Credit Reports

A Look at Four Nationwide Credit Monitoring Services

Here's a brief overview of what four nationwide credit monitoring services provide for your dollars. Three are related to the large credit reporting agencies and the independent fourth service has a good reputation.

Credit Manager℠ from Experian

• Special offer: 30 day free trial with a free Experian credit report and Experian PLUS Score
• Fees: $9.95 renewed monthly at the current billable rate
• Alerts: daily
• Monitors: Experian credit report
• ID Theft insurance: none
• Credit reports: unlimited access to Experian credit report
• Credit score: unlimited access to Experian PLUS Score
• Fraud resolution assistance: none
• Additional info: detailed information is limited prior to signing up for the service

Credit Watch™ from Equifax

• Special offer: 30 day free trial for Credit Watch Gold
• Fees: Silver $6.95 per month/$49.95 per year; Gold $11.95 per month/$99.95 per year; Gold with 3-in-1 $14.95 per month/$129.95 per year
• Alerts: Silver weekly, Gold & Gold 3-in-1 daily, monthly message if there weren't any alerts
• Monitors: Silver, Gold: Equifax credit report, Gold 3-in-1: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion credit files
• ID Theft expense coverage: Silver $2500 with $250 deductible; Gold & Gold 3-in-1 $20,000 with no deductible
• Credit reports: Silver one Equifax credit report & discounts on additional reports; Gold unlimited Equifax credit reports, Gold 3-in-1 one 3-in-1 Credit Report in addition to unlimited Equifax credit reports
• Credit score: separate service called Score Watch that monitors your FICO score. Costs $9.95 per month (3 month minimum)/$79.95 per year
• Assistance: Customer Care: Gold & Gold 3-in-1 available 24x7; Silver available 7 days a week for fewer hours, ID Theft Resolution assistance for Gold and Gold 3-in-1 available 10am to 10pm Monday through Friday
• Additional info: after the Gold 30 day trial, unless cancelled it is automatically renewed for 12 months at $99.95. The monthly service requires a 3 month minimum signup.

True Credit™ from TransUnion

Has two choices: monitor TransUnion credit report, or all 3 bureau credit reports

• Special offer: 30 day free trial for TransUnion credit report monitoring
• Fees: $9.95 per month to monitor TransUnion credit report and access to TransUnion credit score; $24.95 first month then $14.95 per month to monitor all 3 credit reports and access to all 3 credit scores
• Alerts: within 24 hours
• Monitors: TransUnion credit report or all 3
• ID Theft insurance: $25,000
• Credit reports: unlimited access to TransUnion credit report or unlimited access to all 3 reports
• Credit score: unlimited access to TransUnion credit score or unlimited access to all 3 credit scores - doesn't indicate how frequently the score is updated
• Fraud resolution assistance: none
• Additional info: detailed information is limited prior to signing up for the service

Identity Guard

Identity Guard provides 2 services: CreditProtect and CreditProtectX3.

• Special offer: $24.95 for the first 3 months for CreditProtectX3, $19.95 for the first 3 months for CreditProtect
• Fees: CreditProtect $9.99 per month, CreditProtectX3 $12.99 per month
• Alerts: daily
• Monitors: CreditProtect Equifax credit file; CreditProtectX3 Equifax, Experian,
• TransUnion credit files
• ID Theft insurance: $2500 CreditProtect, $20,000 CreditProtectX3 both have a $250 deductible
• Credit reports: Initial 3-in-1 credit report compiled from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion with quarterly updates
• Credit score: quarterly updates but may not include FICO score
• Fraud resolution assistance: yes