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CreditReport.com Review: Credit Report Monitoring |
| Sign up for CreditReport.com | |
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| 3-bureau monitoring; bi-monthly Experian score updates; free 7-day trial | |
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CreditReport.com features daily 3-bureau credit monitoring, bi-monthly Equifax score updates and an Equifax credit report and score at signup. We recommend 3-bureau credit report monitoring because it's a great way to stay on top of your credit information—in fact, regularly checking your credit report is even recommended by the FTC. With credit monitoring, CreditReport.com members are alerted via email and/or text of new accounts, public record changes, address changes, hard inquiries and other types of potentially negative credit information. Since changes to your credit reports are literally sent to you, credit monitoring makes it easy to be aware of any important changes without having to constantly obtain and read through all 3 of your reports.
When signing up for the free 7-day trial, members receive a free Experian credit report and Experian credit score. The signup process itself was straight-forward and quick. However, there was some cross-selling for other products, and it's easy to mistake these paid add-ons for free features of the actual CreditReport.com service. Make sure you're careful not to accidentally sign up for an additional service you don't want. Once you're a member, you have access to your online member account where your credit report and score information is kept. We really appreciated the clean and easy-to-navigate layout for this information, which made finding all our data quick and simple. On the downside, we couldn't help but notice all the ads for additional services. The majority of these ads are styled to look like free or additional features of the service, when in fact they are external services and paid CreditReport.com add-on products. We were actually misled by one of the many buttons throughout the site and accidentally ordered a $29.95 product we didn't want. When we called CreditReport.com to inquire about it, the service representative told us that members frequently order things they don't want by accident, but that they would not credit back the purchase. CreditReport.com provides bi-monthly score tracking, a huge plus and the most frequent score updates of any credit report monitoring services we review. The scores given are PLUS credit scores, which differ from the more popular FICO score brand. In general, credit scores indicate your overall credit risk level to lenders. Based on our informal in-house testing, PLUS scores aren't exactly the same as FICO scores, but the associated risk levels are fairly equivalent. This means that even though PLUS scores are not used by lenders, they should still give members a good idea of how they may be perceived by lenders. Your Experian credit scores are updated twice a month, and tracked over time in graphical format, so you'll always know your latest score. CreditReport.com includes an explanation of exactly which factors are hurting or helping your score, a feature we like. Understanding what impacts your score can help you to make better financial decisions to improve it. In addition, you'll have access to a credit score estimator tool which lets you see how different actions might improve or hurt your score. Members can also set score alerts, and will be notified when their alert milestones are met. Although the bi-monthly score tracking is a nice feature, it would be better if CreditReport.com provided credit scores from each of the 3 credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Just receiving Experian credit scores limits your knowledge of your complete credit history since your Experian score could be different from your Equifax and TransUnion scores. Members can order one-time 3-bureau credit scores and reports, but at $29.95 it's a steep price to pay when other competitors in the field include 3-bureau score updates as part of their service. If you become a victim of identity theft while enrolled with CreditReport.com, you'll have access to their team of fraud resolution representatives. They'll assist you in recovering your identity, walking you through the steps of the process. Members will also receive a custom fraud resolution kit. In addition, you'll be protected by CreditReport.com's $50,000 product guarantee. CreditReport.com is a worthwhile credit monitoring service, offering 3-bureau monitoring and twice-monthly updates to your Experian credit scores. Members will also receive a free Experian credit report and score at signup. However, at $19.95 per month it's a bit on the pricey side and is likely to appeal more to people who want frequent Experian score updates. Sign up for CreditReport.com | Compare to Other Credit Report Monitoring |
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| Free Credit Scores: | Free Experian score |
| Trial Period & Price: | Free 7-day trial; $19.95/mo |
| Credit Reports Monitored: | All 3 bureaus' reports |
| ID Theft Insurance/ Guarantee: | $50,000 |
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