American Express CreditSecure
Is This Your Business?Author: Kaitlyn Short
American Express is a global services company that provides its customers with access to a wide variety of products and services that deliver insights and experiences that will enrich their lives and help them build a successful financial future.
Although the company mainly focuses on credit card services, one of the company's products, CreditSecure, provides credit monitoring and identity monitoring services to consumers.
With CreditSecure, consumers can receive daily credit monitoring and refresh their FICO scores and tri-bureau credit reports every 30 days. The American Express-offered service also provides consumers with credit utilization and credit limit alerts.
Keep reading to learn more about American Express CreditSecure's credit monitoring service.
Top Ranked Companies
The Good
- Alerts for key credit changes
- Tri-bureau credit monitoring and reporting
- PLUS score reporting
- Excellent support, assistance, and tools
- FICO Scores
- $1 Service Trial
Alerts for Key Credit Changes
American Express CreditSecure will send customers an alert any time it detects a key change to their credit report. This is designed to help consumers take immediate action to prevent theft and fraudulent purchases. It will also alert consumers if anyone opens any new accounts in their name without their knowledge or permission.
Tri-Bureau Credit Monitoring Reporting
While some other credit monitoring services only provide single credit bureau monitoring, American Express CreditSecure monitors all three credit bureaus and collects the information which is then reported to consumers in a variety of ways.
This tri-bureau monitoring provides consumers with a full picture of everything that's contained in all their credit reports so they can immediately take action if they find errors or if something's not quite right.
PLUS Score Reporting
American Express CreditSecure will provide consumers with a PLUS score, which is designed to reflect consumers' overall credit risk. PLUS scores are calculated based on the information in each credit report for all of the three major credit bureaus.
The PLUS score will most likely differ from consumers' FICO score, which is the score that the majority of lenders use to determine creditworthiness. Therefore, consumers shouldn't solely rely on their PLUS Score as a basis for credit.
Excellent Support, Assistance, and Tools
The CreditSecure service comes with a dedicated credit representative who can provide consumers with customized assistance to help them make educated assessments about their credit score and reports.
This service will also provide customers with step-by-step fraud assistance that will help them resolve any potential fraud issues should they occur.
Additionally, CreditSecure gives customers access to practical financial tools and educational articles to help them make more educated decisions about their particular financial situation.
FICO Scores
American Express CreditSecure, unlike some of its competitors, provides consumers with FICO scores. Since the FICO scoring model is more popular among lenders than other scoring models, it can be good for consumers to especially keep track of their FICO scores.
$1 Service Trial
American Express CreditSecure offers consumers a 30-day service trial that costs a low fee of $1. Once these first 30-days are completed, the company will charge consumers $16.99 on a monthly basis for the subscription.
The Bad
- Longer Refresh Rates
Longer Refresh Rates
American Express CreditSecure has a 30-day refresh rate while many companies in the credit monitoring industry offer weekly or even daily report refresh rates.
The Bottom Line
There is quite a bit to like about American Express CreditSecure's service. American Express is a well-known, long-standing player in the credit and financial services field. Its CreditSecure service gives consumers a lot for their money.
The service sends alerts for any key changes in consumers' credit, provides credit bureau monitoring and reports from all three credit bureaus, and offers three PLUS score reports.
Additionally, CreditSecure has a well-developed support system and plenty of tools to help consumers with a number of different issues. As if that wasn't enough, CreditSecure provides full-service credit monitoring and frequent refreshes to your credit report, which will help consumers stay on top of their credit better.
However, American Express CreditSecure appears to only provide 30-day report refresh rates while many other companies in the industry offer weekly or even daily refresh rate options.
All in all, American Express CreditSecure appears to be a solid company that offers a wide variety of popular credit monitoring services. Therefore, we have no problem recommending the company as a service provider.
However, as with anything else, we recommend you perform your own due diligence before making any final decisions about which credit monitoring company is right for you and your particular financial situation.
