Recently, my business partner and I have been investigating the purchase of a franchise business and in doing so was considering ways to put together funding and capital to start up my business. In doing so, I was required to pull credit scores together for the bank to present to the SBA process. The banker referred me to a site called ScoreSense (www.ScoreSense.com). I hate having to sign up for something and put my credit card onto a site like this, but I was in a hurry and needed to move the process forward.
I read through the terms and conditions and basically understood that the concept, that I could use the service without cost and that if I chose could add a membership for credit protection and other services ScoreSense offers. I went through the credit process, did not end up purchasing the franchise and then after a few months noticed that there was a $39.95 charge on my card from ScoreSense. At the time, I couldn’t remember who this was or what it was for so my search began. Apparently, I’m not the only one who must have missed the fine, fine, extra fine print somewhere on the agreement that says unless I cancel the charge they issue the first month it turns into a membership.
Ok, that’s on me, I get it. I should have looked closer and read the details before signing up and providing my credit card. What made me angry, and apparently many other people as well (SCORESENSE Lawsuit), was the fact that they were obviously trying to dupe me when I went to cancel the monthly membership. The corporate site looks good, professional and has a lot of tools embedded in the service, clearly some investment was made to build a capable credit monitoring platform. What Mr. Scoresense failed to invest in was a way to manage your account without calling them. There is no way to cancel a membership through your online account, kind of a red flag. Next, I tried calling several times and couldn’t get through to the main number and when I did, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice gentleman on the other line who’s entire existence was clearly to try to keep me on the monthly membership. A 15 minute script was presented as to why this was important and what options I had to keep the membership. After 3 “no’s”, the monthly fee dropped to $19.95, 2 more “no’s” it dropped to $9.95 and 1 more “no” it dropped to $7.95. I chose to cancel the membership entirely, but was amazed at the blatant…..and I mean blatant disregard for even attempting to cover up whether this was a legitimate membership program.
ScoreSense might have great credit monitoring programs and offer amazing value, but this is no way to run a business and based on a brief review of the lawsuit against the company, this is just part of the way the do business. My recommendation, find another credit monitoring company and be careful when you go to check your credit that you aren’t looking for a one time credit check and end up in a monthly billing cycle with someone like this.
