The McMahon Saga: Chapter 3

In June, we brought you news that superannuated TV pitchman Ed McMahon was facing foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home.

Then last month we told you that, in a bizarre twist, Donald Trump was offering to rescue the former Tonight Show sidekick by buying the house just days before he was to lose the property.

The latest dispatches from Ed McMahon's journey out of debt: The 85 year-old has parlayed his financial misfortunes into a job opportunity, and will be rapping in two viral videos for FreeCreditReport.com airing online in October.

In fact, McMahon is the star of said videos. The Associated Press reports that he will be shown "wearing a tracksuit, being chauffeured around Los Angeles in a Cadillac Escalade golf cart and waxing lyrical about his very public financial troubles."

The idea of being The Donald's kept man seemed bad enough, but shilling for Experian (the credit bureau that owns FreeCreditReport.com) in a self-mocking advertisement plumbs new depths of the pitiful.

McMahon has said that he hopes the ads will lead viewers to learn from his mistakes, and take the necessary steps to become smarter about handling their finances.

Unfortunately, his good intentions may be misplaced. While Americans could clearly benefit from having a better grasp of their finances, FreeCreditReport.com has been blasted for not being so free after all. The site hooks users with the offer of a free credit report, surreptitiously signing them up for a fee-based credit monitoring service while they pursue their credit score.

For a truly free look at your credit score, visit AnnualCreditReport.com -- credit agencies like the one that owns FreeCreditReport.com are required by law to provide once-yearly credit reports free of charge, and they can be obtained online on that website.

And Ed McMahon's latest gig might serve as a wake up call to in another way: as a cautionary tale of what awaits you in your golden years if you fail to start saving now.

by Liz Gunnison

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