Credit Card Law Will Curb FreeCreditReport.com Ads

The credit card reform bill signed into law by the president on Friday won't just put a stop to several unfair practices of the credit card industry -- it also targets misleading advertisements for phony "free" credit reports.

The "free credit report" advertised non-stop on cable television, it bears repeating, isn't free at all. The law calls for the Federal Trade Commission to issue new rules that will force free credit report advertisers to inform consumers that the only place for a free credit report is AnnualCreditReport.com.

Television and radio ads will also be required to include a pretty deflating statement: "This is not the free credit report provided for by Federal law."

It's hard to see how the FreeCreditReport.com's Renaissance Fair rocker will fit that one into his rhymes about pointy slippers and green wool tights.

Under the Bush administration, the FTC repeatedly fined the folks behind freecreditreport.com for deceptive advertising, since you only get the "free" report after enrolling in a $15-a-month credit monitoring program. But the fines amounted to mere wrist-slaps.

The new rule is good news for consumer advocates.

"For too long, FreeCreditReport.com has taken advantage of a weak consent decree negotiated by the Bush FTC that has let it confuse consumers into buying its over-priced, unneeded subscription credit monitoring product that isn't free," wrote U.S. Public Interest Research Group's Ed Mierzwinski in an email to the Huffington Post. "Consumers have wasted millions buying a service that doesn't prevent identity theft and doesn't raise your credit score, sold by one of the companies whose sloppy practices make identity theft easy and keeping your credit score accurate hard."

Comments

[TheRealMcCoy]

This is great, but now can we do something about the commercials with "buy one get one FREE (just pay shipping and handling). If I have to pay shipping and handling then the second one isn't free, especially when shipping and handling is usually at least half the cost of the product.

Advertising, you gotta love it....

[marco01]

This would be a gift from the heavens. I am so sick of having to dive for the remote and hit mute so that this moronic and annoying tune isn't stuck in my head all day.

Praise be!

[booker52]

Along with our free credit report we can get annually, the government should also include our fico score.

[LeftRight]

Personally I've never understood why the credit reporting agencies were private corporatio­ns....

[BabblingBrooks]

Why shouldn't they be private? The government, with its inherit political corruption, should be in charge of establishing our credit ratings? Are you crazy?

[formerprosecutor]

They are ownde, in stock, by the lenders.
Didn' you know that?
That is why they are legal fiction

and yet, even our own government use them to deny people jobs.

[njgal4obama]

I thought those ads were mildly amusing until the one about the guy and his wife being forced to live at her parents house. I know it was supposed to be funny, but geez.

The wife was making all these trips back and forth to the laundry room, doing actual work, while he and his apparently unemployed bum friends sat around in HER house playing bad music and slamming the door in her face every time she walked past.

I guess the message was that if your dream girl defaults on a credit card, she's not worth being married to. And if it prevents you from getting a "loan for a respectible home" then I guess renting an apartment would be out of the question. No, you're doomed to a life of living in the in-law's basement. And it's all her fault.

I thought it was sexist and pathetic. I turn the channel when those commercials come on now.

[smed]

don't take things so personally or seriously. it was funny.

[formerprosecutor]

except that many people DoO use "credit worthiness" to select mates

even mor ethan looks

so I guess looks and money is what matters; and that is the values that the ad supports

[BabblingBrooks]

1) They didn't slam any doors.
2) She had the greatest part in the commercial, looking actually P-O'd and beautiful and behaving appropriately while being insulted by the dude who was implying he wouldn't have married her and would have been much better off as a bachelor with a dog.
3) Otherwise, I agree with you. As if he would have foregone marriage by getting a credit report on his fiancee! That's just crazy.

But still, don't marry someone who can't be trusted to pay bills and life within a budget.

[JLRoberson]

And yet I doubt she's intended as the representative of those who the ad's targeted at.

[trunk65]

I bet you that guy and his band will build a career off this. That will really make you mad.

[Redheadwithopinions]

Oh geez..if you believe everything you see on tv...I got a great piece of ocean front property in the middle of the Sahara for ya that you will love.

