A company that promised free credit scores has agreed to pay 22 million dollars to settle charges it billed customers for monthly credit monitoring they did not sign up for. Most of the money, about $21 million, will go to refund customers.
The Federal Trade Commission says the company, One Technologies and two related companies ran at least 50 websites that advertised free credit scores. They were freescore360.com, freescoreonline.com and scoresense.com.
Customers were being charged $29.95 per month for a credit monitoring program after they signed up for a free credit score. The website would ask for the customer’s credit card number to verify identification.
WSB Consumer Expert Clark Howard (clarkhoward.com) says this has been a problem for years with TV ads promising free credit reports and monitoring.
He says, "You got to know when they say they are going to give it to you for free there's got to be a catch."
Under federal law once each year anyone can go to annualcreditreport.com and get a report for all three agencies for free. Georgia is the only state in the country where residents are allowed two free reports each year.
Clark also says the only other place to get a truly free credit report is creditkarma.com. He says it is a simple registration and it is free of charge.