Freecreditreport.com is not free anymore, but actually $1

In a real "Oh no they didn't!" move, Experian has (so far, at least) managed to dodge the FTC's requirements that it tell consumers in plain English that they're really signing up for a pricey credit-monitoring service when they sign up to receive a free credit report. How? Hold onto your seats: By making you pay for that free report.

As this article in the New York Times details, Experian, which owns the free credit report site and promotes it via catchy commercial jingles, seemed to find a loophole in the FTC requirements (which we told you about in detail here) that would have made them add prominent announcements to the site alerting consumers that they were signing up for a service and not actually getting the free credit report everyone is entitled to get every year (for that, you need to go to annualcreditreport.com). It has started charging a buck for the report -- it says the money's going to charity -- for the quote-unquote free report, and then it signs you up for its $15-a-month credit-monitoring service.