Credit Report Reviews & Comparison

Editor's Note:

There are currently no special offers for FreeCreditScore.com, but this seems to be because of some pricing issues found both on and around the website.

Summary

FreeCreditScore.com is a credit report company that offers you a free credit score, with an additional credit report for $1 that will automatically sign you up for a seven day trial. They hold a wide range of services that offer you a great deal of insight into the current state of your financial information, complete with the correct information you need to better manage your credit scores.

Overview of Pricing

If you are looking for a credit report company that will help you to better your current financial standing, FreeCreditScore.com may be the provider for you. Their services focus less on protecting you from identity theft and credit card fraud, but they do offer you a more in-depth insight into proactively approaching the health of your current ratings. There are some pricing issues as you navigate the website and there are add-ons to be considered, but the $1 fee for a 7 day trial is more than industry standard.

In an ever growing user-driven, consumer orientated society one of the best decisions to make for your financial freedom is to regularly check your credit scores and reports online. As you may already know identity theft is a growing problem that results in billions of people losing their ability to get credit, but did you know that you have the option to stay one step ahead of the bad guys with the help of a credit report company? Well you can, but the problem then lies with which one? Here we take a look at FreeCreditScore.com, a consumer website that is powered by Experian. With CreditReport.com and FreeCreditReport.com already under their belts, can the newest branch on the credit monitoring tree really hold up under the weight of the bird that is your financial information?

Credit Monitoring, Reports and Scores

From the outset FreeCreditScore.com offers you a free credit score that automatically signs you up for a seven day trial for their more in-depth credit monitoring services. Your initial credit report is calculated using all three major credit agencies- Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion® and your trial period/full membership gives you access to standard services such as automatic updates and your monthly credit statements. They do hold a wide range of services that offer you a great deal of insight into the current state of your financial information, but they seem to excel more at arming you with the correct information you need to better manage your credit scores rather than to actually protect you from potential negative activity. If you're looking for a more proactive approach to changing your current ratings then they could just be the provider for you.

Identity Theft Protection and Tools

FreeCreditScore.com has a slightly different approach to credit monitoring services than their leading competitors and that's because they focus more on one area of expertise. They work to offer you a more comprehensive look at the way your current credit scores stand and how they are affected by your financial decisions by way of offering you a range of tools that will keep you fully informed. Among these tools are:

Savings Calculators

It's a well know fact that better interest rates can save you money and will therefore boost your credit score. FreeCreditScore.com give you access to savings calculators that show how you can save on your mortgage, credit cards, auto loan choices and more.

Score Planner

The score planner will allow you to find out exactly how your financial decisions affect your credit score. For example you can work out if choosing one credit card will lower your current score, whilst another may help to boost it.

Credit Education

FreeCreditScore.com host a wide range of articles and blogs to make it easy for you to learn about what credit is, how it works and how it will impact your day to day life.

Score Factors

You will have access to information on factors that impact your credit score so you will be better able to manage your current credit status. When you know what things both help and hinder your score, you can work to change it.

Extra Features and Highlights

FreeCreditScore.com also offers these extra features and highlights, but they may be subject to additional fees.

• Online disputes
• Card Safe
• Fraud resolution
• Identity Theft Protection
• Credit Reports Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®
• Child Secure

Pricing Concerns

Here is where it starts to get a bit complicated. FreeCreditScore.com offers you a 7 day trial of their services where you can get access to credit scores and reports from Experian. You only get the full Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion credit score and report when you initially sign up.

If you don’t cancel your trial within seven days you will then be charged, but how much tends to fluctuate without apparent reason between their web pages. One page disclaimer states the monthly fee to be $12.99, while the next page boasts an identical disclaimer that states $17.99 a month instead.

There are a whole host of additional charges to be found depending on the services you use too, for example; to get the full scores and reports from the three major providers you will need to pay the current discount price of $39.95 per month.

Customer Service

You can contact FreeCreditScore.com via a toll-free phone line and by both email and direct mail. They do host an extensive FAQ's page and unlike most of their leading competitors you can even contact them via various social networking websites.

As far as the customer service goes, there are more than enough customer reviews around the web to ring some serious warning bells, mostly relating to the cancellation of the 7 day trial. Many customers have found staff to be obstructive, often offering discounts for periods of time before going ahead with the cancellation process and even refusing to contact managers and supervisors directly when customers are not happy with the operative and/or their treatment.

In several cases the monthly fee has not been cancelled when requested, with customer service operatives denying all knowledge of previous interactions such as prior phone calls and cancellation confirmation emails. Some customers have even been charged the monthly fee before the 7 day cut-off period.

Overall

All standard credit scores and reports you get from FreeCreditReport.com are calculated using the Experian PLUS score and not the FICO score that is used by lenders and employers so in effect you can get a general idea of your creditworthiness, but not an accurate overview. With confusing, uninformative web pages, lots of small print loopholes (for their benefit) and a huge amount of previous customer horror stories, you may just be better off to steer clear of this company if you are not 100% sure of what you are getting yourself into from the outset.