Beware the offers on Experian’s site!

[CreditCuriosity]

Can't be upset on something that you are basically taking advantage of by a "loophole" that is taken advantage of by alot of people not just for a $1 trial, but over and over and many times over again.   See no reason to complain at all, not that you are complaining but saying beware..  I just suck it up and pay alot more for that for my scores if I need them before I do a CC app or mini spree.  Obviously experian is aware of this loophole or they would of fixed it, but indeed they do catch some people while not paying attention as they did to you and at least one other here.  Just my 2 cents that probably aren't wanted, but still will be said.

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Can't be upset on something that you are basically taking advantage of by a "loophole" that is taken advantage of by alot of people not just for a $1 trial, but over and over and many times over again.   See no reason to complain at all, not that you are complaining but saying beware..  I just suck it up and pay alot more for that for my scores if I need them before I do a CC app or mini spree.  Obviously experian is aware of this loophole or they would of fixed it, but indeed they do catch some people while not paying attention as they did to you and at least one other here.  Just my 2 cents that probably aren't wanted, but still will be said.

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I mean let's be real - it's a scam what they charge for this stuff. Considering how important your credit scores and monitoring your credit is, it should be more accessible. Experian is also the only one that charges you to have access to their credit lock while making it difficult, if not impossible, to freeze your reports online. That is indeed how I rationalized just going ahead and paying for it though is because I have gotten reports for over a year either for a buck a pop or free so $15 one time isn't the end of the world. It's not a mistake I'll make again. 

Also, this is a pure profit product for Experian. Being a CRA, they already have access to the information and already have these scores. If this was a smaller company that was existing just by selling scores I would feel bad about abusing the loophole but I have no sympathy for Experian. 

[CreditCuriosity]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Can't be upset on something that you are basically taking advantage of by a "loophole" that is taken advantage of by alot of people not just for a $1 trial, but over and over and many times over again.   See no reason to complain at all, not that you are complaining but saying beware..  I just suck it up and pay alot more for that for my scores if I need them before I do a CC app or mini spree.  Obviously experian is aware of this loophole or they would of fixed it, but indeed they do catch some people while not paying attention as they did to you and at least one other here.  Just my 2 cents that probably aren't wanted, but still will be said.

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I mean let's be real - it's a scam what they charge for this stuff. Considering how important your credit scores and monitoring your credit is, it should be more accessible. Experian is also the only one that charges you to have access to their credit lock while making it difficult, if not impossible, to freeze your reports online. That is indeed how I rationalized just going ahead and paying for it though is because I have gotten reports for over a year either for a buck a pop or free so $15 one time isn't the end of the world. It's not a mistake I'll make again. 

Also, this is a pure profit product for Experian. Being a CRA, they already have access to the information and already have these scores. If this was a smaller company that was existing just by selling scores I would feel bad about abusing the loophole but I have no sympathy for Experian. 

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They do have to pay FICO as well for scores... Also during CV-19 the law has been changed where one can get their CR's from annualcreditreport.com every 7 days without scores....  Locking and unlocking your credit is very simple.  Scores not so much as that isnt free for any CRA whether Exp/Eq/Tu if they are providing FICO's..

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  I am a little surprised they refused to refund you a day after the billing. One time before I switched to cash app, it hit one of my amex accounts. But I called same day literally the moment I got the alert and canceled no problem. I guess we can't feel bad for them since I'm sure they get a lot of ppl who forget to cancel after free trial.

Also, here's a tip for having periodic charges on your cash rewards card for activity. You can use your card to reload your amazon account with digital gift cards in amounts as low as .50 cent increments. I think you can even set it to do automatic reloads.  I do a few of those sometimes as I am nearing the end of my billing cycle on the Amex everyday card to meet the 20 charges bonus. So I will purchase/charge 5 reloads of $2 for example giving me $10 in my Amazon account. Then I can use the balance that builds up eventually to buy small items on amazon. 

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Can't be upset on something that you are basically taking advantage of by a "loophole" that is taken advantage of by alot of people not just for a $1 trial, but over and over and many times over again.   See no reason to complain at all, not that you are complaining but saying beware..  I just suck it up and pay alot more for that for my scores if I need them before I do a CC app or mini spree.  Obviously experian is aware of this loophole or they would of fixed it, but indeed they do catch some people while not paying attention as they did to you and at least one other here.  Just my 2 cents that probably aren't wanted, but still will be said.

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I mean let's be real - it's a scam what they charge for this stuff. Considering how important your credit scores and monitoring your credit is, it should be more accessible. Experian is also the only one that charges you to have access to their credit lock while making it difficult, if not impossible, to freeze your reports online. That is indeed how I rationalized just going ahead and paying for it though is because I have gotten reports for over a year either for a buck a pop or free so $15 one time isn't the end of the world. It's not a mistake I'll make again. 

Also, this is a pure profit product for Experian. Being a CRA, they already have access to the information and already have these scores. If this was a smaller company that was existing just by selling scores I would feel bad about abusing the loophole but I have no sympathy for Experian. 

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They do have to pay FICO as well for scores... Also during CV-19 the law has been changed where one can get their CR's from annualcreditreport.com every 7 days without scores....  Locking and unlocking your credit is very simple.  Scores not so much as that isnt free for any CRA whether Exp/Eq/Tu if they are providing FICO's..

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I'm not buying that they don't have a bulk agreement with FICO. I mean they literally provide the information that FICO needs to generate a score to begin with. I'm sure they have a mutually-beneficial arrangement. 

You literally cannot lock Experian without paying them for their credit lock service. They have a form to fill out to add a freeze but the majority of us get told we can't do it online and to mail our documents, even if we have frozen with EX before (ask me how I know). My only option if I need to lock my report is to get a trial every month or send them those documents (not happening). 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous  I am a little surprised they refused to refund you a day after the billing. One time before I switched to cash app, it hit one of my amex accounts. But I called same day literally the moment I got the alert and canceled no problem. I guess we can't feel bad for them since I'm sure they get a lot of ppl who forget to cancel after free trial.

Also, here's a tip for having periodic charges on your cash rewards card for activity. You can use your card to reload your amazon account with digital gift cards in amounts as low as .50 cent increments. I think you can even set it to do automatic reloads.  I do a few of those sometimes as I am nearing the end of my billing cycle on the Amex everyday card to meet the 20 charges bonus. So I will purchase/charge 5 reloads of $2 for example giving me $10 in my Amazon account. Then I can use the balance that builds up eventually to buy small items on amazon. 

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Yeah I missed the text from NFCU when the charge hit but the guy was a total jerk about it. I knew he wasn't going to help me as soon as he looked at the account. It is what it is and I just don't feel like fighting for it. I actually downgraded a day after the trial ended but I had no idea that I had been billed by that point. 

As for Amazon reloads, I do those for cards I don't use for anything else but this one was an easy monthly charge. 

[CreditCuriosity]

Yes they most likely have a deal and bulk pricing, but regardless they are paying.  Unlocking a freeze or applying a freeze online i still stand by is very very simple although some do have problems then one has the phone option being call them up on automated system or if you prefer to a live person or as you mentioned the mail option.  Anways point being unless one knows credit alot such as this site or other blogs they dont know the "trick" and pay up despite what one can get it for on what is suppose to be a one time basis.  I won't argue on that anymore and as stated if you just want to view your credit that is easy through annualcreditreport.com right now every 7 days for the foreseeable future.  Off to play video games.

edit: not trying to sound mean, but they have employees they got to pay and certainly arent doing that with $1 trials....

[Wavester64]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well they finally got me after over a year of $1 and free trials. Was checking my cards today and noticed a $14.99 charge from Experian. Called them and they said that this last free trial was only 7 days and I canceled a day too late. No refunds since they build a grace period in to begin with. 

The past few months they had been offering me free trials for 30 days instead of the $1 for 7 days that they used to offer. My bad for not paying attention (although I swear it was a 30 day trial, there's no confirmation email or anything to prove it one way or the other). I was going to dispute it with NFCU but I decided it's not worth the headache. I'll make sure I downgrade same day going forward. Fortunately I had the money in my NFCU savings account so I didn't have to take anything out of my budget. 🤷‍♂️ 

Make sure you read and save screenshots in addition to canceling the trial immediately. Going forward, I'm going to put it on a virtual credit card number that I can switch off after I sign up (thank you, Capital One Eno). 

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I noticed if I log into my free Experian on the PC, it offers the 30-day trial. But if I log on the app on the phone, it offers the 7-day trial. Odd.

[Wavester64]

@Anonymous 

"Considering how important your credit scores and monitoring your credit is, it should be more accessible."

Truest words ever spoken, I couldn't agree more. 

[Wavester64]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Citylights18 wrote:

With Chase now reporting Vantage Experian, I've moved over to looking at Credit Karma with Vantage Transunion and Equifax.

Now granted its just the Vantage sores but it gives me a free Trifecta to look at which also updates quickly.

The free credit score offered by some of these banks is so behind that whatever number they produce is meaningless.

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Yeah the only reason I do these trials is to track my FICO changes month to month. I have WalletHub and Credit Karma as well as the Experian app. 

I think this is my last time doing EX trials though. Disco gives me free TU8 monthly, Experian gives me free EX8 monthly, Service CU gives me free EX2 monthly, DCU gives me EQ5 monthly, NFCU gives me EQ9 monthly, and Langley gives me free EQ8 although I don't know how frequently. It's not as neat and tidy as all in one place and will mess up my signature reporting a bit but from now on I'm declining EX trials unless they're $0. EX won't see another penny from me. 

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Odd mine says EQ4