Which Credit Monitoring Service Should You Use?
The Equifax disaster was not good, but it reminded us how important it is to keep track of your credit. More than ever, credit monitoring is important to ensure that there is no sketchy fraudulent activity with your personal information. And you can keep track of your credit for free and forever.
What does it mean to “control” your credit?
Monitoring your credit basically means looking at your credit report to make sure everything is in order – there are no errors and, more importantly, there are no fraudulent accounts or activities.
It’s great to test this yourself, and as we pointed out, you are eligible to receive a free copy of your report from each of the three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) every year. You also don’t need to check them all at once. You can alternate between them and check one at a time several times a year. However, especially in light of all this fiasco with Equifax, which showed how vulnerable the system really is, it would be nice to replenish your credit more often.
Equifax offered its own version of credit monitoring for free for a year. After arguing that its terms would deprive customers of the right to participate in a class action lawsuit , they removed that language, but they will have to forgive us if we continue not to insist on using their services. Plus, they only offered it for a year anyway, so if anyone has your Social Security number, what’s stopping them from waiting a couple of years to use it? In any case, there are many other tools and services that will help you monitor your credit for free for as long as you like.
Note . If your account is locked out, it may affect the registration process for a subscription to any of these services. You may need to temporarily cancel the freeze in order to register .
What are the best options?
We’ve written about tools like Credit Sesame and Credit Karma, which are solid options for keeping track of your credit on an ongoing basis. Credit Karma is a favorite, but there are even more options to choose from for you to make your own decision. Keep in mind that the free credit monitoring service should never ask for your credit card to register for an account. None of the services listed below will ask you to do this.
Credit Karma
We mentioned this because our Credit Karma is one of our favorite free services for monitoring your own credit and keeping your identity safe .
They offer weekly credit monitoring, which includes a full report (they work with the bureau so your account won’t be hurt) on activities and balances. You will also receive real-time notifications of new accounts or any major changes, along with instructions to help you understand what your credit report really means.
Every credit monitoring service should offer these basic features, so what makes Credit Karma different from the others?
While some services only give you access to your reports from one bureau, Credit Karma gives you access to two: TransUnion and Equifax. This is a worthy bonus because you can see your scores in both bureaus, and while your report is much more important than your score (it actually shows you activity), it’s nice to know how your score can vary between the two places. A few more advantages offered by Credit Karma:
- Tips Forum
- Convenient credit rating simulator (and other tools)
- A way tofind unclaimed money
Credit Karma is the best tool, but there are still reliable options if you don’t like them for some reason.
Credit to Sesame
Like Credit Karma, you get free access to your credit report and account. They will also help you understand your report with helpful tips and breakdowns of what the different actions mean, just like Credit Karma. Again, you will receive alerts for various types of activity.
According to Penny Hoarder , “One thing Credit Sesame includes in your dashboard that I haven’t seen anywhere on Credit Karma is total debt.”
By seeing all your debts in one place, you will understand what you have to deal with. It also makes it easy to check for any major changes to your account. But then again, with real-time notifications, you should get an alert if someone checks your report or opens a new line of credit anyway.
Loan Sesame also has tools that allow you to search and compare interest rates on loans, but with sites like Bankrate and Nerdwallet out there, this is not a huge leg up over Credit Karma. They also have free identity theft insurance, but as Consumer Reports points out, it’s not all that great of a freebie and is probably just their way of getting you to sign up for a more comprehensive plan that costs money. These additional perks are not groundbreaking, but are still a decent service for tracking your credit.
WalletHub
Like any service, WalletHub offers free credit ratings and reports (from TransUnion), as well as information and advice to help you understand and improve your credit. You will also receive alerts when information on your credit report changes.
The most important factor that sets WalletHub apart from others is that it monitors your credit 24/7 on a daily basis. This is great because it allows you to take action faster if something suspicious happens. According to the site , you also don’t need to worry about the impact of 24/7 credit monitoring.
…. This service has been specially designed to ensure that your credit is not damaged unnecessarily. In other words, credit monitoring itself is not a threat, and we will do our best to inform you of any possible changes to your credit report.
In other words, your score won’t be hurt if they check your report. What’s more, WalletHub also offers a great visual breakdown of your credit scale and each account on your report.
Mint.com
Mint, a popular budgeting tool, also offers credit monitoring. However, their free option is a little lackluster compared to other options. You only get monitoring from one bureau (but they send you alerts when something changes on your credit report or if someone has withdrawn it). They have a more complete option for $ 16.99 a month, but they offer the same basic services as many other places for free. You can see the differences in the screenshot below.
However, Mint is one of our favorite budgeting tools, so if you’re already using it, you might want to consider using its credit monitoring service in addition to using a more comprehensive one.
AAA Membership
If you are an AAA member, you can access their ProtectMyID® Essential service. This is a fairly straightforward option compared to other free services, but it includes the following:
- Identity theft insurance to reimburse the associated costs in the event of identity theft ($ 10,000 for AAA Premier members)
- Email notifications when key changes occur, or monthly report if your credit report stays the same
- U.S. Fraud Resolution Services from a dedicated agent to help you investigate and remediate fraud.
- Assistance in canceling and replacing cards in case of loss or theft of a wallet.
They have a paid service that offers a few more perks, most notably “daily web scanning” of free sites to look for unauthorized uses of your personal information.
What is the best service?
Either one is a good option, but if you’re looking for something more comprehensive we’ll go with WalletHub or CreditKarma.
Credit Sesame is still a great option, but CreditKarma offers a few additional perks. WalletHub offers the same level of service as any of them and provides daily updates (I’ve also used it myself and they do a great job of breaking down information and sending updates).
Speaking of security, you have to provide your personal information to these services, but unfortunately this is the reality of monitoring your credit (even if you do it once a year on AnnualCreditReport.com ). Make sure the service you are using at least uses encryption to protect your data (all of the above services work).
Again, if you have a credit freeze on your TransUnion and Equifax account, you will have to cancel it temporarily in order to use Credit Karma. But “once you are already registered, you can add a security lock to your reports without affecting your Credit Karma account,” their website says . The security freeze only blocks access to credit karma during check-in.
Finally, don’t forget to set up account alerts with your current bank and credit card company. Most banks have settings where you can choose alerts and notifications if your balance drops below a certain amount or if the purchase amount exceeds a certain amount. Take advantage of these features. This is not the same as credit monitoring, but it is another way to control your financial life.
Update : A previous version of this article assumed that WalletHub may sell your data to third-party sites based on the information contained in their Terms. WalletHub has contacted us and explicitly stated that it does NOT sell or transfer your data to third party sites . We have updated the article accordingly.