Take Care with Experian's "FREE" Trial

rammell

After reading about credit files in Martin's weekly email (21 March), I applied to creditexpert.co.uk (Experian) for a 30-day free trial. You have to provide your bank details so that if you haven't cancelled when the 30-day trial is up, you get charged £5.99 per month. I'm always a bit wary about doing this but thought a reputable company such as Experian would be OK.

I got my free credit report and then sent Customer Services an email to cancel my subscription after 21 days. On 18th April I got a reply from Customer Services confirming that my subscription had been cancelled and I would not be charged.

Imagine my surprise when I read my bank statement this morning, showing £5.99 taken by creditexpert.co.uk on 21st April!!

You've been warned!!

mom23

Yes same thing happened to me:mad: OH was not happy about me doin it cos he is also wary of things like this! but in the end said ok ! anyway after several emails and a letter!! think it is now sorted!!(would have rang them but i did it in OH name daren't tell him i had probs with it he be soooo mad :eek: )

Voyager2002

OTOH I had no problems with this at all. However, I just used the free trial to look at my file and cancelled later in the same week. It is probably difficult for them to process a cancellation within a couple of days, but there is no reason to believe that they are trying to rip you off.

Esoog

which email did people use to cancel their sub?

duncans-mum_2

Esoog - I emailed to customerservices@creditexpert.co.uk.

The same thing happened to me but I did leave it until the last few days TBH. They took my money, so I rang them and explained what had happed and they have refunded me the £5.99. I think you can just ring them up and cancel as well.

Chrismojam

I took this up as well, and when I got my visa statement owing £5.99 I was really peeved....convinced the 30 days were not even up....

When I checked, it turned out they were! Then I figured well I've paid £5.99 now so I may as well keep it for most of this month. Then I kept meaning to cancel it before the next months charges went on, and only remembered 2 days before they were due. Still I cancelled it and I wasn't charged so they processed that in time.

Evening_Star

I had similar problems with them took me three months to cancell and they kept taking money from my credit card. I got a full refund in the end after sending emails to all departments and their customer care team

oops_a_daisy

I have had problems with Experian too. I took out the free trial on 6th March and phoned the free phone number on 14th March to cancel. I was told no problems but on the 4th April the charged me £5.99 so I phoned that day and they said that they would refund but it may take 14 days ??? I still didnt get a refund so I phoned back on 22nd April and they said that it had been cancelled but the refund hadnt gone through so they would do it again and this time it would take a few days. Well as of today I still have £5.99 on my credit card and it is such a nuisance because I did a transfer off that card to 0% and wanted to cancel the card but I cant untill they refund Grrrrrrrrrrrr :mad: I had problems with Sainsburys free DVD trial too. I think I am learning my lesson with free trials - they are just too much hassle :mad:

Wesker

I cancelled about a week ago but i can still log into my account online. I will keep an eye on my bank statements to see if they take anything.

Broken_hearted

I canceled and they did it straight away no problems.

Broken_hearted

Forgot to add I did it over the phone and they e-mailed me back