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In my view the 2nd most important aspect of a credit report is the score. That's the most often quoted value and "supposedly" the key indicator of credit worthiness. The real scam is that the "score" is never free. The "come-on" is the implication that you'll receive full credit reporting. Where the scam comes in is that the agencies' goal is to give you some information and then require a payment to get your score, as well as sell you credit-monitoring "services". The way I see the world is that this is NOT a "free credit report". How many people get duped into believing that they're really going to get this for nothing.

That begs the issue of the true value of a credit report's score. My credit worthiness according to TransUnion is 759 which means that 57% of the population is more credit worthy. I should be in the top 1% based on my true credit worthiness. I have zero debt, own my home, own my car and never incur credit card fees as I pay in full monthly. Who could be more credit worthy?

These agencies only serve those who want to make a bundle from less credit-worthy borrowers. They are not there to serve the interests of those who are careful with their borrowing and honest with their creditors.

My credit report is severely penalized because I own my home. They want to see a broad range of borrowing and I don't have real estate borrowing. They want to see lots of credit cards with high credit availability and low balances. I have a single credit card with a Credit Union ... there's another major black mark on my record! Who would want to market to a credit card to me ... I'm not a patsy and that's who they're looking for.

I could go on but won't. Will close by saying that a truly credit-worthy person will not enjoy seeing what the reporting agencies think of them. It's quite depressing.

Sam, in Philadelphia PA

THE WHOLE THING IS A SCAM!!!

The credit repositories make BIG BUCKS selling your info to potential lenders. The more reliable/accurate their data, the more valuable their services are, the more they can charge.

"Free Credit Reports" (even the "honest" ones) do little more than provide the repositories with a chance to collect reliable/updated data ON YOU!

(why else do you think that a group as powerful as lenders/bankers/credit agencies would allow congress to pass the FACTA Amendment to the FCRA?!?!?)

Even if the "honest" free credit report provided a credit score, EACH TYPE OF LENDER USES A DIFFERENT SCORE MODEL!!! So the score the credit card companies pull is different from a mortgage lender...

my 2 cents worth...