Your credit affects many areas of your financial life. In particular, your credit report, which contains details on your credit history such as your payment statuses and age of accounts, is used by lenders to determine your creditworthiness. What’s on your credit report can also determine many things from the interest rate on a mortgage loan to whether or not you land a job.
For these reasons, it’s important to monitor your credit report and make sure there aren’t any mistakes or fraudulent activity. That’s where credit monitoring services come in. A credit monitoring service periodically reviews your credit report for possible misuse of your personal information. The service will alert you of things like new credit applications or delinquent accounts. Here are four free credit monitoring services you can sign up for today:
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a free credit and financial management platform founded in 2007. With over 60 million members, Credit Karma is one of the leading providers of free credit monitoring services.
Credit Karma’s free credit monitoring service tracks your TransUnion credit report and updates it monthly. You’ll need to create a free Credit Karma account in order to get access to the credit monitoring service. Once you sign up, you’ll also receive tips on how to improve your credit.
Credit Karma has a free mobile app that lets you check your credit report on the go. There’s also a DirectDispute feature, which allows you to request a correction on your TransUnion credit report directly from Credit Karma for free. Lastly, Credit Karma will give you product recommendations based on your credit profile to help you save money on things like loans and credit cards.
Quizzle
Quizzle is a website and tool founded in 2008 that helps consumers understand credit. While not quite on the level of popularity of Credit Karma, Quizzle also offers a free credit monitoring service. With Quizzle, you get access to your TransUnion credit report, which is updated every three months.
Quizzle makes your credit report easy to understand. It separates your credit report into categories, such as mortgages, student loans, and credit cards, so that you can see a clear visual of where your accounts stand. You’ll need to create a free Quizzle account before access your credit report, but no payment information is required.
Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame is a credit and loan management platform founded in 2010. With millions of users, Credit Sesame is a fast-growing tool used by consumers to help them with their credit.
Credit Sesame gives you access to your TransUnion credit report and updates it monthly. You can also receive daily credit monitoring alerts. What sets Credit Sesame apart from other websites that offer free credit monitoring services is that when you sign for an account, you’ll also receive $50,000 worth of identity theft insurance. This protection will cover the costs associated with restoring your identity in the event that it’s stolen.
Credit.com
Credit.com is a financial resource company founded in 1995. Credit.com provides tools and information on credit and financial products to help consumers make better financial decisions. Among those tools is free credit monitoring. Credit.com offers access to your Experian credit report. The dashboard is updated every two weeks.
Credit.com uses your credit profile to recommend financial products. You’ll find out which loans and credit cards you’re most likely to qualify for before you apply. You’ll need to create a free Credit.com account in order to access these features, but signing up doesn’t require any payment information.
Fee-Based Credit Monitoring Services
It’s important to note there are three different credit bureaus and each of them has its own credit report for you. Each credit bureau compiles details about your credit history in your credit report so potential lenders can assess your creditworthiness. Credit bureaus are for-profit companies and aren’t owned by the government. The three major credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each operates independently of each other. This is why your credit report can slightly vary depending on which credit bureau your credit monitoring service gets the credit report from.
It’s a good idea to check your credit report from each of the credit bureaus to make sure your information is correct on each one. This is where fee-based credit monitoring services come in. Fee-based credit monitoring services provide “three-bureau” monitoring. For a monthly fee (usually around $20), the service will monitor your credit report from all three credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. A few companies that provide this service include: PrivacyGuard, Identity Guard, and IdentityForce.
Final Thoughts
If you want to access your credit reports from all three credit bureaus but don’t want to pay a monthly fee, there’s another option. Although this method takes more manual effort on your part and doesn’t quite give you monthly monitoring, you can access your credit reports from all three credit bureaus for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. Federal law requires the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – to provide you a free credit report every 12 months if you request it.
When you go to AnnualCreditReport.com, you’ll have to answer a series of questions to verify your identity. The questions are admittedly hard in order to ensure that no one else can get access to your credit reports but you. After you’ve successfully verified your identity, you can choose to request one, two, or all three of your credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. What I like to do is request one every four months. This way, I can periodically monitor my own credit while getting access to my credit history from each of the three credit bureaus throughout the year.
Have you tried any of these services? Share your experience below!
