This company is basically freecreditreport.com. You do get the first 30 days free, but after that they will charge you a "membership fee" if you use the website again. I was told when I called that, "the membership agreement is clearly stated on the webpage when you sign up". Even if you cancel your membership, they will charge you again if you go back to the website and use the username you created previously. The phone number I called is 800-388-8725. Call and cancel, but DO NOT open links about your credit report you may receive in your e-mail or re-visit the website.
I just checked my bank account right now and called them immediately. I said that I will complain to the Dispute Department if they don't reverse the charges. She kept wanting to keep my account open and whatnot and I told her "I want my money back and I do not want anymore accruing charges on my account." Don't forget to ask for the rep's name and the confirmation #. Make sure they also send you a confirmation email of cancellation. I hope this helps. Because of this incident, I make sure to check my bank statement almost 3-4 times a day.
I've had the same problem, but for $9.95 for the past few months. I called and cancelled my membership, got the rep's name and employee #--thanks for the tip. Has anyone been able to get their money back from this company?
If for any reason you are not satisfied, you can cancel anytime to discontinue your membership to Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring 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. To cancel, please contact Customer Service at 1-877-481-6826.
I was charged $12.95 on my credit card and I've never had a credit check with this company. Could somebody tell me what's going on here and what can I do?
I experienced the same thing @ $12.95 and knew the minute I visited the site that something felt wrong. Though I had opted in (name, email address, etc.) I was careful to read everything. The instant I got to the conditions (monthly payments) I nixed the opt-in and vacated the site -- but got charged anyway.
Here comes the scary part. I have ZERO idea how they got my bank account number. That is damned SCARY.
I suggest we go far beyond just calling. I think an investigation into this bunch is warranted big time. They should be made to turn over a copy of the programming procedure they have in place, which I'm confident would show that just opting in is permission to charge, therefore making a lie of the promised "free credit report".
I went to order a credit report from all three companies. They said they would not charge you unless you are able to view your report online. They would not let me access my report online, but still charged me $34.95. It's a scam.
I just called to cancel. They said that if I can write a letter with my reference# (that the rep gave me) to:
FreeCreditReport.com
Consumer Info/Consumer Relations Group
PO Box 19729
Irvine, CA 92623-9729
I am going to write a letter asking for a full refund, as they are unauthorized charges and I had only requested a free credit report ONCE, never had logged back onto the site again. I hope that this letter will go to the right place and I will get some sort of response or resolution. If not, I say we try and get this out to every media website/news channel in America to warn folks of this poorly run company.
I tried to call and no one answers it just keeps saying that it is full and to call back another time or date.. They are taking money out of my kids mouth and i dont like this what the hell is wrong with these ppl.
All: You don't need to fight these people for a refund; you only need to report their fraudulent activity to your bank and/or credit card company and demand that the charges to your account be reversed. The more of you who do this, the more likely a scandal will result -- and rightly so. Experian and CIC and all the rest of these people need to be exposed.
Here is a format you may wish to use as a guide (it's my letter to my own bank):
Dear Sir or Madam:
Please be advised that a major scam is afoot on the Internet in which Experian is apparently operating under one of the several *names listed below to con individuals.
The scam unfolds this way:
+ The individual is sucked into receiving a free credit report;
+ The individual visits the site and is told that in order to receive his credit report he or she must list his
credit card number, the insinuation being that in order to check one’s credit his credit card account
must also be available;
+ Once the credit card is recorded, the free credit report is revealed to the individual;
+ The individual is then advised that for $12.95 a month he or she may continue receiving monthly
updates on his or her credit....HOWEVER....
+ What the individual is not told is that in surrendering his cc number a FORCED MEMBERSHIP has
just been put upon him and that he is going to be charged every month thereafter ($12.95).
Because he sees no place to opt out, he simply closes his browser to that site and forgets the
matter, but 30 days later, his credit card is charged. Oh sure, he is told up front he may cancel
at anytime, but he is NOT told he is a member by virtue of surrending his cc and that he is going
down for a minimum $12.95.
In summary, the individual surrenders his credit card number because he thinks this is part of the required information needed to conduct a background check of his credit standing, but the surrender of the card automatically enrolls him in a membership even though this is NOT the reason he surrendered the credit card.
The names used in perpetrating this scam apparently include all of the following. I encourage you to Google CIC*TRIPLE ADVANTAGE, where you may see the growing list of individuals cheated under this scam, including:
Charges I have only discovered to my own account occurred on:
August 16, 2007, September 17, 2007 and October 17, 2007.
These charges are fraudulently assessed because my membership was fraudulently acquired. I didn’t reveal my cc so I could join, I revealed my cc because it was implied it was required in order to conduct a credit check. Kindly reverse these charges immediately.
In addition, I wish to go on record as publicly chastising CIC.
