One of the most popular posts I’ve written was called freecreditreport.com – complete scam, complete rip-off.
Experian, the dishonest credit reporting agency behind freecreditreport.com, is a company I have taken pains to avoid giving any of my hard earned money to for several years now. You can be sure nothing about the site is free, and Experian’s lying phone operators will use any means possible to ensure that the company can continue ripping you off for $12.95 per month as long as possible.
If you are looking for alternatives to freecreditreport.com that do not advertise themselves as free, the best site I have found is called myfico.com. myfico.com is owned by Fair Isaac.
Their products page clearly outlines what they offer as far as credit monitoring. I chose the ScoreWatch product and so far, I am very pleased. I was easily able to find and dispute numerous errors on my Equifax credit report and I am now awaiting the outcome of those investigations.
The ScoreWatch system is much easier to deal with the complicated 30+ page credit report that I was sent in the mail. It let me find the errors and auto generated a letter of dispute on my behalf which I was able to drop in the mail. ScoreWatch also had a feature I liked a lot that suggested actions I could take to improve my credit rating over time. ScoreWatch doesn’t help much with problems related to Experian or TransUnion but the MyFico site has products that cover all three of the major credit reporting bureaus.
Perhaps the best part of the MyFico.com web site is the forums area where real people discuss their real credit problems and how they have fixed or are fixing those issues. The MyFico forums areais a wealth of knowledge if you have the time and patience to sort through all the terminology and anecdotal material.