Halleluiah! Halleluiah!

There are no doubt a slew of books, articles and blogs helping consumers handle debt and credit cards, advising consumer responsibility with credit cards. Many provide services to overcome debt and many provide the same remedies, consolidate credit cards, stop over-spending and most importantly, save. Well sound advice your parents could have given you. Some even suggest contacting creditors to help lower interest rates and fees. Yes, it is all very swell indeed.

                Today, I checked my email and found ten spam emails promising to help me resolve debt, offering amazing credit deals and "free" credit reports. With only a little investigation I found these emails promising "free help," are marketing companies.  They have no means to help, only advertise for a bank or lender. Once they have your information, it is passed onto a bank or lender to give you a debt assistant "quote".  In other words, you can submit your credit information for free to have a bank charge you back.

                Next on my list are free credit reports. Imagine my surprise logging onto Experian who promotes freecreditreport.com. You know that funny little jingle prompting paranoia for bad credit. Yes, it is all very cute, but after the commercial is over you sit and wander, shit, what these folks have on me. Well if you log onto Experian, you find you get "free credit report" and a "free trial period" after that, you need to pay $15.95 a month to view your credit. That does not sound free to me.

                Now, back to all those wise folks who tell us to spend responsibly, just log onto Visa, MasterCard and American Express and see all their promises for a grand life of luxury and travel. They boldly suggest using your credit card to pay bills, charity and your taxes. Why not put your entire life on credit? That is the American Express Way. So enjoy life's priceless opportunities. And while you're at it, take Citi Bank's advice and, "Live Richly."

                With today's credit crunch and the outreach for consumer responsibility, who is holding these corporations responsible? Why shouldn't our credit report be free-always?  As the American consumer is told to monitor credit spending, the credit corporations are enticing us to spend more.  Credit Bureaus and Debt Consolidators are charging the American public through means of paranoia. This philosophy to me is like telling the soldiers to solve the crisis in Iraq, while our government prompts further aggression. The guys on the ground floor can only do so much, without help from above.

                 Does this make sense to anyone?

                Nothing says, "Double Secret Probation," like our country's credit report bureaus.  Legally, we credit peons have the ability to look at our credit one in a year, free of charge. So when any of the ding-a-ling free credit people offer you a free look at your credit report, well they are giving you a free look-once, and then they get your name and credit card information to be on their monthly plan. So, it really isn't free, is it? And just try and finagle yourself free of the free credit people's contract.

                Here's the deal. Doesn't it make sense that since it is your credit report, a person should have free access at anytime? But really, these credit bureaus act like a big fraternity brothers who gossip about you from a far. It is like the jocks' secret plan to duck tape your ass cheeks together. It is like those snobby cheerleaders spreading vicious rumors that you had a nose job. And it is like that shady guy who steals your homework and passes it off as his. How are you supposed to know when people are screwing you?

                Luckily, there are those generous souls who will keep tabs on all this for you at a price. You invest in bully protection. You know the big, scary guy you pay money in lieu of not having you ass taped together. You pay to find out the rumors people are passing behind your back and you pay to steal back you own homework. Sounds fair, doesn't it?

               One thing I can't get my thick, little skull around is why, why, WHY? When society is telling the consumer to be responsible with their credit, the creditors and credit bureaus are doing all they can to make the consumer spend more money to resolve their debt? If you have debt you are trying to clear, if you are trying to buy a car or house and you need to monitor your credit, or god forbid someone steals your identity, why should you pay extra?  I logged onto Experian to find they sponsor Freecreditreport.com, which markets a free credit report with a cheerful jingle sung by Average Joe's like the rest of us, but the free credit report is a trial offer.  IT'S NOT FREE! Once they got you in their membership, good luck.  Now, even the credit bureaus are trying to make money of you.  

              Fortunately, we have the Federal Trade Commission to step in when our consumer asses get to red.  

Click the red butt button for more information.

When I checked my email this morning, I found more than ten spam emails offering to give me a free peak at my credit report.  Before I signed up for this wonderful deal, I read the fine print.  The contract mentioned a membership. Membership, I asked myself.  What club do I need to sign up for in order to look at my credit report? Is this a support group for people who review their credit report or perhaps it are a cult? As I read further, I realized it actually was a cult. To get a free look at your credit report, you need to pay $29.95 a month for a subscription to Yoursavings.com.  A website designed to sell you coupons to many different retailers and services. Wow, as you are wallowing in debt and you just want a “free” look at your credit report, there is someone trying to sell you something to make your debt worse. I repeat, wow.

It’s just like the dudes at the airports dressed in robes who hand out free flowers. You’re tired, you just want to get home and muddle in your own poverty. Your resistance is low. They get you talking about your sad, sad deep in debt life. They promise you an everlasting free cure to a debt free existence and then next thing you know you are selling your soul to big brother. It is the eternal bait and switch.

I decided to do a little research on cult interventions and came across a website from cult intervention expert Rick A Ross. He starts with the below quote.

“Potentially unsafe groups or leaders” come off as very nice at first, they go for vulnerable people who are looking for answers, lonely, what you’d call ‘normal people.’  They’re very good at what they do and can get people believing anything. You might think you’d never get taken in, don’t bet on it.”

So when we look at creditors and such, we look at their marketing ploys, all of which promise a rich life, freedom and grand opportunities of a new life. They promise people things they cannot truly deliver, or that come with a price. These credit corporations promote advertisements of bettering humanity and some give cute perky commercials, but in reality they are promoting a false sense of being and paranoia. While creditors are promoting living your life to the fullest, free credit report companies are feeding on your paranoia. Where just do we, the consumer, stand?