New FreeCreditReport.com Commercial

... features the boys riding Goliath @ LaRonde. No old lady or pirate hat in this version, but you gotta love the irony of them shooting a commercial about watching your credit in a Six Flags park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvDe8eH7040

At least they seem to be letting go of the notion that bad credit somehow destroys your career and invalidates your college degree and experience.

Jeff said:
At least they seem to be letting go of the notion that bad credit somehow destroys your career and invalidates your college degree and experience.

I think the main reason why they are letting go that notion is the many of people who had to end up filing bankruptcy within the last year due to such things as a job loss and/or health reasons, like having no health insurance because of a job loss. In other words, its no fault of their own. Why should those people be treated like "trash" and be put on the same level as a child molestor when it comes to looking for a job?

Chriscub said:
In other words, its no fault of their own. Why should those people be treated like "trash" and be put on the same level as a child molestor when it comes to looking for a job?

I don't remember any of the old commercials indicating if you have bad credit you must be a child molestor. Maybe they just couldn't find anything to rhyme with molester. Oh wait... Polyester! Nah...

Still, I don't really see the connection.

LOL Carrie...it did seem like a huge leap was taken for Cub to go all the way to "molester."

FreeCreditReport.com is such a scam. Did you ever read the fine print? It's not really free, because you have to sign up and pay for a monthly service.

That commercial sucks too. Stupid song...lol

But nice footage of Goliath! Thanks for sharing, Bear.

Your real entitled free credit reports are available annually from www.annualcreditreport.com.

LostKause said:
FreeCreditReport.com is such a scam. Did you ever read the fine print? It's not really free, because you have to sign up and pay for a monthly service.

That commercial sucks too. Stupid song...lol

But nice footage of Goliath! Thanks for sharing, Bear.

Kinda like buy a season pass and get 5 free tickets? :) Couldn't resist tying in the other SF thread.

At the end of every commercial, they do say the offer applies with membership in the credit monitoring thing. But a lot of people probably don't know the difference between freecreditreport and annualcreditreport.

LK, I kinda like the song, even though it appears to be horribly lip-synched in places, and sounds like a different voice from the other commercials. I could imagine Shapiro and Snyder singing "when your debt goes up, your score comes down, when you pay a little off, you turn it all around." LOL Plus I miss the old lady with the sour puss who shows up in those commercials.

It looks like they shot the commercial when it was cold, everyone is in jackets.

Jeff said:
Your real entitled free credit reports are available annually from www.annualcreditreport.com.

Thanks for link Jeff.. Was trying to remember what the free one was as theres a lot of "fakes" out there.

But, you know thats what annoys the mess outta me? A lot of these places charge you to find out about your own history. It boggles my mind the justification that you cant check your full report free anytime.

You're entitled to one free report each year from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. So if you time things right and spread them out, you'll never be more than 4 months away from receiving a new report. I can't imagine needing to check more often than that when it's just for maintenance and fraud protection.

I thought that too until I had my stupid mortgage company have my records and many other peoples records compromised.. So to appease us they gave us free credit reports for 2 years (dont get me started on that being the "solution").

Well being on this program, you would be surprised just how many times different organizations "check" up on you, as i got text messages any time something changed or was verified.

At any rate fraud can happen any time.. Not every 4 months.. So to me, you could never check too much.. But thats me..

Interestingly enough, you aren't entitled to you credit score for free, as that's apparently proprietary information that they're entitled to charge for. I believe most of the paid services allow you access.

I was a part of some class action though, I think last year, related to one credit card or another from who knows when, and the settlement was a free report with credit score. I forget which agency it was from. I was thrilled to see my score was above 800. It's amazing to think about when most of my adult life I've held little regard for buying whatever I felt like without much thought to paying for it.

No, I agree with you, Ken I just don't put much stock in the notion that people would check their reports that religiously. I think for most enrolling in a credit protection type of program is about the extent of their willingness to fully participate in such things. But I certainly don't mean all. And your point is well taken.

(double post alert... it's contagious! :) )

You just have to watch, Jeff, because each of the 3 agencies have their own programs with their own credit scoring systems. The most universally accepted score is the FICO score, though.

The rest are a good indication of how you are doing generally, but I wouldn't put much faith in them for actual credit decisions.

Ironically, since my mortgage gaff (best way I can word it w/o wanting to torch the place), Its been like a game to me to see how high I can get my score.

I will be kinda sad to see my freebee go away and have to go back to the paying world again.

But back to the entitlement part.. Thats what boggles my mind..

Your personal credit score is proprietary information?!? Thats even hard to say without a WTF following it..

Perhaps I dont understand it well enough then, but I do know its something affected by what you do and dont do and its used to measure whether you can get a loan for any large purchases or a simple credit card. Why isnt something that technically belongs to you not entitled to you?

Crap.. Now i have to double post..

I hate to admit it Carrie.. But Im religious.. When a company I "trusted" with my personal information decides to let Joe employee possibly sell off that information and then warn us a few months later..

Better believe im religious now.. Hallelujah! :)

ridemcoaster said:

Well being on this program, you would be surprised just how many times different organizations "check" up on you, as i got text messages any time something changed or was verified.

Be assured that every time you receive one of those "pre-approved" credit card offers in the mail, the card issuer checked your report beforehand. That's how they figure out what rate and amount of credit to offer you.

Jeff said:
I was thrilled to see my score was above 800. It's amazing to think about when most of my adult life I've held little regard for buying whatever I felt like without much thought to paying for it.

That's amazing. Mine's 793, and that's in the 98th percentile. All those club memberships really are making you rich!!!11!!

Carrie M. said:
You just have to watch, Jeff, because each of the 3 agencies have their own programs with their own credit scoring systems. The most universally accepted score is the FICO score, though.

I tried to tell him that before, Carrie. :)

I'm still of the belief (and it's gotten me this far in life, so take that for what it's worth) that a company selling you a 'credit score' means dick 99% of the time. For most 'real' situations (mortgages, loans, credit, etc.), your FICO will be looked at a vast majority of the time.

Hell, I can make up an arbitrary equation based on your credit history and sell people a 'credit score' and it would be just as meaningless (and apples-to-oranges) as the number that companies that sell you 'credit scores' (also known as FAKO scores - wink, wink, get it, Fake-O?) give you.

Thus when Jeff and kpjb compare scores, unless they got them from the same source, it's not a valid comparison.