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Articles » Free Annual Credit Report | | What Is The Best Credit Reporting Service? |
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There are three main credit reporting services that provide credit reports and FICO scores to the consumer. They are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each of them offers a report, a score, and a variety of credit monitoring and credit protection services . To determine which one is the best, we need to take a look at all three of these elements.
Equifax is the only one of the three that offers a credit report laid out in column format. It is by far the easiest to read and it also separates collection accounts by agency, a useful feature if you're trying to clean up some old financial damage. Their scoring system, like all of the credit reporting services, is based on positive and negative aspects of your credit report. Because they are more detailed in their report, your FICO score is more accurate. This can be a benefit if you pay your bills on time and maintain low balances on your credit cards. Equifax has a monthly service, called “Credit Watch Gold”, which provides you credit reports from all three agencies , a credit score, and monitoring for just $12.95 a month.
Experian is considered the most thorough of the three credit reporting agencies. On the first page of their credit report they summarize the information into positive and negative categories, giving you a clear picture of how each entry affects your credit score. Experian offers a monthly package called “Triple Advantage” similar to Equifax for $14.95. They don't provide a full monthly credit report from the other two agencies with this fee, but they do monitor them and e-mail you if there are any changes that could affect your FICO score. Their monthly service does give you your score and also a FICO Plus score.
Trans Union has a service called TrueCredit that gives you monthly credit reports from all three credit bureaus for $14.95 a month also, but to get a FICO score you need to add another $7.95 and for debt analysis there's a fee of $5.95. Trans Union was also the subject of a law suit that involved the release and sale of personal information for profit. The case has been settled and new laws are now in place preventing this action, but Trans Union lost a good amount of their credibility in the process.
So who's the best? Equifax offers the most for the money and has the most comprehensive report. Experian is the big dog in the industry but you pay for the weight that they carry. Their full package monthly service, which includes scores and reports from all three bureaus, is $39.95 a month and they charge an extra $15.00 a month if you want the new Vantage Score included. For more detailed information, visit each of these sites individually.
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