You really want to know the difference between the credit reporting agencies credit report and those companies that sell it to you through a third party source? By third party source I mean, FreeCreditReport.com or FreeTriple3.com or PrivacyMatters.com, or any of those sites that isn’t the actual credit reporting agency, but is trying to sell you your report.

The difference and the reason why you shouldn’t use a third party is this:

Third party companies require you to enroll in a report monitoring service. They don’t give you the option to buy your report one time only.

That is what quantifies them as a SCAM in my book. I don’t take kindly to being forced into anything, much less giving my credit card number so that some whack job can charge my credit card every month because I’m too busy to call and sit on hold for 30 minutes to cancel the service.

This is what they do to you, and please pardon me while I rant. You go on the site because you want to see what your credit looks like, harmless enough. Let’s say you aren’t fortunate enough to land here and you land on PrivacyMatters.com, which is the site a lot of those new upcropping websites go back to, and you put in your credit card number, get your credit report and print it off.

Let me tell you folks, unless you’re out there applying for credit cards, cars and houses every day, you only need your report once or twice a year, and before a major purchase.

You don’t NEED a monthly monitoring service unless you’re about to do two things: Repair and dispute items on your credit, or you’re making a major purchase such as a house or vehicle, vacation property, etc.

But they force you to enroll simply because they don’t give you the option of a one time report. Fast forward to sixty days later and you get your credit card bill and remember that you were supposed to call and cancel in that 30 day window not to get charged. Oops! (This is part of the ploy.)

So, you decide to call the number printed right there on your credit card statement beside the charge. Here’s the annoying part, you’re busy probably trying to figure out what to have or cook for dinner, got to help the kids with homework, water the yard, walk the dog, spend some time with the better half, etc. You’ll be sitting on hold forever and when you finally get someone they’ll offer you every service under the sun that they have and won’t shut up until they tell you all of them.

It’s not as simple as, “Hi, I want to cancel your service.” You’re not getting off that easy. By the end of that call chances are you’re pretty ticked off at all you had to go through for that report you read over two months ago.

It’s all a ploy of inconvenience to get you to avoid the hassle. In a life where more and more convenience is the key to business, those that make money off inconvenience are especially sly. Beware those sites that aren’t the credit reporting agencies themselves, you’ll find yourself out of a little money and a lot of patience.

Read my article on Getting Your Credit Report to obtain your report from the credit reporting agencies themselves.