EXPERIAN PAYS HEAVILY FOR FAILURE TO DISCLOSE

Broken promises abound in the credit granting industry. One such situation finds Experian’s Consumerinfo.com recently paying $300,000 to settle with the Federal Trade Commission on charges that ads for its “free credit report” offer failed to tell folks they would automatically be enrolled in an ongoing monitoring program for $79.95 a year. The company had already paid a $950,000 fine in August of 2005 charging that it was deceptively marketing “free credit reports.” In the beginning, Consumerinfo.com told consumers they must provide a credit card which was “required only to establish your account.” They then automatically renewed some consumers by charging their credit cards without notice, according to the FTC. I subscribe to Experian’s Credit Manager in order to check my credit report for unauthorized use. A couple months ago Experian shut down my credit report, denying me access for a period of days. It was right after I did an unfavorable blog post on the company. After enlisting the help of a major privacy advocate, the report was up and available again. Experian had absolutely no answer for the problem. Go figure.