7 Credit Monitoring Apps to Help You Stay on Top of Your Credit Score
Staying on top of your credit score is everything. Need cash to finance your education? A loan to fix your car? Or perhaps you want to purchase a new home. Even if no major purchases are in your foreseeable future, it is imperative you make sure no one has stolen your identity. What apps are best for monitoring your credit score?
7 apps that are great for monitoring your credit score are 1) Mint Money Manager, 2) Credit Karma, 3) TransUnion, 4) Experian, 5) Credit Sesame, 6) Credit.com, and 7) CreditWise.
All of these are outstanding choices. Learn more about the importance of monitoring your score and the features of each app to help you decide which is best for you.
Why Should I Monitor my Credit Score?
You can get a good idea of your overall financial health by monitoring your credit score. Lenders are also interested in your score and use it to determine your interest rates and fees, whether you will qualify for payday loans, your utility deposit, and in some states, even your car insurance premium.
Regularly checking your credit report and allowing push-notifications about changes can alert you to possible fraud or identity theft. With these crimes on the rise, monitoring your credit is more important now than ever.
In addition, there may be inaccuracies on your credit report that need to be corrected. By contesting false information, you can raise your credit score and your financial health reputation. Learn more about the benefits of monitoring your credit report here.
1. Mint Money Manager
Not only does this app monitor your credit score using one of the three main credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, it also gives you deep insight into your spending habits and helps you manage your debt.
By linking your checking, savings, investment, and credit card accounts, it creates a visual snapshot of your current financial health, as well as a comprehensive overview of all your finances in one place. There is no need to go from account to account to check your balances. Open Mint Money Manager to see it all in one place.
2. Credit Karma
Credit Karma updates your credit score weekly and offers alerts when changes are made. These alerts include, among others, new credit inquiries, new collection accounts, new lines of credit, and new closed accounts.
This app gives you feedback about how your habits affect your credit score. It provides a breakdown of each factor involved in determining your score and gives you specific advice on what to do to raise your score.
If you are in the market for a new line of credit, Credit Karma also makes suggestions of loans and credit cards you are likely to qualify for based on the qualifications of others who have a similar credit profile.
3. TransUnion
TransUnion is one of the three main credit reporting bureaus. If you prefer to go straight to the source, this app may be best for you. The TransUnion app provides credit scores based on their own reports. The TransUnion is similar to the FICO credit rating model, which ranges from a score of 300 to 850. Although similar, TransUnion and FICO scores are not the same.
4. Experian
Experian is another of the three main reporting bureaus. Experian is the most used rating model in credit monitoring apps. Experian provides their own free app for users to monitor their credit health and credit changes.
The Experian app offers push-notifications to alert users whenever a change is made to their credit. This helps users monitor their credit for potential fraud and identity theft. Aside from this service, Experian updates your overall credit score monthly.
5. Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame monitors your credit using Experian. It provides an overview of what is impacting your credit score and provides specific advice on how to improve your score.
An enticing feature of Credit Sesame is their no-fee Sesame Cash debit account. This account allows you to earn cash as your score improves, capping out at $100 for the first 30 days. This incentive can make it fun and rewarding to work toward improving your score.
Credit Sesame partners with lending companies to help you find credit products that are right for you. If you don't need a new loan or line of credit, you can still take advantage of Credit Sesame's other features.
6. Credit.com
Credit.com transforms your Experian credit score into a letter grade, ranging from A+ for excellent credit down to F for poor credit. This app is great for the visual learner as it displays the factors affecting your credit score with charts and graphs.
Like other credit monitoring apps, credit.com considers several factors including payment history, account mix, debt to credit usage ratio, collection accounts, and the age of your credit accounts to display your overall credit health.
Credit.com provides a clear breakdown of how your score was calculated, and which areas of consideration are having the greatest impact on your current score. The app also provides advice on how you can improve your score over time.
7. CreditWise
Although CreditWise was developed by Capital One, you do not need to be a Capital One account holder to download and use this free app. CreditWise uses TransUnion credit report data to provide your score and updates it on a weekly basis.
A feature of CreditWise that makes the app an attractive option is its credit simulator. With the credit simulator, users can see how their credit score will change based upon their actions. For example, a user can see how their credit score will improve if they pay off a debt.
Final Thoughts on Selecting a Credit Monitoring App
The best app to use depends largely on your unique preferences. With so many companies competing to have you choose their app, there really isn't a bad option on this list. Feel free to download one, a few, or all these apps as they are free to use.
By trying the apps out yourself, you will learn all of their features and discover which ones you find most appealing and helpful to you. Ultimately, you may choose to keep not only one, but a few of these outstanding credit monitoring services!