to cancel within 7 days or I’d be charged.  It’s not really fine print.  I pulled the report and called to cancel 10 minutes later.

    Consumers do have some responsibility to read disclaimers.  This one was pretty darned obvious.  It’s no more a scam than any other similar type of satisfaction-guaranteed offer.  I suspect it is more the case that credit bureaus are universally hated and thus likely to be considered unscrupulous.

  • Bob

    I tried to take advantage of the same offer and saw that they had charged me $14.95. I looked through the site trying to determine what I would get for my money and never found it. I wanted to call and cancel before the 7 days were up, but they did not have a “contact us” link on the page, so trying to call them was next to impossible.

    I eventually found a number, called them, and their rep tried to talk me into keeping the service. I explained to him that there were a great many other sites that offer this service and they are more straightforward with what they offer and how to contact them. When I asked why a major credit bureau did not have a simple “contact us” link as most business websites do, he had no answer.

    Experian could be honest and provide full information, but they have made a conscious decision to be deceptive and push legal limits right to the line without stepping over it.

  • Xz398

    I just recieved a new credit card this month, and this was offered when I checked in by phone to activate my account. I know one can get an free- and  annual credit report from each of the three companies. I also have CreditSelect monitoring for free ((also Experian) from AAA as part of my membership. They voice really does a guilt trip presentation,but free beats $1n every time
    !

  • Anonymous

    People, for the last time, you are entitled to–BY LAW–one free credit report per year from all three of the major credit reporting agencies. Anyone who tries to charge you for a credit report is a SCAM ARTIST.

  • Andi330

    People who have had problems with identity theft often like to keep track of their credit report more often than just once a year. In that situation the $15 a month to get a copy of your report through one of these services is (to them) worth the peace of mind that they get. However, it is true that most people only need to check it once a year or so and can get it for free.

  • DL

    On the surface the offer looks pretty straightforward, but if it sounds like a good offer then there’s probably a catch.  I haven’t run across one of these kinds of offers yet that doesn’t build in some type of recurring cost.  These places rely on people either not reading the fine print, or forgetting to cancel in time.

    I think these kinds of offers are unethical.  There should always be an option at the time of purchase to immediately opt out of the recurring charges.  Or better yet, they should just give the person what they paid $1 for and never bother them again.  In my opinion they’d be more likely to build an approving customer base this way than by charging for a service that the customer didn’t really want in the first place.

    Isn’t there litigation going on over whether the score that they sell an individual is the same score that they sell the creditors?  The argument is that the credit bureaus lead you to believe that you’re purchasing the latter, when in fact you’re purchasing a different (and presumably irrelevant) score.

  • DL

    Please keep in mind that “credit report” (what you’re talking about) and “credit score” (what the offer appears to be for) are not one and the same.  My understanding is that you ARE entitled to a free credit report annually from each bureau, but you ARE NOT entitled to know your credit score without paying for it.  I believe you are also entitled to a free credit report if you are denied credit or services due to information provided by a credit bureau.

  • Shannonfla

    This is a case of something too good to be true - to a certain extent.  Obviously the $1 price is a bait-and-potential-switch.  With a price like that, you have to be extra careful to read the fine print and know what is involved.  I recently signed up for a bunch of ancestry sites for free but was careful to cancel after the initial trial.  However, as careful as I was, I missed some fine print on one site and get charged $9.95 for a month’s access.  C’est la vie. 

  • http://twitter.com/keeftronics Keith Baumwald

    Try creditkarama.com which does the same thing and isn’t a scam.

  • Jimmy

    creditkarama.com is flagged by McAfee

  • Anonymous

    No, you can get it from the bureaus as well. I do it every year.

  • Frank

    Chris,
    I think Keith mistyped creditkarma.com
    The misspelled name goes to a scammy website.  Maybe this would be an interesting story about the scammers out there that register common mispelled names of popular websites to scam people.

  • http://twitter.com/elegant_erica Erica

    I went through the same thing with Freecreditreport.com. Once I realized what was happening, I called them up to cancel. They tried to talk me into keeping their (similar) service as well. I said no thanks. Then the representative offered a discounted rate (nearly half off), $7.95 each month.

    What part of $7.95 (nearly $100 a year) sounds like free?

  • Eric

    I think it’s a cheap move on the company’s part, yes.  But, is it a scam?  No.

    They tell you up front that they are going to charge you if you don’t cancel.  If you don’t read the fine print on everything nowadays, that’s your own fault.