Like millions of others, I was a victim of the 2017 Equifax data breach. One of the remedies Equifax gave the victims was an extended of membership in the Experian credit monitoring service.
So, I used that service for the last three years. About two years ago, I bought a one time, extended credit report from Experian, as part of a mortage application process. So they had my credit card number. That was a mistake on my part!
I was just reviewing my credit card statement, and found that Experian had billed me $24.99 for each of the last three months, for a membership I never enrolled in.
I went back and reviewed my Experian emails (I save nearly everything). They send me a ton of marketing stuff. But no billing notices. No enrollment notices.
Went through customer service phone hell with them this morning, finally got them to cancel the membership and refund the most recent charge. Had to endure another customer service from hell phone call to get my credit card company to dispute the previous two monthly charges.
And then there's this: Had another fishy instance with Experian a few months back. They were heavily marketing this "credit boost" program where you could improve your credit score just by enrolling. I didn't need it and never did it. Shortly after that program started, with no changes to my credit on my end, and no explanation from them, my credit FICO dived about 50 points. I wondered if it was an attempt by drum up business for their credit boost program. I decided to wait it out. Sure enough, my credit score mysteriously returned to it's previous rating in a few weeks. No explanation.
