Credit Monitoring Agency

If you pay for credit monitoring, what company do you use?

Are you happy with the service?

How much is it a month?

Do both you and your DH/DW subscribe?

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

There are three major players that I like.

Chase ID Protection

American Express Credit Secure

Transunion TrueCredit

I recommend all three because you get all three credit bureaus, get scores from all three, and can actually pull your report EVERY DAY.

While some credit monitoring programs will alert you any day a change happens, not all of them allow you to pull everyday and get your scores every day.

They are all about $12 dollars a month.

ETA: If you want AMEX Credit Secure, you have to have an Amex credit card to bill the service to. The other two can be billed to any credit card.

Message edited 2/25/2009 8:56:10 PM.

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

you do all 3 each month? Do you have one for your SO?

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

Right now we are both using Chase ID Protection. One account for each of us.

One thing though... if your credit score is important to you... I would do TrueCredit since it bases your score on the more typical 850 point system.

Chase ID Protection and Amex Credit Secure use a 950 point system which is different.

But also keep in mind that none of these scores are your "true" scores. They are estimated scores. The only way you can get your real score is to go to myfico.com. But even MyFico.com is only offering Transunion and Equifax scores. Experian doesn't give out their scores to MyFico anymore.

I don't care too much about credit scores. I know my scores are good... around 800 when I have 0 credit card balances.

I mainly use the service because I currently have balances on a lot of credit cards and I want to make sure my payments are getting reported properly on my reports.

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

I use identity guard, i pay 12 bucks a month. DH uses it through discover card, his is 10 bucks a month.

I like mine much better

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

Posted by LuvMy2Girls

I use identity guard, i pay 12 bucks a month. DH uses it through discover card, his is 10 bucks a month.

I like mine much better

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

Posted by ave1024

Posted by LuvMy2Girls

I use identity guard, i pay 12 bucks a month. DH uses it through discover card, his is 10 bucks a month.

I like mine much better

I never heard of this company so I just looked them up. I assume it's identityguard.com.

While I am sure it works fine for you, I personally wouldn't pay for this.

Quarterly updates to your 3-in-1 credit report with all 3 credit scores from Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®

They only update your credit report once every three months. If I am going to pay a monthly service for credit monitoring, I want to be able to update my credit report on a daily basis if I so choose.

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

I used www.freecreditreport.com in the past. I know alot of people don't like them, but I never really had an issue with them. It was $14.95 per month. I was able to pull my report monthly and had the notifications of changes and all that good stuff. It also tracked my score month to month so I could see the changes in it over time.

Last night I signed DH and I up for a free trial on www.myfico.com. I really like their setup. It only allows you to pull 2 credit reports though. But what I liked is it gives you a nice analysis of your credit, which was very helpful in trying to explain this stuff to DH who doesn't have much knowledge about credit. It tells you what is hurting your score, what is helping, etc. You can even see how your score would be affected by things like paying down a balance, opening a new credit card, etc.

If you sign up for the MyFico free trial, make sure you put a reminder for yourself to cancel it before it expires because if you don't they'll charge you $89.95 for the service for one year.

You can also see what services your bank and credit cards off. I am constantly getting calls from Discover about their service. I really like the PPs service that allows you to pull your report daily. Not sure how important it is to have that ability versus pulling it monthly, but I guess it's a good option to have.

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

One other thing I forgot to mention. Do you want to see your credit score instantly, and for free?

Here is my gift to LIF.

http://www.creditkarma.com

It's a legit site, that will give you your Transunion creidt SCORE (just your score, not your report). It's the same Transunion score you would get if you had the service True Credit that I posted above. (although True Credit gives your Transunion, Equifax, Experian scores - all three).

Sign up and get your free score. And best thing about CreditKarma... you can "refresh" and update your score daily.

No cost. No fees. No hidden tricks. Neat little website.

Re: Credit Monitoring Agency

I used to use privacy assist through MBNA but just switched to Citi Identity monitor.

my mortgage and cc are citibank now so i stopped the MBNA one.

I get email notices everytime there is activity on my report and i get access to all 3 and credit scores. I think its like $12.99 p/mo.