[Robert Bixby]

Satellite radio promised no advertising. Of course, they were referring only to the music stations that played music from various decades or by versious artists. Most of the rest of the stations were actually on-air programs diverted through the satellite. Instead of advertisements, the breaks were filled with intermission music or public service announcements. Then they started selling advertising to fill the breaks and only the music channels didn't have ads. Then they punched ads in for other satellite radio channels--and even for the channel you were listening to at the time--and for the commercial channels higher up the dial. When I'd demonstrate my satellite radio for friends, it would always be in the midst of a block of these non-ads and they'd turn to me, confused, saying, "I thought there weren't any ads on satellite radio." I don't understand why they charge $12 a month for commercial free radio that is chock a block with non-commercials. I'm guessing, from the recent merger, that neither XM nor Sirius could actually pay the bills even with this business plan. If you're a trucker, satellite radio is nice. You can find a simpatico channel and listen nonstop coast to coast. Except when there's something imposing on the south side of the highway. Then you can't hear anything at all--you need to have an unimpeded view of the southern horizon to get reception.

[BabblingBrooks]

This is like expecting a web site to be free, worthwhile, and without advertising. It seems not enough people signed up for the service to pay expenses. They had to advertise. Nothing wrong with advertising. Without advertising, you might end up with the PBS cr-p.

[formerprosecutor]

whoa PBS c rap? didn't graduate , did ya?

[plzchuteme]

Only PBS has more advertising than the networks. They have commercials before and after every show, and fundraising that goes on for months, telephone solicitation and mailings that sometimes come as often as weekly for months on end.

[oddis]

I have XM, and I enjoy the channels--even some with commercials. If you don't live in a city of over a million people, the FM dial isn't full of channels with what you might want to hear. There are over 60 channels that are completely devoid of advertising, while the others are very open about having commercials. Clear channel supplies about 12-15 channels to the dial, and I find those are the ones with the most advertising. Nothing is free, and $12 doesn't pay the bills, do you know how much a satellite costs? I subscribe to cable, and it would be nice if all those channels I pay for didn't have commercials, but they do. I wish I could read HuffPost without all the ads, but they're there. I wish I didn't have to pay $6 for a mag that didn't have 40 pages of ads in the beginning, but they're there. Advertising is a part of our consumer-driven culture, so I say you just deal with it.

[IvyShoots]

First ad: Victims of identity theft are inexplicably forced to work at seafood restaurants. And that is a terrible fate.

Second ad: Simply knowing your credit score permits you to finance a car you can't afford, allowing you to look fly and roll phat.

Third ad: If the love of your life has bad credit, you'll be happier with a dog.

Fourth ad: You're so financially ruined you lose your crap car and get a crap bike, but you still need email alerts to remind you how bad your credit is.

Fifth ad: This time identity theft prevents our copiously talented hero from achieving well-deserved fame as a rock star, and sadistic fate decrees he work waiting on his usurpers.

Sixth ad: If your bad credit score haunts you wherever you go, seek a serfdom using the barter system. No need for credit reports.

[Redheadwithopinions]

ROFL Ivyshoots.­.I've never dissected them that much..but it pretty much sums it up. It is hard to see exactly what the point of those ads were but I thought they were humorous..­even if mildly annoying.

[Prakosh]

I will say this; their demise has been as quick as their appearance. I haven't seen this ad since the bill was signed. I wonder why they were still showing it right up until the business became illegal. I guess they were trying to nail every sucker they could find right up to the last minute. Doesn't this fact speak volumes about the general tendency in American business ethics--another oxymoron?

[steve-annie]

I just saw it this morning.

[billthinx]

Reading this queue of comments prompts one reminder that most will agree with: we are way over-saturated with advertising and commercial promotion in our lives. Some will remember when cable TV first started: they pushed people to sign up by calling it "commercial-free TV"! What a joke. Today, every show has about half its time consumed by advertising (at LOUD volume) and stupid repetition of what was just seen on the show before the last commercials. Every sporting event is stopped repeatedly for more and more commercial breaks. "Newsytainment" blab shows are about 50% commercials. Movie theaters charge very high ticket prices and then subject the captive audience to more commercials. The movies and TV shows themselves are for sale to the highest bidder for product placements - more commercials blended into the script. Scripts are for sale, too; want your product named by the actor? Just pay more. Yahoo and Google have over commercialized the internet; watch all those Adsense, Doubleclick and other money sites loading while you're waiting (and waiting) for your selected page to open. Marketers make stupid, loud, manipulative commercials because that's who they think you are! I'm sure you can all think of hundreds of other examples of this commercial dumbing down. We need some new ways to fight back, but it will start by blogging and commenting. Turn off all commercials!

