Your Credit Score matters After you die?
Back in the states last week, among some of the commercials I saw were a few annoying ones from a company advertising freecreditreport.com. The songs were dumb, and the commercials were on so often during daytime television that those loser-esque tunes would soon stick in your head for days to come if you didn’t weed it out via AC/DC or something. I won’t pretend to know exactly how they make their money, but given what’s posted on the US Government website, they’re not exactly the ones to go to.
Only one website is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law — annualcreditreport.com. Other websites that claim to offer “free credit reports,” “free credit scores,” or “free credit monitoring” are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program. In some cases, the “free” product comes with strings attached. For example, some sites sign you up for a supposedly “free” service that converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period. If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you may be unwittingly agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card.
Some “imposter” sites use terms like “free report” in their names; others have URLs that purposely misspell annualcreditreport.com in the hope that you will mistype the name of the official site. Some of these “imposter” sites direct you to other sites that try to sell you something or collect your personal information.
Annualcreditreport.com and the nationwide consumer reporting companies will not send you an email asking for your personal information. If you get an email, see a pop-up ad, or get a phone call from someone claiming to be from annualcreditreport.com or any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, do not reply or click on any link in the message. It’s probably a scam. Forward any such email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.
There you have it. AnnualCreditReport.com. No silly jingles. Unfortunately, no access outside of the United States either.
The AnnualCreditReport.com website is only accessible through ISPs (Internet Service Providers)
located within the United States and its territories.
One of the reasons I was home was because of the death of my Step-father. About 3 days had passed when my mother received a phone call from a creditor (outsourced to India, of course). The bill was for something valued at around $60. Not sure what it was. Upon learning of his death, this creditor proceeded to tell us that the bill still needs to be paid. It would still reflect on his credit report, and we wouldn’t want the deceased to have a bad credit score, would we? WOULD WE?!
What the hell is that? Your credit score now matters AFTER you die? Who the hell thought of that one? I’d appreciate anyone telling me why that would matter to me. When I’m dead, I’m pretty sure they won’t honor a car loan request. Then again…
As soon as I find myself a nice working US Proxy, I’ll see if I can find out what mine is, just out of curiosity. Doubt there’s much on there, considering the time I’ve lived overseas. But I certainly am curious.
