I’ve been searching for a good credit reporting service and found Clear Credit. The site was neat and professional-looking, and their offer for a free three-agency credit report seemed too good to be true. The only catch I could find was that you had to pay $7.95 for each disputed item on your report. I was on the verge of signing up, but got a sneaking suspicion that something wasn’t right. Every other site I’d seen offered an Equifax report for free, and a three-agency report for around $35. How could they offer it for free?

Skeptical, I researched the company and found multiple complaints. One of the prominent ones was a claim that they disputed every negative entry on your credit report without your approval, then charged you $7.95 for each one.

I requested an explanation of the above link to give them a chance to share their side of the story. While I awaited their response I continued my research.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice says there is nothing a credit repair agency can do that you can’t do for free, making Clear Credit’s offer seem even more suspicious. Almost all of the other sites I found made it clear that you should be suspicious of anyone claiming to improve your credit for a fee, because non-profit groups are available to help people with credit trouble. This didn’t give me warm fuzzies about Clear Credit’s offer, but I remained hopeful.

My hopes were dashed in a matter of days. I received two e-mails from Clear Credit, but they didn’t contain an explanation. They told me to act now to improve my credit. How do you like that? They spam a potential customer who made a perfectly legitimate request for more information. I was not impressed. My search to find a quality three-agency credit report for a low price will continue, but Clear Credit is clearly off the list.

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