Your credit score can impact many of your financial decisions, so it pays to protect it. Capital One's CreditWise can help you keep an eye on your credit at no cost. However, the service has some gaps in its coverage, and more comprehensive monitoring is preferable if you want a complete picture of your credit profile.
Despite these gaps, Business Insider's personal finance team reviewed CreditWise and found that it ranked among our top credit monitoring services. Read on to see whether CreditWise suits your needs.
CreditWise Pros and Cons
Pros
- Affordable: Free to use and doesn't directly impact your credit score
- Sends update alerts: Sends alerts when your credit reports change
- Offers credit score simulator: Estimates how your score may change over time based on your actions
Cons
- Doesn't monitor all three bureaus: Only monitors Experian and TransUnion credit reports, not Equifax
- Score may differ from lender's: Uses the VantageScore 3.0 model, which may not be the same score used by lenders
- Limited alert availability: Alerts may not be available if there is an information mismatch when you enroll
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$0
- Free of charge
- Can be accessed from the standalone app or through the Capital One app with an account.
- Monitors two of the three major credit bureaus
- Doesn't offer Experian data, only alerts users to important changes.
- Does not monitor Equifax
- Monitor your credit for free
- Get alerts for important changes to your credit report like inquiries, delinquent accounts, and more.
- Monitor your personal information so you can take action if your Social Security number or email address is detected on the dark web
- Use the CreditWise Simulator to explore the potential impact of your financial decisions before you make them.
Compare CreditWise with Credit Monitoring Companies
$29.95 monthly or $299.50 annually
- Cybersecurity protects credit
- Credit monitoring
- Social media
- Credit scoring simulator
- Credit reports are given quarterly
- Relatively expensive
- No free trial
- What you need to know: There are various types of credit scores, and lenders use a variety of different types of credit scores to make lending decisions. The credit score you receive is based on the VantageScore 3.0 model and may not be the credit score model used by your lender.
- $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance
- Password Manager
- Credit Monitoring: 3 Bureau
- Credit Score Simulator
- Quarterly 3 Bureau Credit Scores and Credit Reports
- Credit Freeze & Credit Report Fraud Assistance
$15 monthly or $144 annually
- Solid range of protections including parental controls
- Includes antivirus, VPN, and password manager features
- Reasonable pricing for couples and families
- No social media monitoring
Aura ID Theft Protection offers comprehensive identity protection at some of the best prices on the market, which should be expected from one of the services we included in both our credit monitoring and identity theft protection guides.
Aura- All plans come with 24/7 customer support
- Every adult member on your plan is backed by $1,000,000 insurance policy to cover eligible losses and fees due to identity theft.
- Enjoy a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans.
- 60-day money back guarantee is only available for annual plans purchased through Aura’s websites (excludes Amazon) or via the Customer Support team.
$0-$6.95 monthly + optional $49.95 fee for retroactive reporting
- Rent reporting is free of charge
- Credit score monitoring
- $1M identity theft insurance
- Three-bureau rent reporting
- Utility and cell phone payments
- Doesn’t require landlord’s approval
- Poor customer service experience
- Cell phone and utility payments only reported to TransUnion
Self Rent Reporting reports your rent and other bills to the credit bureaus. This improves your payment history and as a result, your credit score, without needing to take on debt. One of the companies listed in our guide on the best rent reporting services, Self Rent Reporting stands out for offering several credit building perks under one competitive price.
Self Rent Reporting- Reports to all three credit bureaus
- Connects directly to your bank account
- Reports your rent, cell phone, electric, water and gas payments
- $49.95 optional fee for 24 months of retroactive rent and utilities reporting
- $6.95 per month
- Add two years of past payments
- Results vary. You may not receive an improved credit score. Not all lenders use scores impacted by rent/utility payments.
CreditWise Overview
CreditWise is a credit monitoring service offered by Capital One, one of the nation's largest financial institutions. Originally launched in 2014 as the "Credit Tracker" for Capital One credit card holders, the tool was rebranded as CreditWise in 2016 and made available to non-cardholders. Unlike other credit cards that offer identity theft protection or credit monitoring, CreditWise is available and free even if you don't have any Capital One accounts, as long as you're over 18 with a valid Social Security number that can be linked to a TransUnion credit profile.
How CreditWise Works
Like other credit monitoring services, CreditWise tracks activity on your credit report and alerts you to changes such as hard inquiries, newly opened accounts, balances, payments, and changes made to your personal information. It can be valuable for anyone wanting to track their credit health, especially for those new to credit or who want free credit monitoring.
