Having a healthy credit score is one of the key factors to keep your financial health going. But how do you manage or check your credit score? Do you wait each year to get your credit scores from all three bureaus? Or do you pay each time to get your credit scores on the smallest of the smallest changes?
The best you can do is monitor your credit services for these changes in entries and keep an eye on inaccuracies. But which are the best credit monitoring services, and are there any free services available?
Best Credit Monitoring Services
Monitoring your credit score and report is a great practice to avoid any inappropriate charges to your credit score. If there are any, you can raise a dispute using the dispute bee software, but how to use monitoring services? Which are the best credit monitoring services? Let’s find out.
- Credit karma
- Experian
- Creditwise
- Privacy Guard
- IdentityForce
- myFICO (3 Credit Bureaus)
- TransUnion
There are many free and paid credit monitoring services on the list; let me make it easier for you.
The top 3 free credit monitoring services are
- Credit Karma,
- Experian, and
- CreditWise
Also, several paid options give you accurate information and monitoring of your credit services, and the best ones are,
- Privacy Guard,
- IdentityForce,
- myFICO, and
- TransUnion
1. Credit Karma
If you are looking for a credit monitoring service that is free and overall the best, Credit Karma should be your go-to choice. Credit Karma does not want you to take a trial subscription to check your credit score; instead, you can get the scores for free even without having to add your credit card number; truly free.
Each time you log in, your VantageScore 3.0 is updated, and you can check your credit scores from TransUnion and Equifax. The downside is you don’t get credit report monitoring from Experian, and you would have to go for another credit monitoring service for this.
Meanwhile, your credit report is updated every week, and you get quick alerts when there are changes in your credit entries.
2. Experian
Experian also offers you free credit monitoring, and by far, it is an excellent combination with credit karma. You get to monitor your credit scores directly from Experian without having to enter your credit card information. But this no-cost alternative is limited and can be fully utilized using the Experian IdentityWorks paid plan.
With the Experian IdentityWorks, you get real-time information about your credit reports; these include inquiries or creating a new account, changes in the account information, or suspicious account activities. The credit reports are updated with the FICO score about every 30 days and keep you updated on the free version.
On the other hand, Experian also scans about 60,000 web pages with your information to give you the best credit monitoring service.
3. CreditWise
The third and best free credit monitoring service on the list, CreditWise, is the best option for you if you have a Capital One credit card, but it is also available for other cards.
CreditWise follows the VantageScore model but does not gives identity insurance. You can track your credit reports from TransUnion and Experian credit bureaus. You have to try a different credit monitoring service for Equifax, and you can try using CreditWise and Credit Karma to monitor all three credit bureaus.
The best part of CreditWise is, it also offers a dark web scan for your credit information and checks if anything related to your credit information is susceptible. I would say this is the best alternative to any other credit monitoring service.
4. Privacy Guard
Privacy Guard monitors credit reports from all the bureaus, and though it is not free, you can try the trial version for $1 (14 Days). Once the trial period is over, you can choose your desired plans.
With Privacy Guard Credit Monitoring, you get real-time credits changes via Email, Phone, or text such that you quickly get notified about any susceptible activity. What I love about the Privacy Guard Credit monitoring is an identity check on the public and dark web with the $9.99 identity protection add on. Also, be assured with $1 Million identity insurance on your identity theft. This will be a go-to choice if you are looking for the overall best credit monitoring service.
5. IdentityForce
Identity monitoring is also as important as Credit monitoring; you might have an eye on your credit changes, but what if your identity is no longer secure?
Here is when IdentityForce comes into the picture. With IdentityForce, you get two plans to get a keen eye on changes. The UltraSecure program only monitors your identity information, and you get a quick alert when there are changes to your identity. Additionally, there is a $1 Million identity theft insurance, which sounds great.
But the UltraSecure plan + Credit plan is what I recommend. You get all the personalized alerts on your phone, text, and email. Moreover, it monitors all three bureaus. It would be best if you had this for overall protection.
6. MyFICO
Are you still unaware of MyFICO? We recommend it almost everywhere on our blog. But why use MyFICO credit monitoring? FICO gets your credit score from all the three credit bureaus in 28 different mortgage, auto, and credit card lending formats.
You get quick alerts on changes via Emails, Phone, and also text. The credit scores are updated quarterly, and it cost you $29.95 per month, and the premier plan costs you $39.95 per month that updates the credit score each month.
7. TransUnion
Not for all the three credit bureaus, but TransUnion offers a single bureau monitoring (TransUnion). Whenever there are changes on your credit report or when someone adds negative information to your credit report, TransUnion sends you a quick alert and notifies you about this change.
It charges $24.95 per month, and you don’t get any update on changes to your credit report from the other two bureaus (Equifax and TransUnion). If you want to track TransUnion only, this is the credit monitoring service you need. You get the changes directly from TransUnion.
Final Verdict
These were our best picks on credit monitoring services, and you need to have a look at the top three credit monitors. Credit Karma is an excellent choice as it has tons of features, but it does not allow you to monitor Experian reports. In that case, you can club it with CreditWise o Experian and get the alerts for free. If you can afford the paid services, go for identityForce or Privacy Guard, they are the best and give you $1 million in identity theft. If you wish to track only TransUnion, the last option, TransUnion, is the best choice.
If there are any queries or comments, let me know in the comment section.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are Credit Monitoring Services worth paying for?
It makes sense to pay for a credit monitoring service; tracking entries on your credit reports is the best for your credit score. If you have a lot of negative information and don’t know about it, you will eventually have a bad score.
2. Is Credit Karma Accurate?
Credit Karma shows you information directly from two major credit bureaus (TransUnion and Equifax). Though you cannot get any information from Experian, you can still have trust in Credit Karma. Moreover, it is free.
3. Is Experian better or Credit karma?
You cannot compare Experian and Credit Karma together because Experian is a single bureau credit monitoring and Credit Karma allows you credit monitoring from Equifax and TransUnion only. Rather than comparison, you can club these two and get credit monitoring from all the three credit bureaus.
4. Which is the best Identity Protection service?
Privacy Guard and IdentityForce are both the best identity protection service; you can also monitor credit monitoring using them.
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