Credit score company settles FTC charges for $22M

A company that promised customers free credit scores has agreed to pay $22 million to settle charges that it billed customers for monthly credit monitoring that they did not sign up for.

Most of the money, about $21.9 million, will be used to refund customers. The settlement was made with the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in Illinois and Ohio.

The FTC said that Dallas-based One Technologies LP, and two related companies, ran at least 50 websites that advertised free credit scores, including FreeScore360.com, FreeScoreOnline.com and ScoreSense.com. The FTC said that after customers signed up for a free credit score, the company asked for credit card numbers to verify their identity. Customers would then get charged $29.95 per month for a credit monitoring program.

Customers were forced to make repeated calls to cancel the program or get a refund. More than 200,000 customers filed complaints.

As part of the settlement, One Technologies has agreed to disclose clearly that customers will be charged for its credit monitoring program.

One Technologies did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.