This Carl’s Jr. Commercial is hilarious.  You may have seen it on the TV a year ago.  The guy licking the Orangesicle Shake is my sister’s boyfriend, Tom Martin.  He was also in the GoMeat!  commercial I posted a few months ago.  Hmm.  An Orangesicle shake.  Dang if that doesn’t sound good right now.  Damn you advertising geniuses!   

It’s from the folks at www.freecreditreport.com.  They promise you a free credit report.  However, the announcer states you must join “Triple advantage.”  So what is triple advantage?

Triple Advantage is a program you pay for that monitors your credit.  You’re charged an annual fee of $79.95, as far as I can tell.  This figure comes from the BBB (see below).  I couldn’t find any direct mention of a fee on the freecreditreport.com site. 

I decided to visit the better business bureau, or BBB.  These guys are the gold standard in consumer protection.  According to the BBB, over the past 36 months, freecreditreport.com has gotten 2693 complaints from consumers. 

That’s a lot of complaints, in my opinion.  They also got the Federal Trade Comission (FTC) after them back in 2005.  The FTC filed a suit  “alleging that the company deceptively marketed “free credit reports” by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for a credit monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn’t cancel within 30 days, in violation of federal law. ” 

For more information, check out the full article here:   BBB Online