In your 20s and 30s, building a good credit score is one of the most important things you can do for your future finances. It will unlock tons of doors for you in the future.
Credit Sesame is a free service where you can monitor your credit score and see all of your credit information in a single place, making it easy to keep on track of your score.
A lot of my readers have asked for more detailed reviews of the products I recommend so they can really know if they are for them before signing up, so I wanted to do this in-depth Credit Sesame review.
We are going to discuss how credit sesame works, the pros and cons, and of course, whether or not credit sesame is a scam.
Table of Contents
What is Credit Sesame?
Credit Sesame is a credit score monitoring service that has an amazing free option for those of us who are low on cash. The free version of Credit Sesame gives you these benefits:
- $50,000 of free identity theft insurance
- free credit monitoring
- free TransUnion credit score
This credit score monitoring software is awesome because they have most of their features available in the free option so you don’t need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Your credit score is extremely important to your overall financial health. It is a 3 digit score that is given to you based on actions you take in your financial life. Paying bills late can affect your credit score, as well as things like how much credit you have.
Features of Credit Sesame
Credit Score
Credit Sesame will give you an updated credit score each month that you can check for free so you can monitor your score on your own. It helps you track your overall progress and can show you if your financial decisions are helping or hurting you.
Credit Monitoring
The main feature of Credit Sesame is their free credit score monitoring. This will give you notifications when there is new activity on your account (i.e., application for a new credit account).
This can help you find fraudulent activity before it’s too late and help you find out if your identity is being stolen!
You can sign up for FREE and check out your credit score today!
Credit Report Card
There are 5 categories that go into your credit score at different percentages. This includes credit utilization, length of credit history, types of credit, payment history.
They will give you insights into which of these categories is hurting your score and which ones you can improve on to increase your credit score.
Identity Theft Protection
A spectacular feature of credit sesame that is available to all members is identity theft protection. This will help you pay for expenses that occur when your identity is stolen, regardless of the reason.
This is available up to $50,000 and can be used for things like phone bills, lost wages, postage, and more.
Goal Setting
A really awesome part about Credit Sesame is that you can set specific goals for your finances and credit sesame will give you some actionable steps you can take to get closer to your goals.
This can be really useful for people who don’t entirely understand their credit score and need simple steps to take to improve it. However, the advice given can be kind of basic if you understand credit.
How to Sign Up
Signing up for Credit Sesame is super easy. You can Sign Up by Clicking Here and you will be required to provide your email, name, address, birthday, and social security number.
The SSN might be worrisome to some people, but they need to be able to verify that you are who you say you are in order to show you the information from TransUnion.
You will also need to answer a couple of questions to confirm you are who you say you are.
You can then download the app so you can monitor your credit from your phone.
Pros and Cons
Pros of Credit Sesame
- No Hidden Fees
- Free Credit Monitoring
- No Credit Card Required
- Alerts With Changes to Your Score
- Identity Theft Protection
- Total Debt Overview
- Hundreds of Positive Customer Reviews
Cons of Credit Sesame
- No Bank Account Monitoring
- Only TransUnion Score, May Differ from FICO
- Have to Pay for a Detailed Report
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To finish of this review of credit sesame, I wanted to add a ton of really common frequently asked questions that I’ve found when people are asking about credit sesame. If you think I missed any important questions, be sure to let me know in the comments and I will try and update this review.
Is Credit Sesame a Scam and is it Safe?
It’s totally normal to be concerned about a website who accesses your credit being a scam, I’d be concerned too. However, credit sesame makes sure that your information is safe and secure and they are considered really secure by companies like Norton, McAffee, and eTrust.
Credit Sesame is definitely not a scam. They don’t ask for any money for you to monitor your score and can’t do anything to change your credit score.
Credit Sesame has all of the required accreditation that you need to be a serious financial institution and you should have no worries with signing up for this service.
Is it Really Free?
Credit Sesame is one of the only free credit monitoring services that doesn’t even ask you for a credit card when you sign up, making sure that it is entirely free.
You won’t have to pay a penny unless you sign up for a premium account.
Is it Actually Accurate?
Credit Sesame uses the TransUnion Vantage Score which is one of the bigger credit score companies out there.
However, this score may be different from the score you get from FICO, so the score will be pretty accurate but not identical to every other credit score bureau.
Will It Impact My Credit Score?
When most companies access your credit score (i.e., for a car loan) they do what is known as a hard inquiry which can decrease your credit score around 10 points per inquiry which can really hurt your score.
Credit Sesame is not one of those types of credit companies. They do a soft inquiry on your credit because they are doing it for your knowledge and not for you to request money. This won’t affect your credit at all, which can give you peace of mind.
What Score do they use?
There are a few different credit scores that are available for you to see, but most will cost a bit of money for you to access. Credit Sesame uses TransUnion’s Vantage Score to calculate your information.
It is important to note that not every credit score is going to be calculated the same. A score from TransUnion could be different than your FICO score so don’t be alarmed if the scores aren’t exact.
How Does Credit Sesame Make Money?
I’ve had a few people ask me this question, since the main part of their company is based on free accounts. Credit sesame first makes money by some people paying for the more complicated accounts.
They also make money through affiliate marketing which occurs when they offer you products or services in your account for things like credit cards and loans. They can also make money through on page ads.
Is Credit Sesame Right for Me?
If you want to be an adult with your finances, it is really important that you are constantly checking your credit score and making moves to be able to improve it. Credit Sesame is a really awesome way to do this entirely for free.
Their paid programs also have awesome features that can help you get more in-depth knowledge into your score which can really help you grow your credit for your future.
Since credit sesame is safe and entirely free, there really is no reason to not sign up today!
Final Thoughts
Understand and monitoring your credit score is a really important step in your overall financial journey and should be part of your financial plan. Credit Sesame can really help you figure out how to improve your credit and is getting the Not Quite an Adult seal of approval!
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