Privacy Matters

[tcarr5]

I signed up with this last night using a prepaid card. supposed to be $1 ...looked at my simon.com card balance and they charged $16 oh I can't wait for these people to open...i'm mad as he** now has this happened to anyone else????

[Alice28]

no, but WATCH OUT with this one.

I got something like 16 hits on my credit report when I did privacy matters thru m******* last December or so. Meaning, 16 times was my credit report opened and looked at within a few weeks of doing this offer.

Which meant, seriously, my credit score went from something like 840 to 680. I'm not exaggerating or kidding, or trying to be dramatic. I just had to write a letter to our lender (we are buying a house) of WHY I had so many people look at my freaking credit in December. That and beware of any sort of Lending Tree offer; I did that one a month later and I got another bunch of hits. I was sooooo mad at myself for doing these silly things for a few bucks and took a major hit on my previously 'perfect' credit score.

I also thought I canceled with Privacy matters and gee, I got charged 2 months later the $16. I called and they were unable to confirm I canceled it, confirmation # and everything. So i had to cancel AGAIN, and then I still had them looking into my darn credit as she said it takes 2 months to get off their monitoring list.


And that is my .02 with Privacymatters. Probably my most unhappy experience ever with either SR or m*******.

[tcarr5]

great I never received any type of email confirmation either. I hope they're open tomorrow I am sooo freakin livid right now, they DO NOT want to mess with ME

thanks for the warning

[SunshineGirl]

Thanks for letting me know about this. I pulled them off the site. It's not worth it to me either to make a few bucks off of someone if they are going to take a big hit on their credit report.

[rhiannonwales]

Thats strange that privacy matters did that... soft inqueries (inquries that are executed either by you or on you behalf by another company) arent supposed to hit your report. I have done many of the credit report offers, and i actually have monthly monitoring through my credit card and never once have the soft inquires shown up or changed my score.
Lending tree will show up since its no different that applying for a mortgage or CC.
There are many companies who do open your account to preselect you for credt.Do you know for a fact that it was privacy matters? I f you call the major bureaus they can tell you exactly who opend your account and when.
Good Luck!

[Alice28]

I am fairly positive it was privacy matters, because I couldn't think of any other credit related thing I had done that month. I didn't open any credit cards, loans, etc that month and that's when I got a bunch of hits. Then in Jan I did a Lending Tree one, and got a bunch more hits then. But that one I expected because we were looking into an equity line to remodel our house...I wanted to see what we could get. Then we decided to just buy a new house instead of remodeling and when our credit report came up with the lending company, I had a ton of hits in Dec & Jan.

It was just so frustrating- the actual offers credited quickly (I think they may have both been m*******, can't remember now) so that wasn't the issue at all. I just wanted to let others know what happened to me, and the fact that Privacy Matters did not cancel my account the first time I called to do it, and continued to charge my card.

One offer that was worth the inquiry on my credit report was the Hilton Amex offer- I did it last summer or fall I believe and it's been a nice credit card to have/use.