Like many other consumers on the Internet, I fell for CIC's promise of a FREE credit report. The company lures you in with a "free" credit report, followed by a "free" 30 day trial of their monitoring service. You can cancel any time or continue to recieve their regular on-line reports and info thru your e-mail for only $9.95 a month. (Of course, CIC needs your credit card number in order to get the FREE credit report.)
Well, after viewing my initial credit report, I never received confirmation of an account, no e-mail, no follow-up, nothing. When a charge for $9.95 popped up a month later, I didn't even remember who CIC was. Then, when I tried to log-on to the site, after I re-found it, "security" kept me from even logging on. After being refered back and forth between several e-mail addresses and 2 toll-free numbers (which by the way all lead to the exact same place), I finally spoke with a very persistent woman who insisted that since I'd already paid for the month, didn't I want to at least sample the services I was paying for! I said no, I just want to cancel. It took over half an hour of repeating myself before she finally said I would not be charged again, and hung up on me.
I called my bank IMMEDIATELY. I am fortunate enough to have a bank that cares about customer service, and the charges were removed from my account, as well as a block put on any further charges should CIC "forget" our conversation. There will be a full investigation done by my bank, so perhaps it will help to protect any further victims.
HOW DO COMPANIES LIKE THIS STAY IN BUSINESS? Every victim has the responsibilty of making sure that the same thing doesn't happen to the next person. I am calling the Better Business Bureau, as well as our local TV station, because CIC is one of the first sites to pop-up if someone is looking for a free credit report. As a former salesperson, the first thing someone who is denied credit wants to do is pull up their credit report, and unfortunately, it's those of us with not so great credit that get ripped off by agencies like this. The only thing we can do is FIGHT BACK TOGETHER!!!
Hope you fare as well as I did in the end...
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