I feel so gullible!!!

[Cabra]

So now that we're on a budget I'm actually reading our bank statement, phone bills, etc and we've been totally ripped off!

Blinko and "Club Zed" two companies we've never heard of, never bought anything from (apparently they do ringtones?) have been tacking a minimum of $16 in "Premium Charges" on to DH's cell phone bill for at least the last 4 months. I googled the companies and found that they're in lots of legal trouble for "stuffing" cell phone bills.

UHG. I only got one $16 charge removed from our bill from T-mobile and blacklisted all charges from those companies.

AND THEN, I realized we'd fallen for the freecreditreport.com scam. Where you get a "free" credit report from Experian, but then end up unwittingly signed up for $13 a month in "credit monitoring"--$26 for both of us a month for a service we didn't want or need!!

I feel so gullible!!

And then the customer service person for Experian gave me the run around as I tried to cancel and get my money back. I'm going to dispute the charges.

Have other people had this happen? I feel stupid but still mad.

And who comes up with these crooked "opt in" plans?

UHG!!

[druidessemily]

You need to read the fine print!!! The freecreditreport.com says up front that you will be subscribing.

On a related note, you can contact the credit companies themselves and get one free report from them each year. Don't go through a middle man, contact the credit reporting agency directly!

If something sounds too good to be true, it likely is! And if you notice something fishy, you need to dispute it immediately. If you wait a few months, and the charges continue, the company will have a leg to stand on in that you didn't dispute immediately.

[Cabra]

I know that now!

On freecreditreport.com I honestly thought I was getting the service of annualcreditreport.com--which is federally regulated and not a trap. I saw the Experian name too--and I stupidly trusted it.

The cell phone thing is absolutely fraud, though--I just feel so dumb for letting the payment be taken out automatically without examining the bill.

[Lorelei]

Cabra,

Try to look at it as you are so financially savvy now that you're stopping this nonsense and won't let it happen again. I used to work in customer service for a bank, and you'd be surprised how many people have no idea what is being taken out of their checking accounts or added to their credit cards. You're not the only one who has had this happen. However, you are much wiser than you were last month .

[ktsmama]

Try to look at it as a lesson learned and know that you will be much more careful in the future.

Don't beat yourself up too much.

[Cabra]

much more financially savvy than last month...definitely!
guess I've just paid some stupid tax!

[mea772]

I have been "had" many times in my life time. I am much more aware of things now but I still get scammed once in a while.

One of the scams that is on the top of my head is with Sams Club. A couple years ago I signed up for one of their credit cards. I got it. The woman told me (now these won't be exact but pretty close to it). 14%. I said that was pretty good!

I get my bill and it states I am at 21%! I called and raised cane. No one would change it for me. I KNOW what that woman told me...I don't know where she got that number from but I certainly would not have said "oh, thats pretty good" with 21%!

[Judi Dial]

I had someone call me up and say they were Verizon and they were going to package my longdistance bill with my local phone for my business. So, I said, "Okay."

Except that I'd just gotten "crammed" a billign company inserted its charges between Sprint/Verizon and myself. They added a $30 fee each month onto what I actually called and then paid my sprint bill, supposedly.

Well, I caught it, but when you call the 800 number you get put on hold and hold and hold and hold and then you get told that you really need to talk to another company at another number. And at the 2nd number you get the same kind of run around. This went on for months. Finally, it cost me money as I hadn't made my minimum charge at sprint and they billed me a surcharge because of it.

I called Verizon, Sprint, the Sec'y of State commerce div, and the FCC, and anyone else I could think of, I was steamed! Verizon got them off my bill, finally. When I called Sprint to set up paying off the 6 months worth of long distance that was unpaid because of this, the lady on the phone told me to forget it. The other company now owed the debt and they likely wouldn't even file a credit report against me, as that would open them up to various charges and it wasn't worth it to them for my $600 phone bill.

I also found out that a few years before this, the two companies and their two-step phone hold game had been doing the same thing, with reversed roles and had switched because of lawsuits, litigation, etc. Same scam, different names on the various parts of it.

A few months after I finally got this resolved, a young, deep, English-accented male called and said in an intimate sort of tone, "Ms. Dial, this is Verizon, as a curstosy, we're going to alter the way your phone bill is printed. This will save you getting that second bill in the mail."

I said, "Like hell you will!" and hung up.

They tried a few more times after that, but they never got me again.

So gullible? Hey, you have to LEARN this stuff. There's nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Judi

[Princess Lala]

At least you know now... and have helped someone in the process!

I just looked & i had fallen for hte free credit report thing too... only my card is over the limit so they haven't been able to charge me! LOL! Never thought being over the limit would have been a good thing!

You live... you learn... you get smarter!

[nodmicks]

So now that we're on a budget I'm actually reading our bank statement, phone bills, etc and we've been totally ripped off!

Blinko and "Club Zed" two companies we've never heard of, never bought anything from (apparently they do ringtones?) have been tacking a minimum of $16 in "Premium Charges" on to DH's cell phone bill for at least the last 4 months. I googled the companies and found that they're in lots of legal trouble for "stuffing" cell phone bills.

UHG. I only got one $16 charge removed from our bill from T-mobile and blacklisted all charges from those companies.

AND THEN, I realized we'd fallen for the freecreditreport.com scam. Where you get a "free" credit report from Experian, but then end up unwittingly signed up for $13 a month in "credit monitoring"--$26 for both of us a month for a service we didn't want or need!!

I feel so gullible!!

And then the customer service person for Experian gave me the run around as I tried to cancel and get my money back. I'm going to dispute the charges.

Have other people had this happen? I feel stupid but still mad.

And who comes up with these crooked "opt in" plans?

UHG!!

We had blinko show up on our cell also. I called alltel and they gave me a phone number. I went back and forth with a guy who barely spoke english with him insisting we signed up. I did a web search and found there have been hundreds over 100,000 complaints. I called back Alltel and told them it was telephone fraud and I want it off.
I got credited in my next bill. Give it a shot!

[Nada.Leona]

On a related note, you can contact the credit companies themselves and get one free report from them each year. Don't go through a middle man, contact the credit reporting agency directly!

While we're on this topic, just wanted to pass a piece of info on that one of my instructors told me about -- it's not a good idea to do a credit check very often. The reason is that anytime you do a credit check, it goes on your credit history. If you're doing a credit check every three or four months, or even more often, it looks like you're trying to hide something or you have some problem.

Also, some places say that they'll have to do a credit check in order to provide you with their service (leasing a car, credit cards, etc.) -- you can deny this option. You do not have to let them do this credit card check if you don't want to, because again, it will show up on your credit. It may look suspicious to the service provider, but you have to weigh the pros and cons.

That's just what I've been told.

[mikandmari]

Naderbug, I work in the credit industry, and this isn't true. A smart consumer checks their credit. It has no bearing on the score.

Frequent inquiries from outside companies may affect the score slightly, but they are easy to figure out. For instance, a check from an insurance company only means you're shopping for new insurance, but several checks within a short time from different credit card companies could mean you are in a financial crisis.

Hope this helps.

[mikandmari]

Also want to add.... Cabra, you certainly are NOT gullible. We've all made mistakes (and still do). I remember when I made the decision to become frugal, and took a look at where I could cut back.... . I had $$$ bleeding from everywhere. I feel much smarter now!

[ilovechocolate]

Did you learn or benefit from your experience? Then, in my opinion, it wasn't a waste.

Just look at it as a wake-up call and move ahead.