Our country is a wonderful place. Our Constitution is the best. Our form of democracy is a paradise to most other nations. But rats like you and a frightening majority of corporate America in general, taking notes from this appalling secretive and frightening administration -- one headed by no less than a Commander in Chief who is arguably a deserter from the military and now asks 18-year-old children to jump in front of bullets pulling duty he himself deserted -- you, CIC, you Experian, you Enron, you are corrupting everything that is good and decent about our country. You are abhorrent, without morals. You are repugnant and disgusting.
You don’t see the attitude you’re building in youth, idiots that you are. You are inviting civil war in this country. You only need to count how many people in 10 look always angry. That would be most of them.
The comments are excellent. After four $12-charges, I called
to cancel my 'membership'. Of course the clerical people had no answers and could make no decisions. The ladies could not give
a telephone number to the Customer Service department--most
Customer Service departments are designed to speak to clients.
I told the woman that we wanted every one of the forty-eight
dollars returned to us. I also intend to contact the Attorney
General, Sacramento, and the fraud squad at AARP. Suggest that everyone contact these two resources.
Yes. Fraud No. I too got sucked into the old “free” credit report. Mind you, you don’t have to go to freecreditreport.com or any of the myriad of others to get sucked into this – I was on Esperian’s site. So I didn’t read the fine print and got a $12.95 charge. I called the credit card, they gave me the phone number, I called and canceled and that was it. They, of course, pushed the hard sell to stay on but one just has to be firm and insist on a cancellation. Ultimately I didn’t really lose anything as I was specifically after my credit score and one normally can’t get that for free. You have to go to the reporting agencies and pay for it. Indeed this can be a good deal as they let you cancel right away so you really can get it for free. Gotta watch that fine print! If you really just want your yearly free credit report go to:
The response from Boyd at www.annualcreditreoport.com should be a red flag to everyone.
There is no fine print to consider.
It's this simple, Boyd. You are asked to give your credit card so they can search that account too, not so they can sign you up to a surprise membership that you must now remember to cancel in 30 days since they don't immediately provide a way to do that.
If you'll read the other complainants notes carefully you'll see that the efforts of the majority of them have fallen on mostly deaf ears and/or to venues who can't do anything about it and give you still other faxes and telephone numbers to call.
You'll also see their initial pursuits are in the direction of just canceling -- not with retrieving their money -- and that's what I'm really trying to share with everyone, namely, that you don't have to get your money back from them.
TURN THEM IN FOR THE FRAUDS THEY ARE.
Call your bank and/or credit card company and have these charges reversed for the fraud that they are. When they ask you for a reason, give them this one:
"I was asked to give my credit card so they could review this account standing, not so they could sign me up for a surprise membership, which I did not want, did not ask for and which I can't cancel online. In any case, I should not have to cancel a membership I never asked for. Asking for a cancellation suggests I agree that I have such a membership. I do not have such a membership, at least, not one that I asked for. This is fraud plainly and simply."
Then I think that perhaps the rest of us ought to consider a class action suit against them. Anyone in agreement, write me at tssent@omni-secure.com and I'll be happy to begin compiling a list.
After reading the information here, I went to the freecreditreport dot com website and clicked "contact us."
"Contact us toll-free at 1-877-481-6826. For your convenience, our Call Center is open: Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Pacific Time)"
I called the number, chose the options to cancel, and told the rep that I wanted my "membership" (that I did not sign up for) cancelled and the charges removed. He canceled the membership but claimed I owed the charges since I signed up for a trial and was outside of my time, and that I had signed up through freecreditreport dot com.
In truth, I had not been to their website and I ordered the "free" credit report through the Experian website. Guess what? He said freecreditreport dot com is an extension of Experian. Who knew?
Anyway, I told him that he would remove the charges, put his supervisor on the line and they would remove the charges, or I would call my bank and reverse the charges due to their fraudulent nature. I was put on hold for about 10 seconds, and then he came back on the line and informed me that he was "successful in creating a refund." I took down his name and ID number in case the money doesn't get refunded.
I also commented that I understood that all consumers were authorized one "no-strings-attached" free credit report per year. He said, "Oh, well you get that through annualcreditreport dot com, that's the official government website." Just FYI in the future.
I think the credit reporting companies do not take enough time to check the info that they put on the report. They will input the info onto the first report that has a similar name and address. I recently had a credit card refused because of info from 2 of the 3 credit reporting companies. I refuted the info after receiving the free credit reports. I told them to check the SS# on the unfavorable info. Sure enough in less than 2 weeks the bad info was removed. I always thought that the SS# was the most important factor in determining who someone really was. I guess I was wrong.
I just went in my bank account and saw the same charges. I quickly dialed them up. As well here is another added scam charger that's out there.
Quote:
"Like thousands of other people who have also been ripped off, I recently noticed a $9.00 charge that had been re-occurring on my credit card bill. It came from wli*shopper discount.
The charge on your credit card bill may appear as one of these variations: