Beware Freecreditreport.com

There is a reason you are supposed to check your statements every month, even if you are no longer using a card and are simply paying it down.

FreeCreditReport.com is one of those reasons. I signed up with them as part of a website to receive a free copy of Rock Band (a story for another day) and canceled it shortly after. That should have been the end of the story, but my lack of attention to the card that I had put it on extended the story for an entire year.

It seems that when I canceled the service they did not do a full cancellation, they "downgraded" me to a cheaper service and it has been charged monthly to my card ever since. As I have not been using the card I have been simply paying a set amount and not checking the statement, so this has slipped by me.

I noticed the charges this morning and called them immediately, only to get connected to a remote call center that read from a script and told me that they could cancel the service but only refund me the last months payment. I asked for a manager and was sent to Experian (apparently the parent company) where I received a bit better reception but was still told that they could only refund me the last months payment.

I decided to play a bit harder ball and mentioned that I was well aware of how this occurred (the downgrade instead of the canceling) and that it amounted to fraud and that I was more than happy to contact the BBB and whoever else I needed to to try to rectify this egregious situation.

I again politely asked what I could do to receive my hard earned money back, and Erin (the Customer Rep) went to talk to her manager. Long story short, they are refunding all charges and I should see it in 7-10 days and receive a second notice of my cancellation within 24 hours.

The first lesson here is to keep track of your credit cards, even if you aren't using them. The second is to be very careful when setting up or closing down any service that has recurring charges, because some companies are not as honest as others.