[Prakosh]

Yeah, it started sometime in the nineteenth century...­and before there were ads and commercials, there were town criers and people selling hogwash from the back of wagons as they drove from town to town and community to community. The Band sang about this phenomenon in their great tune "W.S. Walcott Medicine Show." But not to worry Verso publishing company--the folks who bring us that great bi-monthy periodical "New Left Review"--have done yeoman work educating us on this aspect of American Culture and how it continues unabated and has spread nearly everywhere. A great read from them on this is Richard Ohmann's "Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, And Class At The Turn of The Century" (1996, second ed, 1998). See some great commentary on culture and old ads (and not a little nostalgia) for Coke and Corsets and something called the Pope Motor Car Company whose cars we are told could go a mile a minute.

[doober]

Watch PBS..It is too bad they have to beg for money..Mor­e government support should be given to these non commercial stations so they could spend less time begging..

Watch PBS..

[David Coble]

Also: support PBS! Vote for funding it and give money directly to your local stations.

[ChelseaC]

Thank goodness as I'm getting sick of looking at these ads.

[Prakosh]

Those guys are out of work--I wonder what kind of contract they had?

[DesertFlame]

Even the annualcreditreport.com comes with strings attached. Equifax would not release my husband's report to him without an account. The only way to get an account is to sign up for service. We filed a report with the FTC but never heard back.

[sheilaofmiami]

I had to make an account, but it was without cost. Couldn't remember what I had done, ended up calling and getting a report mailed to me.

It was nice to see my rating was a nice one.

[Prakosh]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

There's one born every minute!!!!

[madisonhack]

It's easy to get a free credit report....­just apply for credit for something that you know you won't be approved for and then ask for the report which is your legal right. In this economy, getting turned down for credit isn't hard to do for anyone.

[StevenevetS]

Yes, but getting turned down effects your credit score (negatively). It's not a great way to find out your score.

Several years ago I worked on software evaluated all of the things that can affect your credit score. It is an eye-opening (and quite ridiculous) list. Simply having frequent requests for your credit score can affect it negatively.

I know that many people (esp. Republicans) don't like regulation, but this is something that really should be regulated.

[LiberalForever]

Yeah, put these guys in a cab with the shamwow guy...driv­e the cab into the east river.

[bunnyhead]

don't forget Billy Mays, take him too

[zerotimes10]

bunnyhead: Yes, please God, take Billy Mays, or Satan or some other ...

[madisonhack]

Sounds like the shared ride experience with which I am well familiar. Try it when you're in Madison.

[redlinemetro]

Tell your friends tell your dad tell your mom

[peaches49]

Hurray! I am sick to death of this stupid commercial.

[Prakosh]

In the words of the early Eagles, "Theyr'e already gone." I haven't seen them since the bill was signed and they were ubiquitous on MSNBC!!!

[steve-annie]

That's where I saw it this morning!

[DanteLabon]

Awesome!!

[Weirdwriter]

Somehow I have managed to enjoy those commercials (catchy music!) without feeling any desire whatsoever to pay for those dubious services.

[Buddy McCue]

I have to admit that I liked the songs too (the seafood restaurant one particular­ly.) I've worked as a musician playing in restaurants too; maybe that's why this commercial appealed to me.

And, like you, I never had any desire to buy anything from them.

[Winthorpe]

Catchy? Those songs annoy me so much, I listen to Elizabeth Hasslebeck's voice on CD for a more pleasant sound.

[zerotimes10]

Yes I find them highly annoying as well but I figured some folks would like them. Go figure. Somethng for everyone I guess. After all Whitney Houston . . . need I say more? I wouldn't pay 2 cents to see her or listen to her but . . .