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Equifax Complete Advantage Review: Credit Report Monitoring |
| Sign up for Equifax Complete Advantage | |
Rating: |
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| All 3 scores plus excellent 3-bureau monitoring and ongoing Equifax score updates; no free trial | |
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Equifax Complete Advantage is a good credit report monitoring service with useful features to help you manage your credit. Its combination of all three credit reports and scores and three bureau monitoring makes it a strong service, although it would be nice if it had a free trial and featured more frequent credit report and score updates.
Equifax Complete Advantage does a great job of supplying you with a lot of credit information. Upon enrollment, you get immediate access to your credit scores and reports from all three bureaus. While you only get all three scores and reports annually, you get unlimited access to your Equifax score and report. Equifax Complete Advantage monitors all three bureaus' credit reports constantly so you will know whenever there is a change on your report at any bureau. We think this is critical both for managing your credit and protecting your identity. The credit scoring formula Equifax uses is their own Equifax Credit Score. While it would be nice if they used the more popular FICO system, we believe the Equifax Credit Score formula is a very good approximation of your FICO score. Plus, it's not possible to obtain your Experian FICO score so Equifax wouldn't be able to provide you all three credit scores if they used FICO scoring. Equifax's monitoring service is more advanced than others. It allows you to be alerted not just upon significant changes to your report such as a credit inquiry or the opening of a new account, but also on small updates like balance changes for a credit card account. (Note that you can only be alerted on these smaller changes to your Equifax credit report, not your Experian or Transunion report. All major changes to those two other credit reports are still monitored, though.) You can customize these alerts by setting thresholds of when you should be notified, such as at least a 25% balance change or a $200 balance change. While these minor changes may not seem like a big deal, they can affect your credit score and could also alert you that someone else is fraudulently using your credit card. Equifax Complete Advantage also includes a useful and personalized credit score estimator that will predict how different actions you might take could raise or lower your score. For example, if you are considering getting a new car loan or applying for a new credit card, you can enter this information into the tool and it will automatically estimate what your new scores are. We think this tool is extremely useful in trying to raise your credit score as well as educating users on how their financial actions can affect their credit score. On the identity theft protection side, Equifax Complete Advantage offers more standard identity theft protection features such as $25,000 in identity theft insurance and 24/7 access to identity theft resolution specialists. Although the $25,000 in insurance is not as high as the 1 million dollars some of the other services we review offer, we think these insurance policies are a bit overrated anyway. That's because you the actual monetary loss from identity theft is typically much less than the policies cover. Most of the hassle associated with identity theft pertains to the time and energy it will take you to reclaim your identity. Luckily, Equifax Complete Advantage has a team of identity theft specialists available to help you determine what steps you should take to recover your good name. All in all, Equifax Complete Advantage is a solid service with some unique benefits. While at $17.95 per month it's not the cheapest credit monitoring service out there, it does provide a easy-to-use interface and some solid features including unlimited access to your Equifax credit score and report. Sign up for Equifax Complete Advantage | Compare to Other Credit Report Monitoring |
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| Credit Scores: | Scores from Equifax, Experian & TransUnion w/ enrollment |
| Credit Reports: | Reports from all 3 bureaus |
| Trial Period & Price: | $17.95/mo |
| Credit Monitoring: | All 3 bureaus |
NextAdvisor Credit Report Monitoring Blog Headlines
FTC: Almost 52 Million Americans Have Errors on Their Credit Report
The Federal Trade Commission recently released a new study that found a whopping 26 percent of people identified at least one error on their credit report. And it wasn't just people crying wolf — even the notoriously difficult credit bureaus
Which Credit Monitoring Services Let International Customers View Their Reports?
Q: Which of the credit report monitoring services allow credit reporting which is viewed from outside the United States? After 7 years, Free Credit Report terminated my monthly service because I work outside the United States. A: That's a great question
Can I Sign My Spouse Up for Identity Guard's kID Sure Program?
Q: My spouse and I share all the same bank accounts and credit cards, so I don't feel those need additional monitoring. Would I be able to sign my spouse up for Identity Guard's kIDSure? A: No, you will not be able
Get 15% off LifeLock and LifeLock Ultimate
LifeLock and LifeLock Ultimate are offering NextAdvisor readers a special 15 percent off as well as a 30-day free trial, which means you can test out the service without making a financial commitment. With the 15 percent discount, LifeLock costs $7.79
Equifax Complete Advantage Forum Posts
- Where can I correct an error on my credit report?
Here is a blog post taking you through the steps on correcting an error on your credit report: http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2013/03 ... -fix-them/ - Where can I correct an error on my credit report?
why does "possible negative" from Fresno CA (Feb 2004)show on my credit report? That lein was invalid 3 months after it was filed (May... - Is there a family plan for Equifax Complete Advantage?
Unfortunately, Equifax Complete Advantage does not currently offer a family plan.... - Is there a family plan for Equifax Complete Advantage?
Do you offer a family plan for your credit monitoring service? - Equifax Complete Advantage Review
Here is NextAdvisor's review of Eqiufax Complete Advantage: http://www.nextadvisor.com/credit_repor ... review.php
