Credit.com Offers a Different Perspective from CreditKarma.com
Credit.com offers an additional resource that can complement your use of CreditKarma.com (read my review) or other credit report services.
Though Credit.com doesn’t offer as much detail or tools as CreditKarma.com, it did give me a higher overall score, which I found interesting. It ranked me as A to A- for all categories, where as on CreditKarma.com I had D in a few different categories such as length of open debt. From what I’ve read, the discrepancy is based on the recency of the data as well as which credit agency it is using to determine your score, and supposedly CreditKarma doesn’t go back in date as far as Credit.com does. This factor alone is enough to take a closer look at Credit.com for accuracy.
Rating: 
Credit.com determines your score to be based on the following categories:
- Payment History (35%) Simply put - you have to pay your bills on time.
- Debt Useage (35%) Keeping low balances and having higher limits for your debt increases this value.
- Credit Age (15%) If you have accounts that have been opened for a while, this helps this score. (CreditKarma and Credit.com have very different perspectives on this)
- Account Mix (10%) Types of debt that you have (mortgage, credit cards, other loans)
- Inquiries (10%) Its a good idea not to have too many inquiries to your score (I’ve read that if you shop around, say for a mortgage, and have multiple pulls of your credit in a 2 week period, this doesn’t affect your score as much, but don’t quote me on this)
Keep in mind that for the full detail on actual accounts that are included on your credit report you’ll have to purchase one or get your free annual report. Under the FACT Act you are required to have access to at least 1 free credit report a year, and you can get that at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This looks at the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. They will also report on court records for lawsuits, judgments and bankruptcy filings.
You can also possibly obtain your free credit report from your local credit union. The one I work at in Boulder provides a review of your credit report free to its members.
Its always a good idea to check your credit report, if at minimum to monitor and ensure that you don’t have any fraudulent activity. Also though, to learn how to improve it as I am.
Here’s a nice comparison: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2009/09/30/credit-report-cards-credit-com-vs-credit-karma/
What do you use to monitor your credit score and credit report? Do you use a credit monitoring or identity theft service?
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