Consumer complaint received 2021-03-20
Company: TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC.
State: NC
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services
Sub-issue: Billing dispute for services

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I temporarily lifted the freeze on my 3 credit reports in order to complete a mortgage refinance application. XXXX and XXXX  allowed me to lift the freeze over the phone, whereas TransUnion 's automated customer support line directed me to its website to create an account to conduct a temporary freeze lift. Now I know why. Nearly 3 months later, I noticed I was billed {$24.00} in XXXX, XXXX and XXXX for " Credit Monitoring Services '' from TransUnion. During the process of creating an account to temporarily lift the freeze on my TransUnion credit, TransUnion had me enter information that signed me up for an unwanted service. This was done unwittingly by me, and I believe this is the result of intentionally deceptive business practices. 

I would not have knowingly signed up for a credit reporting service for one simple reason : I am a U.S. Veteran who had his sensitive identity information ( including SSN ) compromised by the hack of the XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX. As a result, I receive FREE credit monitoring through XXXX, thus I have no need for such a service through TransUnion. 

After discovering the 3 charges on my credit card on XX/XX/XXXX, I immediately logged into my TransUnion account to see why I was being charged. The website showed a monthly subscription of {$24.00}. Since XXXX, I did not receive an email or text notifying me of upcoming monthly charges - this is intentional. TransUnion is signing people up for services they do not want or need and charging in the background hoping people do not notice. When I cancelled the service I noticed a very similar pattern - it took 3 screens to cancel the service. The website interface was designed in a way to intentionally make it look like the service was cancelled when in fact, another step was required ( in the fine print ). 

I called TransUnion on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX  ET to ask for a refund. Not surprisingly, the customer support agent became argumentative when I suggested I did not knowingly sign up for this service and at one point said ( paraphrasing ) " be careful where you enter your credit card and read all information when on the internet ''. This customer service agent had clearly encountered this complaint before, was trained to try to make the customer feel like it was his/her fault, and was not authorized to provide refunds. Again, this is an intentional misrepresentation by TransUnion through an attempt to preserve the revenue from its deceptive business practices. I asked to escalate to a manager, and upon being transferred to a Supervisor, I was told my account details could not be located in the system. This is a delay tactic, attempting to frustrate a customer to the point where they give up and accept the error as his or her own. The Supervisor instructed me to email my Name, Phone # and email address to XXXX with a screenshot of the charges so they can " identify the business line it is coming from ''. They know EXACTLY what business line it is coming from - this entire spectacle was an intentional trap. 

As a Credit Bureau, who is supposed to be an arbiter of truth and adjudicating legitimate financial transactions, it is deeply troubling to see their own business practices intentionally deceiving consumers.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief