7 Best Credit Monitoring Services of 2025

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If personal details like your Social Security number or bank account information have ever been compromised, or you’re looking to increase your credit score before you buy a home or finance a car, you may be looking for a way to stay up to date on how your credit is being used.

A credit monitoring service, which can notify you when a credit application has been made in your name, could be a good solution. These companies vary in cost, services and tools, so it’s important to understand exactly what you’re looking for (and what you’re likely to get). Some people may just want to know that their name is being used to open a new credit card, for example, while others might prefer in-depth reports and thorough identity protection measures.

Read on for our picks of the best credit monitoring companies.

What to know about credit monitoring

• We found that the best credit monitoring services are transparent about their fees and services, provide frequent credit reports and score refreshes, offer identity theft insurance and have helpful tools for protecting your identity.
• All of our picks have dark web scanning and educational content on credit monitoring or identity protection (or both).
• Experian is the best overall credit monitoring service while Aura has low costs for both its individual and family plans, and PrivacyGuard makes sense for people specifically worried about identity protection.

How we chose our top picks

Our editors and writers reviewed a variety of free and paid credit monitoring services to ensure our content is precise and guided by editorial accuracy. We spoke to experts about what to look for when choosing a credit monitoring service and ultimately decided our ranking based on 16 data points, including cost and how often reports are provided.

Credit monitoring services can keep track of the data in your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — but they don’t all offer three-bureau monitoring. For this list, we considered whether services had one-, two- or three-bureau monitoring alongside like dark web scanning for potential signs of identity theft and cybersecurity features to protect your phone and computers.

Read the full methodology to learn more.

Our top picks for credit monitoring services

Experian — Best Overall
Aura — Best Low-Cost Credit Monitoring for Individuals or Families
PrivacyGuard — Best for Credit Reports and Identity Protection
Credit Karma — Best Free Credit Monitoring Service
IdentityForce — Best for Identity Theft Features
IDShield — Best for Cybersecurity Features
myFICO — Best for Access to FICO Score

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Why we chose it: Experian is one of the few services on this list that monitors your FICO score, the credit-scoring model used by the majority of lenders. The company offers free version that’s fairly basic and only offers information from your Experian report — though, depending on your needs, that may be enough. The free version also comes with a personal privacy scan that can show whether your address, age, phone number, relatives’ names and more are publicly available.

The paid version offers more bells and whistles, such as helping remove any personal information found in the personal privacy scan from websites, as well as three-bureau monitoring. It’s a bit pricier than some other services we listed, but the extra identity protection features could be worth it, and the family plan covers two adults and up to 10 children.

Read Money’s full Experian review.

Why we chose it: Aura is a bit more expensive than other services on this list, but that added cost unlocks a full suite of comprehensive identity protection tools. The three-bureau monitoring service can monitor more than 70 items — such as your driver’s license number, passport and email addresses — for data breach exposure, alerts you if your identity is used for high-risk transactions, scans every new file for malware on up to 10 devices per adult, handles junk mail and spam call removal requests, comes with a password manager extension and more.

The family plan includes five adults, unlimited children and up to 50 devices, which is more than what you’ll get with Experian’s family plan (but at a higher price).

Read Money’s full Aura Identity Theft Protection review.

Why we chose it: If you’re looking for advanced identity protection services, you may want to opt for PrivacyGuard Total Protection, which includes both credit and identity protection. You’ll get monthly three-bureau reports and scores. That’s in addition to features like a dedicated agent to walk you through what to do if your identity is stolen and a credit score simulator, which lets you see how changes in behavior can impact your credit score. The least-expensive PrivacyGuard plan is only $9.99, but it doesn’t come with credit monitoring, so we didn’t factor it into our ranking.

Read Money’s full PrivacyGuard review.

Why we chose it: Credit Karma is a free credit monitoring service that checks your credit reports daily from Equifax and TransUnion for changes. However, the service only provides your VantageScore.

Note that the Federal Trade Commission has taken action against Credit Karma, alleging that the many people who received “pre-approved” credit offers did not actually qualify, wasted time applying and, in some cases, saw their credit scores drop when their applications were denied. However, if you’re looking for the very basics, it could be a good option.

Why we chose it: IdentityForce from TransUnion is more focused on identity theft than credit monitoring, but its UltraSecure+Credit Individual plan offers coverage for both. Its identity theft features include access to a dedicated restoration specialist who will help you restore your identity if it’s compromised, risk scores for each dark web hit, phishing monitoring and more. It also comes with $2 million in identity theft insurance ($1 million is a common industry standard).

We didn’t consider the UltraSecure Individual plan, which has a 30-day free trial, for $19.99 per month, because it doesn’t include credit monitoring.

Read Money’s full IdentityForce review.

Why we chose it: IDShield focuses on identity protection and cybersecurity threats. That means you’ll get features like viruses, malware and ransomware protection on devices, but the credit monitoring is a bit more limited. You’ll have to pay extra to get three-bureau monitoring, and while the service provides monthly credit scores, you won’t get credit reports.

Read Money’s full IDShield review.

Why we chose it: If you’re looking for a service that provides your FICO instead of VantageScore, there aren’t many options — but myFICO is one. The free plan offers one-bureau coverage with updates available monthly, the Advanced plan offers three-bureau monitoring with updates available every three months, and the Premiere plan offers three-bureau monitoring with updates available every month.

However, you can get identity theft and cybersecurity features as well as credit monitoring with other companies at a similar price point.

Read Money’s full myFICO review.

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Other credit monitoring services we considered

We assessed many credit monitoring services that ultimately did not make our list. Below are several companies that were not named on our list but that may be a fit depending on your situation.

