SmartCredit.com

• Integrated Personal Finance Tools
• Smart Credit Report
• Action Buttons
• Unlimited Credit Report Refreshes
• Membership Options

Integrated Personal Finance Tools

A big part of what makes SmartCredit.com stand out from a standard credit monitoring service is that it provides customers with helpful personal finance tools alongside credit monitoring.

Similar to Mint, SmartCredit.com can link to consumers' bank accounts, major lenders, brokerage accounts, and so forth.

Once these accounts are linked, SmartCredit.com begins pulling consumers' transactions, purchase history, and payments each day. This lets consumers see all of their spending in one place and even includes insightful reports and charts to help consumers see where all of their money went, as well as net worth calculations and more.

The company's ScoreTracker tool gives consumers access to their credit history and is designed to help consumers see how they are progressing with their credit.

SmartCredit.com's ScoreBuilder tool allows consumers to view the negative accounts that are weighing down their credit score and provides consumers with a 120-day plan that is designed to help them build their credit.

Lastly, the company's ScoreMaster tool is designed to help consumers actively monitor their credit card activity, spending, and payments. 

Smart Credit Report

SmartCredit.com's major selling point is its patented Smart Credit Report, which is basically a new way of displaying information found in a traditional credit report alongside money management features.

For example, if someone is browsing their credit report and sees that one of their credit cards has a higher balance than they remember, they can click a button and quickly see all of the recent transactions on that card. This provides users with an easy way of being able to see how their individual daily decisions contribute and form the numbers on their credit reports.

If a user's credit score is hurting because they're carrying a high balance on one of their cards, they can quickly dive in and see what they can cut from their spending to bring that balance down and improve their overall score.

Action Buttons

While browsing the Smart Credit Report, users are presented with a giant orange button for each account that reads Take Action. Clicking on it will take customers to a window where they can take many actions, for example:

• Request an increased credit limit
• Inquire about a particular transaction
• Request a lower interest rate
• Ask for a derogatory mark to be removed
• Negotiate to settle or defer payments

These are all things that can typically be done over the phone or at each lender or bank's website, but being able to do all of them from one central location is pretty impressive and is a definite time-saving feature. What's more, SmartCredit.com even allows users to dispute individual credit card charges that they don't recognize.

In short, SmartCredit.com makes it easy and simple to negotiate with major lenders and correct inaccuracies on one's credit report. 

Unlimited Credit Report Refreshes

Unlike some other companies in the credit monitoring industry, SmartCredit.com has not placed a limit on how often Premium-paying customers can refresh their credit report. This means that customers can access their scores and information in real time instead of having to wait until the end of the week, month, or year to view their current scores.

Membership Options

The company offers two credit monitoring membership options: the basic membership and the premium membership.

The Basic membership includes two Smart Credit report and score updates per month, unlimited use of ScoreTracker, ScoreBuilder, and ScoreMaster, five actions per month, unlimited credit monitoring and use of the money manager, a la carte credit reports, and credit scores from all three major credit bureaus, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance.

The Premium membership includes unlimited Smart Credit report and score updates as well as unlimited use of the score tracker, score builder, score master, and money manager tools, unlimited actions, credit monitoring, a la cart credit reports, and score from the major credit reporting bureaus, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. 

Each membership offered costs a recurring monthly fee: $19.95 for Basic and $27.95 for Premium. 

• Monthly Membership Fee
• Bank Info Utilized for Comprehensive Analysis 

Monthly Membership Fee

Unlike some other companies in the credit monitoring industry, SmartCredit.com charges customers monthly fees for its credit monitoring services.

Although the company's fees aren't incredibly high, it may turn customers away since other credit monitoring companies offer free services. 

That being said, most free credit monitoring services do not offer as many features as services with a monthly payment model. SmartCredit.com provides significantly more features than most companies in the industry. 

Bank Info Utilized for Comprehensive Analysis 

Because it does more than monitor consumers' credit, SmartCredit.com requires access to bank account information and other sensitive data, which may deter some prospective customers. 

SmartCredit.com takes great measures to protect customer data, using SSL encryption, employing Qualys security, and maintaining PCI DSS compliance. Although there have been no reported data breaches or privacy complaints, it’s a good practice to be discerning with the information you’re sharing with companies.