When I signed up for the free 30-day trial of the CIC Triple Advantage credit monitoring service at www.freecreditreport.com (which is affiliated with Experian), I did not realize how difficult it would be to cancel the service.
I did not care for the product from the beginning and attempted to cancel on the same day I signed up but that proved to be impossible - the site is, in my opinion, evasive and does not want you to be able to easily make the cancellation. I'm hardly an online neophyte and I tried for some time before being misdirected too many times and eventually giving up.
It was only after I got my credit card bill with CIC's phone number on it that I had any chance at cancellation and stopping the charges. The first charge to my account appeared in April 2005. In response, I put the telephone number from my bill into Google and was able to find CIC's e-mail address. I sent an e-mail to support@freecreditreport.com to cancel. I was trying to avoid long-distance phone charges by using an e-mail address that I was able to find onthe website.
From CIC, I got several automated messages, most of which made no sense and appeared to be stalling tactics. For example, I was thanked for my messages but told that they could not be read because they cannot open attachments. I had not sent my message as an attachment, so this was like banging my head against a wall.
I was billed again in May 2005. I decided to go ahead and eat the phone charges. I called 1-877-481-6826 and spoke to a woman who has assured me that my account is now cancelled. I'm wary, though, and will be monitoring my charge card statements very carefully.
There is an article in the June 2005 Budget Living magazine (page 90) that basically tells you this type of service is always a rip-off anyway. They can't protect you from identity theft or anything like that. I'm lucky that this lesson only cost me $24 - I hope, anyway. Tell everyone you know to stay away from these "free credit report" sites.
Dawn
Tulsa, Oklahoma
U.S.A.
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