TransUnion Trying To Sell You Something You Might Get Free
In the wake of our report on the credit industry's questionable use of the word "free" on its various Web sites, we were amused to see this e-mail offer from TransUnion:
"Lock and unlock your TransUnion report at the touch of a button," says the graphically enticing spam, uh, e-mail ad. "NEW! TrueCredit Lock now lets you determine who sees your TransUnion credit report and when. Lock and unlock your TransUnion credit report at any time...Prevent others from looking at your TransUnion credit report. Included FREE with your Credit Monitoring subscription..."
First off: Most people don't need credit monitoring. Read the report and see how you can use http://www.annualcreditreport.com to get three free credit reports a year -- you don't need to spend $120 to $160 a year on credit monitoring. Second: TransUnion is trying to entice you to sign up for credit monitoring with a "service" you might already have the right to for free.
You should know that 35 states plus the District of Columbia have passed credit freeze legislation. (Read the list of states here). If you have been a victim of identity theft, you can freeze your credit report for free in many states, $5 or $10 in others.
If you go to the TrueCredit Lock site, it's designed to sign you right up and get you started, but if you dig deep in the site under the "service agreement" link (which you can only get to from the home page by clicking the "terms of use" or "site map" link, so how would you know it was there?), below paragraphs of lawyerese, you get:
"In the event you purchase a product that includes TrueCredit Lock, you acknowledge that some of the features of TrueCredit lock may be available to you under the laws of certain states. In the event you cancel any subscription that includes TrueCredit Lock as a benefit you will cease receiving TrueCredit Lock upon cancellation.
"You acknowledge that TrueCredit Lock will only prevent delivery of your TransUnion credit report. It will not apply to your Equifax or Experian credit report. Remember that while a credit lock prevents most third party access to your credit report, a third party may access a locked report in certain instances that are considered a low risk for identity theft, such as official government investigations, collection activities and insurance underwriting and claims administration."
Got that? If you buy it, you acknowledge that you already knew you could get it for free if you're lucky enough to live in one of the 35 states?