# Equifax Monthly Fee Worth It?



## ghrh1977 (Jun 4, 2014)

I get access to Trans Union through my bank - while it’s not extremely detailed it does the job. I recently took advantage of the free monthly trial with Equifax and it appeared to be very detailed. It has since ended. Is it worth using their monthly membership of $20 to keep tabs on your credit?


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

ghrh1977 said:


> I get access to Trans Union through my bank - while it’s not extremely detailed it does the job. I recently took advantage of the free monthly trial with Equifax and it appeared to be very detailed. It has since ended. Is it worth using their monthly membership of $20 to keep tabs on your credit?


No. Equifax offers free credit reports.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I believe I get my Equifax Canada score via my online CIBC Visa card page.

Added: There is no particular reason to care about your credit score unless you see a significant shift of, for example 50 points, and you have not done anything to warrant a change.


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## ghrh1977 (Jun 4, 2014)

Money172375 said:


> No. Equifax offers free credit reports.


But I believe only for a limited time, no? I created a free account and it was good for only 30 days.


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## ghrh1977 (Jun 4, 2014)

Sorry an additional credit report question: on mine I am showing a few credit accounts listed as “Open” however these have been paid and closed for over 7 yrs. Should I be contacting Trans to advise them these are long gone and close them?


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

ghrh1977 said:


> Sorry an additional credit report question: on mine I am showing a few credit accounts listed as “Open” however these have been paid and closed for over 7 yrs. Should I be contacting Trans to advise them these are long gone and close them?


I wouldn’t. Nobody looks at stuff that old.


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## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

No.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Money172375 said:


> I wouldn’t. Nobody looks at stuff that old.


I agree, and having paid off credit accounts from the past actually lenghtens the "age" of the debt history which is good for credit scores.

Of course, any old debt that was unpaid will lower a credit score.. If an account still registers as "open" or closed "at consumer request" is immaterial.

The information the creditors look for is if payments were made on time and the debt was fully repaid.


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## off.by.10 (Mar 16, 2014)

No. They grossly overcharge for a web front end to information they already have. For some perspective, I got 5 years free subscription from Desjardins spilling everyone's data into the wild two years ago.

It has proven mildly useful once as someone opened a credit card in my name and somehow had it mailed to a different city. But even then, it was of limited use as I had to do all the legwork of calling the card issuer to report the fraud. Challenging through the equifax system only resulted in a reply of "the information is accurate". Yeah, right. I would pay a few $ a month for prompt notification of new accounts being opened but definitely not $20. All the other information is fairly useless.

As you have Transunion through your bank, just check for accounts which shouldn't be there on a regular basis and that should be good enough.


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## GreatLaker (Mar 23, 2014)

ghrh1977 said:


> But I believe only for a limited time, no? I created a free account and it was good for only 30 days.





Money172375 said:


> No. Equifax offers free credit reports.


Equifax and TransUnion both offer free credit reports (aka consumer disclosure), but the free report does not include a credit score. How to access the free version is not easy to find on their websites because they want people to order the paid reports.

How do I get a free copy of my Equifax Canada credit report? | Equifax Canada 

Consumer Disclosure | Free Report Eligibility (transunion.ca)


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

GreatLaker said:


> Equifax and TransUnion both offer free credit reports (aka consumer disclosure), but the free report does not include a credit score. How to access the free version is not easy to find on their websites because they want people to order the paid reports.
> 
> How do I get a free copy of my Equifax Canada credit report? | Equifax Canada
> 
> Consumer Disclosure | Free Report Eligibility (transunion.ca)


I thought I'd open an account to check it out. Unless you mean something different about a credit score, the free report that I reviewed gave me a score out of 900.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

GreatLaker said:


> Equifax and TransUnion both offer free credit reports (aka consumer disclosure), but the free report does not include a credit score. How to access the free version is not easy to find on their websites because they want people to order the paid reports.
> 
> How do I get a free copy of my Equifax Canada credit report? | Equifax Canada
> 
> Consumer Disclosure | Free Report Eligibility (transunion.ca)


They gave me a score for free.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

As I understand it, the once a year free report includes a credit score. However, the real value of getting one's credit score once a month or so is to detect significant changes in value as I previously mentioned as a potential sign of stolen identity, fraud, etc. Otherwise, I see no value in the actual number itself at any singular point in time.


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## ykphil (Dec 13, 2009)

ghrh1977 said:


> Sorry an additional credit report question: on mine I am showing a few credit accounts listed as “Open” however these have been paid and closed for over 7 yrs. Should I be contacting Trans to advise them these are long gone and close them?


