Comparison of free credit monitoring services

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The following chart compares websites that provide United States credit reports or credit scores free of charge. Services limited to cardholders or only offering trial plans are excluded. The chart specifies what is free, what kind of credit reports are included, and whether a full Social Security number is needed.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, "AnnualCreditReport.com is the only authorized source for the free annual credit report." [1] [2] Care should be taken when providing a full Social Security number to any other website.

Comparison of free credit monitoring websites
NameFrequencyCredit bureau(s)Full SSN required?Scoring model
AnnualCreditReport.com Annual full official report (one from each agency) [3] Equifax, Experian, TransUnion [3] Yes [3] No score provided
CreditCards.com by Bankrate Monthly full report [4] TransUnion [4] Last 4 digits onlyVantageScore 3.0 [4]
CreditWise by Capital One Weekly full report [5] TransUnion [5] Yes [5] VantageScore 3.0 [5]
CreditWorks Basic by Experian Monthly full report [6] Experian [6] Yes [6] FICO 8 Score [6]
Credit Journey by Chase Weekly summary [7] TransUnion [7] Yes [7] VantageScore 3.0 [7]
Credit Karma Daily TransUnion & Daily Equifax full reports [8] TransUnion, Equifax [8] Sometimes [9] VantageScore 3.0 [10]
Credit Sesame Monthly summary [11] TransUnion [11] Last 4 digits only [11] VantageScore 3.0 [11]
Equifax Core CreditMonthly summary [12] EquifaxLast 4 digits only [12] VantageScore 3.0 [12]
FICO Free Credit Score PlanMonthly summary [13] Equifax [13] Yes [13] FICO 8 Score [13]
LendingTree Monthly summary [14] TransUnion [14] Last 4 digits only [14] VantageScore 3.0 [10]
Mint by Intuit Monthly summary [15] TransUnion [15] Yes [15] VantageScore 3.0 [16]
myBankrate Monthly full report [17] TransUnion [17] Last 4 digits onlyVantageScore 3.0 [17]
MyCredit Guide by American Express Weekly full report [18] TransUnion [18] Last 4 digits onlyVantageScore 3.0 [18]
NerdWallet Weekly full report [19] TransUnion [19] Last 4 digits only [19] VantageScore 3.0 [19]
NavEvery 30 daysExperian and Dun & Bradstreet [20] YesVantageScore 3.0 [20]
TransUnion TrueIdentityMonthly full reportTransUnionLast 4 digits onlyVantageScore 3.0 [10]
WalletHub Daily full report [21] TransUnion [21] Last 4 digits only [21] VantageScore 3.0 [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

A credit score is a number that provides a comparative estimate of an individual's creditworthiness based on an analysis of their credit report. It is an inexpensive and main alternative to other forms of consumer loan underwriting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FICO</span> Credit score services company

FICO, originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is a data analytics company based in Bozeman, Montana, focused on credit scoring services. It was founded by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac in 1956. Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equifax</span> American consumer credit reporting agency

Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion. Equifax collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide. In addition to credit and demographic data and services to business, Equifax sells credit monitoring and fraud prevention services directly to consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credit card debt</span>

Credit card debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt grows through the accrual of interest and penalties when the consumer fails to repay the company for the money they have spent.

A credit history is a record of a borrower's responsible repayment of debts. A credit report is a record of the borrower's credit history from a number of sources, including banks, credit card companies, collection agencies, and governments. A borrower's credit score is the result of a mathematical algorithm applied to a credit report and other sources of information to predict future delinquency.

A credit bureau is a data collection agency that gathers account information from various creditors and provides that information to a consumer reporting agency in the United States, a credit reference agency in the United Kingdom, a credit reporting body in Australia, a credit information company (CIC) in India, Special Accessing Entity in the Philippines, and also to private lenders. It is not the same as a credit rating agency.

A credit score is a numerical expression based on a level analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of an individual. A credit score is primarily based on a credit report, information typically sourced from credit bureaus.

A bankruptcy risk score is a number that indicates the likelihood of an individual filing for bankruptcy. Although it has been used for over twenty years to assess risk in lending, few consumers know of it. It is related to the better-known credit score, but unlike credit scores, bankruptcy risk scores are not sold to consumers by any of the credit bureaus. Consequentially, individuals have little or no way of knowing what their bankruptcy risk scores are or how to improve upon them. Furthermore, since there is no standardized index of measurement, consumers often have trouble contextualizing their score on a standardized scale, instead only receiving general information from a single bureau.

VantageScore is a consumer credit-scoring system in the United States, created through a joint venture of the three major credit bureaus. The model is managed and maintained by an independent company, VantageScore Solutions, LLC, that was formed in 2006 and is jointly owned by the three bureaus.

