Several weeks ago I was watching a commercial with an overly catchy tune sung by a man with a guitar about how he married a girl neck deep in debt and now they are living in his wife's parent's basement. Obviously concerned for my own financial standing I decided to take this addictivly irritating muscians offer and check my credit report at "freecreditreport.com". I went through the registration process and signed away all of my personal information (SSN, Home phone, Credit Card Number, Address, Darkest Secrets, etc...) I suppose I should have felt concerned when I was asked to enter my credit card number, but hey, they have commercials on the T.V., they have to be legitimate, right?

After giving up everything I know to this website, I am finally rewarded with a page that I would only assume would be telling me my credit score. Boy was I wrong. AFTER giving all of my information, I am brought to a page that tells me I must wait a few weeks for an activation code to be sent to me in the mail before I can check my score. "But what if I need to take out an enormous loan tomorrow?!" I thought to myself. A few weeks wait is unacceptable. I did a little research and found a site named www.annualcreditreport.com which will give you your credit report immediatly.

Two days ago as I was checking my bank account I noticed a suspicious charge of $14.95 by a company by the name of CIC Triple Advantage. After a quick google search I found that this is the company that owns "freecreditreport.com" and that they were charging me for my "free" credit report, which to this point in time I had never recieved (In fact I had never even recieved my "activation code" in the mail, so my account was not even activated). This was a major WTF moment, and for the next few moments I will be explaining to you how I got my $14.95 back, and hopefully save you from making the same mistake that I did.

Step 1: Call Triple Advantage/Contact your Bank

Step 2: File a Report with the Better Business Bureau (if necessary)

Step 3: Get your actual Free credit report

Triple Advantage has a strict phone cancellation only policy. To make things even more difficult the person you talk to may tell you they are not authorized to give refunds (this is what happened to me), but don't worry, just follow this guide, be honest, keep your cool, and you should get your $14.95 back in no time.

Get out a pad of paper and some of your personal information (SSN, Address you registered to freecreditreport.com with, your phone number, etc). They may ask you a few questions to verify your identity, the pad of paper is to help you!

Call the toll free CIC Triple Advantage and follow the automated system to contact you with a representative to cancel your account (877) 481-6826.

Things to remember during the phone call:

• You were unaware that your account was going to be charged.
• Stay calm.
  
• They know how many times you viewed your credit report, so if you honestly have not looked at it more than once you are still entitled to your money back.
• Stay calm.
  
• If they tell you they are unauthorized to preform a FULL refund, ask to speak with the supervisor.
• Stay calm.
• IMPORTANT: Whip out that pad of paper and write down the name of the supervisor you are speaking to.
  
• If you are still receiving trouble, inform them that you already know that many people routinely recieve their money back for similar events and you will submit a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau if you need to. (this is usually the deal breaker)
• Ask for the refund confirmation number, write this down as well, record the date.
  
• BE SURE TO CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT
  

As a precaution, now would be a good time to contact your bank and let them know about your situation.

If you are unable to get them to agree to give you your refund, or it has been longer than the amount of time the supervisor gave you for your refund to be recieved (usually 7-10 days) you have no choice but to move on to step 2.

Yes, it has come to this, ridiculous.

Remember that pad of paper that I had you write in? Here's where it comes in handy. You will need to file a complaint with the BBB. Freecreditreport.com generally responds to BBB complaints with full refunds.

There is such a thing as a free credit report, but the site you want to go to is annualcreditreport.com. You are given one free credit report per year from this site.

Freecreditreport.com is not all bad. If you are a person who wants to check your credit report on a regular basis, it is great for you, but for the rest of us who are only curious to see it once a year it's faulty registration and wording make it out to be quite the scam.

So next time you have one of their catchy little jingles stuck in your head, and you're feeling adventurous, don't forget about the hidden strings attached that are a lot harder to forget.

Knowzy (2009, March 11). How to Cancel CIC TripleAdvantage. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from Knowzy Web site: http://www.knowzy.com/Personal_Finance/Credit/Credit_Monitoring_Is_A_Rip_Off-StepByStep-Canceling_CIC_TripleAdvantage.htm

Retrieved March 30, 2009, from CIC Triple Advantage Scam Web site: http://www.cancelcictripleadvantage.com/

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