My TransUnion and Equifax credit reports also showed several credit card accounts dating back over ten years ago that still showed as opened. I contacted the financial institutions to make sure these accounts were indeed closed, which they confirmed, and I requested them to update my credit reports accordingly. It took about six weeks for these accounts to be listed as closed.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

AltaRed said:


> As I understand it, the once a year free report includes a credit score. However, the real value of getting one's credit score once a month or so is to detect significant changes in value as I previously mentioned as a potential sign of stolen identity, fraud, etc. Otherwise, I see no value in the actual number itself at any singular point in time.


My free reports don't include credit scores. But BNS just stared giving them for free, so I click and I guess it it was ever less than perfect I'd look into what changed.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

MrMatt said:


> My free reports don't include credit scores. But BNS just stared giving them for free, so I click and I guess it it was ever less than perfect I'd look into what changed.


Hmmmm! Must have changed in the past 5 years maybe? I must admit it has been ages since I requested a free credit report. Admittedly, I had access to Equifax service for a year I think after the Home Depot data exposure and I paid for one additional year after that to be sure. The monthly subscription service is certainly not needed when so many FIs are providing access to TransUnion and/or Equifax (some more info than others).


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

When I log in with the free account I get this:










At the top of the credit report that I can print out, I get this:










Or is there something else that I'm missing?


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

AltaRed said:


> Hmmmm! Must have changed in the past 5 years maybe? I must admit it has been ages since I requested a free credit report. Admittedly, I had access to Equifax service for a year I think after the Home Depot data exposure and I paid for one additional year after that to be sure. The monthly subscription service is certainly not needed when so many FIs are providing access to TransUnion and/or Equifax (some more info than others).


Sounds like you had the paid service, even if you got it for free.

I have been checking my report via free mail in (finally online due to COVID) for years. It's just a boring sheet with the raw data.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

MrMatt said:


> Sounds like you had the paid service, even if you got it for free.
> 
> I have been checking my report via free mail in (finally online due to COVID) for years. It's just a boring sheet with the raw data.


That was a separate thing years ago from the 'annual' report that is free to everyone. 

As you say though, the data report itself (as you have posted) is useless.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

AltaRed said:


> That was a separate thing years ago from the 'annual' report that is free to everyone.
> 
> As you say though, the data report itself (as you have posted) is useless.


Useless? It's literally all the factual information in your report. 
It's exactly the information you need to ensure your record is accurate.

The credit score is "useless" IMO.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

The only thing that really matters is to monitor change in score as I have mentioned at least a few times.


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## off.by.10 (Mar 16, 2014)

AltaRed said:


> The only thing that really matters is to monitor change in score as I have mentioned at least a few times.


Someone getting a cell phone in your name will not cause a large drop of your score. Yet it can cause a great deal of annoyance if you don't catch it.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

That is a fair point albeit I imagine one would have to be checking credit details regularly to catch any transgression on a timely basis.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

MrMatt said:


> The credit score is "useless" IMO.


Just for giggles I checked, and my score was down to 894!
Maybe it was letting my Visa climb up to 50% utilization or something.


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## Mechanic (Oct 29, 2013)

Curiosity got me. I had seen it available on my banking page. Does it fluctuate if there are no mortgages or loans? 851


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## Chrysaphius (Jun 16, 2021)

ghrh1977 said:


> I get access to Trans Union through my bank - while it’s not extremely detailed it does the job. I recently took advantage of the free monthly trial with Equifax and it appeared to be very detailed. It has since ended. Is it worth using their monthly membership of $20 to keep tabs on your credit?


My Equifax score is 33 points lower than my Trans Union score. What the heck is up with that??


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I had the detailed service for a full year, I was provided it free because there was a data breach at one of those big box store, and they provided it to every for the year while there was the breach. 

I found it did give a little more detail, I had my credit score, and inquires, and all the details of my accounts provided any time I wanted. However, I definitely wouldn't pay for the service. They even offered an extra year after it ended for $20 or $50 for the year, and I didn't take it.

The only thing I found interesting was I got my credit score, and could see it change. It never really changed by more than a few points. I don't really care about credit score because I don't really need credit. 

It would be helpful if you are trying to monitor if suspect that your identity has been compromised. If it hasn't, the free report should be good enough.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

^Post #27. I did the same thing although I did purchase one additional year of monitoring to be sure. It was that experience (and additional knowledge gained) that convinced me I didn't need the service.


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