Experian 30-Day trial of CreditExpert?

It is a complete rip-off! You can get the information by post for two pounds. Not free but no risk that theywill charge any more.

It's really free BUT to cancel you have to phone their customer services. You can't cancel online (which is why I forgot to cancel...) Funny that you can sign up online, but only cancel offline.

Peter

It is really free, as long as you cancel within 30 days. I did this recently. You have to call them to cancel, but the phone was answered quickly and no hassles at all... no sales rep trying to convince me to keep the service.

Equifax's service can be cancelled with an email to their customer services.

David.

The online service is weekly, so the equivilant by post would cost you £8 per month, or over £100 a year.

It depends how often you apply for credit or how worried about identity fraud you are.

Listening to all the scare stories about identity fraud would make anyone think it's a huge problem for everyone. However, its not really everyone's problem - it's the banks problem and they want us to do their monitoring for them. If they can't get their systems right and do proper identity checks when people open accounts, then the majority of this so called identity theft crime would be eliminated. During the last 3 years, I've opened 6 credit card accounts, as I've been hopping a balance transfer around on 0% deals. In the whole three years, I've *never* been asked to verify my identity by something as simple as a utility bill or another credit card statement or bank statement. After I got my 3rd card, I rang to activate it and asked them why I wasn't asked to send some proof of ID and the woman said because I was on the electoral roll they didn't need it. What rubbish. I could have set up myself as Joe Bloggs on the electoral roll and nobody would be any the wiser.

Why is it funny? They don't want you to cancel. If they could they'd only accept cancellations in person at their Australian branch!

Your credit file is generally only updated monthly anyway.

"Jonathan Bryce" wrote

Not quite. Each individual credit account may only be updated once a month, but the different accounts tend to get updated at different times during the month. Hence, if you have (say) at least four or five different accounts, then they may each be updated in a different week of the month.

So unless you have very few accounts, or they all happen to be updated at the same time of each month (unlikely), then your credit file itself will be updated more often than monthly.

I was being sarcastic.

I think I agree it's over hyped.

The recent "scare" stories are all about people being careless, not shredding documents etc. I mean who disposes of bills and credit card statements intact. Lots of people apparently. "Normal" people apparently havn't got a clue about finance and often need telling when to breathe.

My point is that £5.99 is not a rip off for the level of service you're getting from them. Whether the level of service you are getting is necessary is another matter. I think you're right in saying it probably isn't.

Sorry!

It's free, and when the report is "too big to fit on the web" (as happens to a lot of people), they will still send it to you via paper, and make no charge.

"Jonathan" wrote

Wow! How big does it need to be, so that it is "too big to fit on the web" ?!

"Jonathan" wrote

Wow! How big does it need to be, so that it is "too big to fit on the web" ?!

To get the 2 back (or profit), use an affiliate link like LineMyPocket.

It is worth signing up to Credit Expert to have a quick check on your profile if you have never done it before.

However, its not worth paying for it on a monthly basis. They also cost more (4.99) if you wanted to know your credit score (not worth paying for).

Cancel once you are finished - usually you only need about an hour to look through all the stuff and possibly more if you need to get your info updated.

AMO

Apparently, no-one knows! It either is, or isn't. I think more than 2 house moves will do it!