Equifax cancellation warning

Kazipoo

I recently took advantage of the free 30 day trial with Equifax. I have cancelled it this morning within the 30 days, which is fine, however, while I was speaking to the advisor, she told me that free of charge, for one year, I would receive alerts about any fraudulent activity on my credit file, or be alerted if anyone tried to steal my identity. Sounds like a great deal.

"..... and, after one year, you can continue with the service for just £2.99 per month."

So I asked if the service was one I had to cancel myself, or whether they would contact me nearer the time to remind me. She said the onus was on me to remember to cancel if I no longer required the service.

I think its nice that they are offering this for free, but I know that if I took her up on the offer I would forget to cancel after a year.

I told her twice (because she didn't seem to understand the first time) that I did not want the free service from them, because I know I would forget to cancel, and its not something I would be prepared to pay for (even though its only £2.99 a month).

Just giving you a heads up.

Gra76

I did exactly the same, except when they spoke to me about it they didn't mention anything about it costing £2.99 a month after the 1 year was up, they left me with the impression that it would just expire once the year was up.

I'll be getting back on the phone to them I think!

trafficisland

I can confirm that this happened to me as well. I cancelled my trial last year and am absolutely certain that I never would have agreed to being charged £2.99 a month after a year's trial period of Identity Watch Lite.

Either they never advised me about it to start with or I didn't understand the phone operator due to the very strong accents they've had both times I've phoned them. I recall having to state that I didn't understand and asking them to repeat themselves several times when I phoned to cancel, and again when I phoned to query the charges. The operators also seemed to mumble a lot which didn't help.

Interestingly, they haven't been able to provide a copy of the original telephone contract, although I've requested it several times. The telephone operators just keep repeating that I have to write to them through their website and the emails I get back appear to be generic template emails which just state that the charges will be refunded. Which is good, but not the point. I want to know if I genuinely did agree to this service and misunderstood the operator, or if I was signed up without my knowledge.

Their insistance on avoiding my questions doesn't look at all good as far as their ethics are concerned and considering the number of people who've been caught out on this site alone, I suspect it might be worth an email to the Financial Ombudsman.