Credit Sesame [A Review In 2022]

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Keeping tabs on your credit can sometimes feel like a part-time job.

For starters, it’s always changing. Every time you open a new credit card, take out a loan, or make a late payment, your credit score adjusts. Plus, it can be difficult to keep track of all your different accounts and passwords.

That’s where Credit Sesame comes in. Credit Sesame is a credit and loan company that gives you a single place to track all your credit activity. But is it any good?

Stick around for our in-depth credit sesame review to find out!

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What Is Credit Sesame?

Credit Sesame is a service designed to help you keep tabs on your credit score.

You can use it to monitor your credit report, track your credit score, and get personalized recommendations for improving your credit. The service is free to use, and you don’t need to provide any sensitive information to sign up.

Using Credit Sesame is pretty straightforward. First, you’ll need to create a free account via the Credit Sesame website. Then, you’ll be asked to provide some basic information about yourself, including:

Name
Address
Date of Birth
Social Security Number

This is necessary so that Credit Sesame can pull your credit report from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Once your credit report is pulled, you’ll be able to see your credit score and track your credit history. You can also use Credit Sesame’s tools and features to find ways to improve your credit.

What are those tools and features? Good question!

Credit Sesame Key Features

Credit Sesame give users access to a fairly wide range of financial tools and features, including:

Free Credit Report Card

Credit Report Card is a Credit Sesame service that gives you a contextualized overview of your credit.

You can use your Credit Report Card to see how you’re doing in all the different categories that affect your credit score, including:

Payment History: This measures how often you pay your bills on time.
Credit Utilization: This measures the amount of credit you’re using compared to the amount of credit you have available.
Credit Mix: This measures the types of credit you have, including revolving (e.g., credit cards) and non-revolving (e.g., mortgages) credit.
New Credit: This measures how often you’ve applied for new credit in the past 12 months.
Length of Credit History: This measures the length of time you’ve had credit accounts open.

For each of these categories, you’ll see a letter grade and a number score. The letter grade is meant to be an easy way to see where you stand, while the number score gives you a more specific idea of where you stand relative to important benchmarks.

Free Credit Report and Scores

As you’d expect, Credit Sesame gives you access to your credit report.

Free users get a free credit report from TransUnion (a Credit Sesame partner) once a month. If you want reports from Experian and Equifax too, you’ll need to upgrade to Credit Sesame premium.

The reports you get are in-line with industry standards. They show your personal information, account history, and credit inquiries. You can also view your FICO score whenever you’d like, with updates made daily.

Free Credit Monitoring

Credit Sesame’s credit monitoring features are some of the most robust in the industry. With Credit Sesame, you can:

Monitor your credit score and report for changes
Get alerts if there’s suspicious activity on your account
Check all three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian)

The last point is important—many other credit monitoring services only monitor one or two bureaus.

My Debt

Credit Sesame’s My Debt is a debt analysis tool for Premium users that’s designed to help you understand your debt situation and create a plan for paying it off.

In reality, “analysis” is probably an overstatement—Credit Sesame is really just providing a nice looking dashboard to view basic debt metrics, including:

Total Debt: This is the total amount of debt you owe.
Monthly Debt Payments: This is the total amount you’re currently paying each month to service your debt.
Debt-to-Income Ratio: This measures the percentage of your monthly income that goes towards debt payments.

If you’re looking for tools that will help you create a more sophisticated debt payoff plan, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Still, as a starting point, the Debt Analysis tool can be helpful.

Product Suggestions

As a mostly free service, Credit Sesame needs to make money some other way. They do this by partnering with companies that offer financial products, like credit cards, personal loans, and home mortgages.

Credit Sesame will show you “product suggestions” based on your unique financial situation. For example, if you have good credit but carry a high balance on your credit cards, Credit Sesame may suggest a 0% APR balance transfer credit card.

In our experience, these suggestions are decent – but not great. The level of personalization leaves a lot to be desired, with many users getting the same suggestions regardless of their financial situation.

How Much is Credit Sesame?

Credit Sesame’s Basic plan is a 100% free service—you won’t be asked to provide any payment information when you sign up. There are no catches, no gimmicks, and no gotchas. You really can get all the features and benefits of Credit Sesame without spending a dime.

Of course, if you want additional features (like access to My Debt), you’ll need to sign up for Credit Sesame Premium for $15.95 per month.

Also check out Credit Glory for another great service to monitor and raise your credit.

Is Credit Sesame Safe?

Credit Sesame uses 256-bit encryption to protect your data, which is the standard requirement for any company handling sensitive financial information. So you can rest assured that your information is safe and secure.

Final Thoughts

Credit Sesame is a great credit monitoring service, especially if you’re just starting to focus on your credit. With Credit Sesame, you get all the features and benefits you need to stay on top of your credit score and report—and it won’t cost you a thing.

If you’re looking for more sophisticated tools (like a debt analysis tool that actually analyzes your debt with the goal of optimizing it), you might want to consider other options. But if all you need is basic credit monitoring, Credit Sesame is a great choice.