Your Finances (yes, I'm looking at you)

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Kai
Fighting the Iron Law of Oligarchy Since 2006
 
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Location: Indianapolis

Your Finances (yes, I'm looking at you)

Unread postby Kai » Fri May 23, 2008 3:50 pm

I am extremely angry, and there is therefore profanity in this post. Be forewarned.

I found these charges on my account coming from CIC Triple Advantage. What the hell is that, I asked myself. Turns out it's a fucking scam is what it is.

So for all those people who, like me, were told by their Financial Aid offices to go to Freecreditreport.com to get a "free credit report"... don't. I just reported them to the Better Business Bureau, and I'm astonished that they even have a B rating. They've received over 3900 customer complaints, and every review is negative. Every review says basically the same thing, and it's the same thing they were sued for last year.

"On January 8, 2007 Consumerinfo.com entered into a Stipulated Judgment and agreed to an Order for Permanent Injunction to settle charges that the company's "free credit report" offer failed to explicitly disclose that subscribers would be automatically signed up into a paid credit-monitoring program.

...The FTC charged that ConsumerInfo.com had engaged in deceptive marketing practices through requiring credit card information for consumers to purchase their "free credit report," then billing them $79.95 annually unless they opted out within 30 days."

So yeah. If you ordered a credit report from these people and didn't immediately cancel, do it now. Further, make sure they haven't been automatically charging your account. I just caught this, and so I'm trying to get over a hundred dollars refunded to me. Thankfully, the BBB review makes it look like it's fairly common to get a refund, probably because they've nailed these guys for deceptive marketing before.

So if anyone tells you to do business with these folk, just don't fucking do it. Don't give them your account information, even if you plan to cancel immediately because guess what! They won't always let you. Just stay the hell away from them. If you have already gone through these guys, I strongly suggest you check out this page.

Canceling CIC Triple Advantage: Get Your Money Back and Get Justice!

Go through the steps it gives you, and if the bastards still don't listen... report them. This is bullshit, and they don't deserve your money.

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Capntastic
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Unread postby Capntastic » Fri May 23, 2008 4:14 pm

Isn't the BBB a sort of scam too? As I recall (this may just be third-hand lunacy), companies pay to get into the BBB so it looks like there's some sort of quality regulation going on, when really it's the business world equivalent of MENSA.

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Kai
Fighting the Iron Law of Oligarchy Since 2006
 
Posts: 2408
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:32 pm
Location: Indianapolis

Unread postby Kai » Fri May 23, 2008 4:35 pm

If the BBB doesn't help me, the Federal Trade Commission is next. They've sued ConsumerInfo.com a couple of times already, and I may as well drop them a note that it needs to be done again.

Idran1701
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Unread postby Idran1701 » Fri May 23, 2008 5:16 pm

You might as well jump to the FTC now, Kai. The BBB is all but useless, honestly. Kyle's right, it's an entirely opt-in program for companies. I don't know if they have to pay to get in, but even if not, obviously the worst companies out there and the ones that would suffer most from consumer oversight aren't going to opt in to their services.

As for your specific situation, that sucks. I've used that website before myself, and I've been lucky enough to not get charged, but I still can't believe they'd pull something like this. I hope you get things worked out there. You are legally required to be given up to three free credit report checks a year, one from each of the three major credit report companies, so even beyond the obvious illegalities of this, they might even be violating federal law.

But you also shouldn't let this discourage you from keeping up on your credit in the future. Go through those three companies directly if you have to, but it's something that you should still keep track of, even if something like this might make you wary.

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Kai
Fighting the Iron Law of Oligarchy Since 2006
 
Posts: 2408
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:32 pm
Location: Indianapolis

Unread postby Kai » Fri May 23, 2008 5:55 pm

We'll see if they get anything done. They've done some good for other people who actually filed complaints, so let's hope I can get in on it. If not... yeah. I'll have to take the wreaking somewhat higher.


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