A credit freeze allows an individual to control how a consumer reporting agency is able to sell personal financial identity data. The credit freeze locks the data at the consumer reporting agency until the individual gives permission for the release of the data.

LendingTree is an online lending marketplace, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The business platform allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple loan operators to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance, etc. LendingTree allows borrowers to shop and compare competitive rates and terms across an array of financial products. Other additional services include financing tools, comparative loan searches and borrowing information.

AnnualCreditReport.com is a website jointly operated by the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The site was created in order to comply with their obligations under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) to provide a mechanism for American consumers to receive up to three free credit reports per year.

In finance, subprime lending is the provision of loans to people in the United States who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Historically, subprime borrowers were defined as having FICO scores below 600, although this threshold has varied over time.

Credit Karma is an American multinational personal finance company founded in 2007. It has been a brand of Intuit since December 2020. It is best known as a free credit and financial management platform, but its features also include monitoring of unclaimed property databases and a tool to identify and dispute credit report errors. The company operates in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Bankrate, LLC is a consumer financial services company based in New York City. Bankrate.com, perhaps its best-known brand, is a personal finance website. As of November 8, 2017, it became a subsidiary of Red Ventures through an acquisition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quizzle</span>

Quizzle was a website that offered a free VantageScore 3.0 credit score and a free TransUnion credit report every three months. Quizzle was a tool to help consumers gain a complete understanding of their credit and provides tools to help users repair their credit and report problems with their credit report.

NerdWallet is an American personal finance company, founded in 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson. It has a website and app that earns money by promoting financial products to its users.

WalletHub is a personal finance company that launched in August 2013. It is based in Miami and owned by Evolution Finance, Inc.

The Equifax data breach occurred between May and July 2017 at the American credit bureau Equifax. Private records of 147.9 million Americans along with 15.2 million British citizens and about 19,000 Canadian citizens were compromised in the breach, making it one of the largest cybercrimes related to identity theft. In a settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission, Equifax offered affected users settlement funds and free credit monitoring.

Credit scoring systems in the United States have garnered considerable criticism from various media outlets, consumer law organizations, government officials, debtors unions, and academics. Racial bias, discrimination against prospective employees, discrimination against medical and student debt holders, poor risk predictability, manipulation of credit scoring algorithms, inaccurate reports, and overall immorality are some of the concerns raised regarding the system. Danielle Citron and Frank Pasquale list three major flaws in the current credit-scoring system:

  1. Disparate impacts: The algorithms systematize biases that have been measured externally and are known to impact disadvantaged groups such as racial minorities and women. Because the algorithms are proprietary, they cannot be tested for built-in human bias.
  2. Arbitrary: Research shows that there is substantial variation in scoring based on audits. Responsible financial behavior can be penalized.
  3. Opacity: credit score technology is not transparent so consumers are unable to know why their credit scores are affected.

References

  1. ↑ The Federal Trade Commission's Information on Free Annual Credit Reports.
  2. ↑ "Can you join a class action suit if you use Equifax's free identity theft protection?". 8 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Annual Credit Report.com - Home Page". www.annualcreditreport.com.
  4. 1 2 3 CreditCards.com. "I just got my free credit report and score at CreditCards.com". my.creditcards.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Monitor Your Credit With CreditWise - Capital One". www.capitalone.com.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Free Credit Score - Get Your FICO® Score: No Credit Card Needed". www.freecreditscore.com.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Free Credit Score - Credit Journey - Chase.com". creditcards.chase.com.
  8. 1 2 "Free Credit Score & Free Credit Reports With Monitoring - Credit Karma". www.creditkarma.com.
  9. ↑ "Why is Credit Karma asking for my entire SSN?".
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Free score providers -". your.vantagescore.com.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Credit Sesame Addresses the Confusion: What Credit Score We Use - Credit Sesame". 28 February 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 "Monthly Credit Score & Report - Equifax Core Credit - Equifax". 21 August 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Free Credit Score Plan-FICO". 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 "LendingTree - 1-800-310-1860". LendingTree.
  15. 1 2 3 "Mint: Money, Bill Pay, Credit Score & Investing". Mint.
  16. ↑ "help.mint.com".
  17. 1 2 3 myBankrate. "Get Your Free Credit Report and Credit Score Here". myBankrate.
  18. 1 2 3 "Frequently asked questions – MyCredit Guide | American Express". www.americanexpress.com. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  19. 1 2 3 4 "Credit score - NerdWallet". www.nerdwallet.com.
  20. 1 2 "How Credit Scores Work and What They Say About You".
  21. 1 2 3 "100% Free Credit Report, Updated Daily – WalletHub". WalletHub.
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