Best Credit Monitoring Services Of April 2024

In addition to reporting data from all three of the major credit bureaus, Experian IdentityWorks provides plans at multiple price points and has a family option.

Experian—one of the three major credit bureaus—offers two paid IdentityWorks credit monitoring and ID theft protection options: Premium and Family. They include identity protection for one or two adults and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance*.

The two plans offer FICO Score alerts and monitoring of new credit inquiries, new accounts, large balance changes, credit utilization and other activity.

Both plans come with a seven-day free trial. After that, Premium costs $24.99 per month and Family costs $34.99 per month for one adult. The Family plan covers two adults plus up to 10 children.

A credit card is required to start your free seven-day trial membership. You may cancel your trial membership at any time within seven days without charge. If you decide not to cancel, your membership will continue, and you will be billed for each month that you continue your membership.

Credit monitoring with Experian begins within 48 hours after you sign up for your trial. Monitoring with Equifax and TransUnion generally begins within four days of registering. However, there have been instances when credit monitoring for those two companies doesn’t start during your trial period. You may cancel your trial membership in Experian IdentityWorks^SM at any time within seven days of enrollment without being charged.

* Identity Theft Insurance underwritten by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). The description herein is a summary and intended for informational purposes only and does not include all terms, conditions and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for terms, conditions, and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions.

Identity Guard stands out by offering customers a dedicated customer support manager, plus other helpful tools.

Offered by Aura—a digital security provider—Identity Guard is an identity theft protection and credit monitoring service that lets users choose from three plans: Value, Total and Ultra. Prices range from $8.99 to $29.99 if you pay monthly, with discounts available for annual billing.

Total and Ultra plans offer customers a three-bureau credit report. With Ultra, users get monitoring of credit and debit cards plus 401(k) plans and other investments. As with many competitors, all members get $1 million of insurance coverage for stolen funds.

IdentityForce’s triple-bureau credit monitoring and extensive identity protection tools make it a top choice for consumers who want comprehensive features.

IdentityForce is another credit monitoring service that’s offered through one of the major credit bureaus: TransUnion. While the platform offers two packages, customers must opt for the UltraSecure+Credit plan to get credit monitoring services. This package, which costs $23.99 per month ($239.90 per year), includes three-bureau credit monitoring, three-bureau credit reports and scores, and a credit score tracker and simulator.

The company’s identity protection services are also robust and include everything from dark web and social media identity monitoring to bank and credit card activity alerts, plus the standard $1 million in identity theft insurance. Both plans offer identity theft protection for kids, too, at a price of $2.75 per child per month.

There are various types of credit scores, and lenders use a variety of different types of credit scores to make lending decisions. The credit score you receive is based on the VantageScore 3.0 model and may not be the credit score model used by your lender.

Offered through Equifax, ID Watchdog excels because of its 24/7 customer support and extensive identity theft insurance.

ID Watchdog is an Equifax-backed credit monitoring service that lets consumers choose from two plans—Select and Premium. While the $21.95 per month Premium plan includes three-bureau credit report monitoring, the less costly Select plan ($14.95 per month) only includes monitoring of one bureau—Equifax itself. Both plans also offer VantageScore tracking using Equifax data.

ID Watchdog stands out largely because it offers 24/7/365 customer support and fully managed identity resolution in the case of identity theft. Customers also get data breach notifications, public records monitoring and Equifax blocked inquiry alerts. There is also a mobile app that makes it easier to keep an eye on credit score changes and receive alerts as soon as possible. Users can cancel at any time but do not receive partial month refunds.

IdentityIQ not only offers three-bureau credit monitoring but also provides family protection at no additional cost.

IdentityIQ is a digital security company that provides identity protection and online security for between $6.99 and $29.99 per month. In contrast to many providers, IdentityIQ includes three-bureau credit reports and scores with three of its credit monitoring plans—Secure Plus, Secure Pro and Secure Max—though the frequency varies by plan.

But only Secure Pro and Secure Max users get three-bureau credit report monitoring, while credit score tracking and simulation are limited to Secure Max. Customers who are comfortable with single-bureau credit monitoring can opt for the entry-level Secure plan at $6.99 per month.

Users can access three-bureau credit score tracking through PrivacyGuard’s 14-day trial for $1.

PrivacyGuard offers credit monitoring, identity protection tools and a total protection plan that includes both services. The PrivacyGuard Credit Protection plan costs $19.99 per month and includes monthly triple-bureau credit reports, scores and tracking—plus 24/7 daily triple-bureau monitoring. Users get access to the provider’s mobile app, email and text alerts, secure computing tools and a dedicated identity fraud resolution agent.

Consumers can also combine credit monitoring with identity protection by choosing the Total Protection package ($24.99 per month). This includes dark web scanning, social security number monitoring, debit and credit card monitoring and other commonly found features. The information about your credit will be expressed as a Vantage Score, not a FICO Score.

Credit Sesame’s credit score guidance can help consumers improve their credit scores and will send them an alert when their score changes.

Credit Sesame offers a free plan that includes information as reported by TransUnion—only one of the three major credit bureaus. This free service includes a credit report card analysis and monthly score updates and monitoring. Users also get recommendations on how to save money on loans, mortgages and credit cards, plus relevant credit card and loan offers. Consumers who want triple-bureau monitoring can pay for Credit Sesame’s Premium plan for $15.95 per month after a seven-day free trial.

Credit Karma monitors Equifax and TransUnion credit reports to provide reliable, weekly VantageScore updates.

Credit Karma is a free credit monitoring service that provides users daily VantageScore 3.0 credit scores based on TransUnion, and weekly updates using Equifax data. Users also get access to credit reports from TransUnion and Equifax, plus insights into how they can improve their credit scores. Monitoring information can be viewed through the platform’s mobile app or online, making it easy to track credit scores over time.

As with other top services, Credit Karma provides alerts if there are changes in a customer’s credit profile—though Experian data is not included. Similarly, Credit Karma does not provide identity theft insurance like paid providers, and other identity protection features are not included.

As one of the three major credit bureaus, Experian offers reliable insight into subscriber credit profiles through monthly reports and interactive FICO Score tracking.

Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus and offers consumers free basic credit monitoring services through its CreditWorks Basic product. Subscribers can access and track their FICO Score based on Experian data and receive alerts regarding new credit inquiries, account balances and suspicious activity. The platform provides an updated Experian credit report every 30 days and sends notifications when spending increases or decreases and when credit utilization changes.

For more intensive monitoring, the credit bureau also offers an upgraded CreditWorks Premium. This paid service costs $24.99 per month and includes three-bureau monitoring and alerts, among other features.