Credit Sesame allows you to get your daily credit score for free, but you’ll have to pay for the two premium tiers — one that offers one-bureau monitoring and a more expensive one that offers three-bureau monitoring — for more detailed reports. The service only provides your VantageScore and offers far fewer identity protection features than some of the other services on the list.

Equifax has three plans. One provides a three-bureau credit report annually. Another that adds extra features such as identity restoration help as well as your three-bureau credit score annually and one-bureau credit score daily. The most expensive option adds services for a second adult and up to four children. All the plans come with Equifax credit reports. But Equifax has poor customer service reviews, and in 2017, the company announced a data breach that exposed 147 million peoples’ personal information.

ID Watchdog offers either one- or three-bureau monitoring, depending on the tier you pay for. The cheaper plan only offers a one-bureau credit report and score monthly while the Premium one offers those reports and scores daily and the three-bureau report and score annually, which is less often than other services.

What to know about credit monitoring

Credit monitoring can be an important part of a personal finance plan, because it alerts you of any suspicious activity regarding your credit. Depending on the service you opt for, you can also get in-depth information on why your credit score has changed — including for legitimate reasons, such as if you get a new credit card — which can be useful if you’re trying to boost your score.

“For people just starting out who are trying to buy a home, even increasing their credit score by 20 or 50 points is pretty meaningful,” says Ben Loughery, a financial advisor and founder of Lock Wealth Management. “It’s good hygiene to check in every six months at minimum.”

How does credit monitoring work?

Credit monitoring services will kick off their work by asking you for some personal information, such as your date of birth, address and phone number. It will then access your credit reports from the credit bureaus (up to three, depending on the service), and monitor those reports on an ongoing basis.

The services will alert you when there’s activity in your accounts. That can include new credit inquiries from a lender, landlord or employer, as well as new accounts being opened, an address change or a change in public records. They can also notify you specifically about an increase or decrease in your credit score.

The frequency of the reports and score refreshes — as well as other services like monitoring credit cards and investment accounts for suspicious activity — will depend on the company. Keep in mind that credit monitoring can’t prevent your identity from being stolen, but it can help you prevent further damage. Loughery recommends pairing credit monitoring with other protective measures, like using a password manager.

How to choose a credit monitoring service

Credit monitoring services come with a wide range of fees and services. Here are some factors to consider when choosing.

Credit monitoring offering

FICO scores are used by 90% of top lenders, but VantageScore has emerged as a viable alternative (and is commonly used by credit monitoring services). If you’re OK with getting your VantageScore instead of FICO — which for most people, will work well for credit monitoring purposes — you’ll have more options.

When choosing between companies, look at how many reports you can get access to, since some only offer reports from one credit bureau while others offer two or three, says Chris Mankoff, a wealth advisor at JTL Wealth Partners. Ideally, you’ll want to choose a plan that has three-bureau monitoring and allows for regular score refreshes and reports. You’re probably going to have to pay more for monthly reports than annual ones, but depending on your needs, that may be worth it.

Cost

Many credit monitoring services are free, and Mankoff says that the basics may be enough for many people. His wife, for instance, received an alert via their free service that said a credit card was taken out in her name. She hadn’t opened the account and, out of caution, they both froze their credit.

But if you want more regular reporting, identity protection and cybersecurity features, and more than one person on your account, you’ll have to pay for it.

Features

Some credit monitoring services have extra tools to help keep your identity protected, as well as specialists who will work one-on-one with you if it’s compromised. Most have some form of identity protection insurance and dark web scanning, but you may want to check for offerings like social media monitoring, a password manager, VPNs and more. Mankoff says some services partner with different lending companies that can provide you a snapshot of what type of loans are available to you based on your score, which can be helpful if you’re looking to consolidate debt.

Customer service

These services tend to offer phone, chat or email services, or a combination. Before choosing a company, make sure you’ll be able to easily contact them when you need help. It can be helpful to review customer reviews via TrustPilot and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Latest credit monitoring news

In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Experian for allegedly failing to properly investigate consumer disputes. The bureau said in a news release that Experian “does not take sufficient steps to intake, process, investigate and notify consumers about consumer disputes, resulting in the inclusion of incorrect information on credit reports.” The news is related to Experian’s credit reporting, not necessarily its credit monitoring services.

How we chose the best credit monitoring services

To find the best credit monitoring services, we compared plans from 16 companies. To create our methodology, we narrowed in on 16 data points. The data points fell into five categories: credit monitoring offering, cost, features, customer service and ease of use. Credit monitoring offerings made up 23% of the scores while cost made up 25%, as these are two of the main factors we believe customers should consider. Features, customer service and ease of use made up 20%, 17% and 15%, respectively.

Below are more details on the data points considered within each category.

• Credit monitoring offering: We considered the number of credit bureaus monitored, the credit score model used and how often reports and credit score refreshes are available.
• Cost: For the cost factor, we considered the fees, whether there is a free version of the service and whether there is a free trial.
• Features: We assessed companies based on their identity theft insurance and dark web scanning offerings, as well as other security and identity protection features.
• Customer service: This scoring took customer service availability, TrustPilot and BBB reviews into account.
• Ease of use: For insights on ease of use, we considered mobile app ratings, availability of educational material and transparency about the costs and features.

Summary of our top picks for credit monitoring

Experian — Best Overall
Aura — Best Low-Cost Credit Monitoring for Individuals or Families
PrivacyGuard — Best for Credit Reports and Identity Protection
Credit Karma — Best Free Credit Monitoring Service
IdentityForce — Best for Identity Theft Features
IDShield — Best for Cybersecurity Features
myFICO — Best for Access to FICO Score