Complaint Review: Experian - Costa Mesa California

I used freecreditreports.com to receive my Experian credit report and credit score for $1.00 that included a 7-day credit monitoring service. With it claiming to be from Experian and having the Experian logo printed on it, I trusted it for accuracy. In checking out the information, I found an entry on it that, to no fault of Experian's, should not have been entered on my report, and two accounts with inaccurate information. I contacted the company that had entered the information that wasn't supposed to be on it and they told me they would contact all three credit bureaus and have it removed. They said it may take up to 30-day to be removed. So I waited the 30-days before filing an online dispute with Experian to have the inaccurate information corrected so I could also see if the information I had requested to be removed had been removed, without having to pay for another credit report, since I felt I didn't need the credit monitoring service that would cost me $14.95 per month after the 7-day trial period expired. If I had maintained the membership, it would have allowed me free credit reports with the membership. (More on the free credit reports later)

So upon entering the dispute page of experian.com, it requested a report number from the credit report I had already received. In checking that report, there wasn't a credit report number on it next to my name like the instructions said it would be. After already waiting 30-days, I was anxious to get my credit report corrected asap. So I opted for the second option and that was to pay $11.50 for a new one allowing me to proceed with my dispute and get my report corrected.

Upon my credit report becoming viewable and printable on the screen, it showed the entry I had requested be removed was no longer on it and there were no errors or inaccuracies on it. So I printed it and began closing windows to get to the log out button when an offer for a credit score for an additional $4.95 popped up. For the $4.95, it also offered the 1-week free trial credit monitoring membership and another credit report with it. I knew I didn't want the credit monitoring membership and could cancel the trial immediately after getting my new credit score, and I didn't need another credit report after just seeing and printing one I could verify was accurate, but seeing the new credit score was worth the $4.95 to me. And on top of that, having received an inaccurate credit report from freecreditreports.com, it gave me reason to believe the credit score that came with it was inaccurate also. Especially since the score is based on the information contained in the report. And since the inaccuracies on the freecreditreports.com report were negatives to my score, I wanted to see my new score on my accurate report. After paying for, bang.....my new credit score was the same as the one I received from freecreditscore.com. The corrections that had been made to my report were significant enough to have changed it for the better. And since it didn't, I wanted to see the credit report that came with it. When I clicked on the link that took me to it, it returned the same information that was in the freecreditreports.com report, only in different format. When I looked at the URL window, it showed the URL experian.experiandirect.com. So I printed it to include with my evidence that Experian is playing games with consumer's information.

Upon further investigation, by going to freecreditreports.com and experian.experiandirect.com's websites and clicking on the "About us" button, I learned that FCR.com and E.ED.com are sister companies with another company called Consumerinfo.com, and they are all three owned by Experian, that is a worldwide company, with  it's corporate headquarters in Dublin, Irland and only an Operational Headquarters located in Costa Mesa, CA.

I'm less concerned about the $16.45 as I am about the hours of work at trying to correct the inaccuries and the stress of what the inaccurate information was having on my credit score since credit scores are not only used for borrowing purposes, but home and auto insurance rates along with employment evaluations and so many other things in life today.

After all of this, I went to experian.com and clicked on a link to get a credit report. Guess where it took me....? Yep, to experian.experiandirect.com. So don't expect an accurate credit report from Experian unless you go to the dispute page in experian.com's website. You won't get one if you subscribe to their credit monitoring memberships either. I proved that twice. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This should be found to be fraud by deception if you ask me. Where's the U.S. Commerce Dept. Where's the FCC. Are they too busy hiding from their own corruption scandals? Or has lawlessness become rampant since our president is?