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FreeCreditReport.com

FreeCreditReport.com Review

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Bottom Line:
 Free Experian credit report and score plus cheapest 3-bureau monitoring solution
Full Review:
 You've probably seen the commercials or heard the jingles - FreeCreditReport.com does a lot of advertising and has beome the most popular way to get your free credit report and score and is the most popular credit monitoring service out there. A subsidiary of Experian, they are marketed heavily online as well as offline with both television and radio ads. But it's not just the advertising - FreeCreditReport.com is a great service. Their credit monitoring service, Triple Advantage, monitors all 3 bureaus and for signing up for the free 7 day trial you get a free Experian credit report and Experian credit score. For the price, $12 per month, this is the best 3-bureau monitoring solution you will find. Others give more data but at a higher price so if your main goal is to monitor all 3 credit bureaus, you can't beat FreeCreditReport.com. Since Triple Advantage constantly monitors all 3 bureaus, you receive an e-mail alert whenever there is a change or inquiry to your credit. Should you discover an identity theft problem, Triple Advantage has a nice added feature in that they assign a fraud resolution specialist to your account to help you fix the problem. They also provide more identity theft insurance than other monitoring services ($50k), although in general we don't think this type of insurance is really that valuable. Freecreditreport.com gives you access to unlimited Experian credit reports and scores once you join. This gives you the option to get a credit report and credit score for any reason any time you want, and the best part, at no additional charge. Having a free 7 day trial is also a great feature. You can check out the service, get a free report and score, and if you don't like it for any reason or really just wanted your score and report, you can cancel and be charged nothing. The monthly fee isn't charged until free trial ends if you haven't already cancelled. The main downside we see to this service is that the free credit report and score is from Experian only. Although the monitoring service monitors all 3 bureaus, you don't get all 3 credit reports or all 3 credit scores. Also, the free credit score uses the Experian scoring system, which is slightly different than the FICO score used by most lenders when making credit decisions, although the two scores are usually very close. Overall, we highly recommend FreeCreditReport.com's Triple Advantage service. With a 7 day free trial, a price of $12 per month, free Experian credit report and credit score, and unlimited credit reports and scores after the free trial, this service is the best value at its price point.

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Service Details:

Free Reports & Scores: Free Experian credit report and score
Free Trial & Monthly Fee: 7 day free trial; $12 per month
Reports & Scores Delivered: Free Experian credit report and score upon sign up and unlimited Experian credit reports and scores
Bureaus Monitored: All 3 bureaus

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