However, unlike many of its free competitors that offer monitoring for just one credit bureau, CreditWise tracks changes to your credit reports from two of the three major credit bureaus (TransUnion and Experian). That said, it only provides credit scores and credit reports from your TransUnion file. The service uses a soft inquiry to access your credit report, so checking your credit score via CreditWise will not impact your score.
Key Features of CreditWise
CreditWise offers a single level of service available for free to all members — there are no paid plans or add-ons. Your membership gets you the tools listed below and more at no cost.
Credit score: CreditWise shows your current credit score and updates it as often as daily when you log into your account. Instead of a FICO score, CreditWise offers a score generated using the VantageScore 3.0 model.
Key credit stats: CreditWise breaks down your credit score into its most vital components, including payment history, age of accounts, credit utilization, and recent inquiries. Seeing how you perform in the factors that affect your credit score can help you identify where there's room for improvement.
Credit and identity alerts: You'll be alerted (by email or push notification) of changes to your TransUnion and Experian credit reports, including new inquiries, delinquencies, and changes in your credit score or profile. You'll also be alerted of dark web activity associated with your identity and other suspicious activity. This will help reduce the risk of identity theft.
Credit score simulator: This tool indicates how certain activities (like getting a mortgage, opening a new credit card, or paying down a balance) may impact your credit score calculations. Precision is not guaranteed, but the results of the credit simulator will give you some idea of whether a financial decision is prudent.
Score improvement: CreditWise offers suggestions for how you can improve your credit score, like reducing your balances or diversifying your debt. These suggestions are ranked from most to least impactful, so you can prioritize which actions to take.
CreditWise Costs and Fees
CreditWise is free. It does not charge fees for any of its services, and you do not have to bank with Capital One to use it.
Although it is free to use, Capital One uses your personal information for internal business and marketing purposes and may also share your information with affiliates unless you opt out.
CreditWise Reviews and Ratings
The CreditWise mobile app is available on the Apple app store, where it has a 4.8 rating across 283,000 reviews. It's also available on the Google Play store, where it's rated 4.5 stars out of five based on over 107,000 reviews. You can also access CreditWise online through Capital One's website, which has the same functionality as the app.
CreditWise Alternatives
There are multiple options for free credit monitoring, including Credit Karma and Experian Free Credit Report.
If you need more extensive credit monitoring services or identity theft protection, however, there are paid services that offer both. For example, Aura, offers well-rounded protection with monitoring and real-time alerts for all three credit bureaus for $15 monthly or $144 annually.
CreditWise vs. Credit Karma
Credit Karma and CreditWise are both credit monitoring services that provide access to credit scores and reports. Credit Karma offers free credit scores and reports from Equifax and TransUnion, while CreditWise monitors Experian and TransUnion.
CreditWise is slightly easier to use than Credit Karma, as it presents the most important data concisely and upfront. It's a great tool if you'd prefer to use a single service and don't have a pressing need for more thorough credit monitoring or identity theft protection services.
CreditWise vs. Experian Free Credit Report
CreditWise and Experian Free Credit Report are both free ways to monitor your credit reports. Experian offers credit reports from all three credit bureaus, which gives it the edge over CreditWise, which only offers credit reports from two (Experian and TransUnion).
On the plus side, CreditWise offers a superior user experience compared to other free credit monitoring services. The app is highly rated thanks not only to its functionality but also to its efficient user interface.
Frequently Asked Questions About CreditWise
Is CreditWise really free?
Yes, CreditWise is a free credit monitoring service from Capital One Bank. You do not have to bank with Capital One to use the service.
Is CreditWise a legit credit score?
Yes, CreditWise shows a legitimate credit score. CreditWise shows your TransUnion credit score using the VantageScore 3.0 model, which is widely used among lenders and other financial services but remains less popular than the FICO model.
Is CreditWise only for Capital One customers?
No, CreditWise is not only for Capital One customers. You can use CreditWise regardless of whether you have any credit, banking, or other accounts with Capital One.
Will using CreditWise affect my credit score?
No, using CreditWise will not affect your credit score. CreditWise uses a soft inquiry and soft inquiries do not impact your score.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Rated CreditWise
Choosing a strong credit monitoring service comes down to what you get for the money you're paying. A paid service needs to monitor your credit reports from all three of the major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
Free credit monitoring services like CreditWise often offer much less than paid services, but it is hard to argue with free. At their worst, these services fill your inbox with excessive emails. This cost is a small one to pay for free credit monitoring, but it's important to be aware of the limitations and blind spots of monitoring one bureau instead of all three.
The best paid credit monitoring services also have aspects of identity theft protection included in their features, like public records or dark web monitoring. These two services are hard to replicate on your own. They should also provide some identity theft recovery assistance and restoration.
Read our full explanation of how we rate credit monitoring services.
