Reminder: 9 Months of Free Credit Scores + Monitoring


One of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, lost a $75 million class-action lawsuit a while back, and the settlement involves offering up to 9 months of free credit monitoring service to anyone who has ever held a credit card or loan over the last 20 years (i.e. lots of people).

This includes unlimited daily access to your TransUnion credit report and credit score, as well as e-mail alerts when something changes. This is a good way to know when someone is pulling your credit report. There is also a “potential cash payment” option, but it doesn’t seem very tempting to me given the number of eligible claimants (small pie, millions of slices). Still, you can opt for 6 months of monitoring + possible cash.

Register at the official settlement website. The deadline is coming up on September 24th, 2008. You don’t need to supply your full Social Security number (needs last 4 digits) or a credit card number, and you won’t be automatically signed up for any paid subscriptions after the free period.

More details in this Washington Post article. (Original post)

Find more in Credit Cards | 9/11/08, 4:20am | Trackback

Comments

  1. Jeff Davis Says:

    Hey thanks!

    I signed up for a credit monitoring a while back but got zapped with an unexpected $99 fee (the small print was hidden in between a bunch of ads).

    I don’t think that was really TransUnions fault, but I would like to get what I paid for.

  2. Yinna Says:

    Thanks, I had planned on registering but lost the Newsweek ad.

  3. Tina Says:

    Thanks for the reminder, I just signed up.

  4. Jansy Says:

    Good to know, this is great.

    An unrelated question, has anyone use mint.com service? is it reliable?

  5. SavingEverything Says:

    How long will it take for them to offer the services to you for free? In other words, when will you be allowed to take advantage of this offer settlement? Earlier this year there was another class action suit that you had to sign up for, in regards to the currency conversion fee antitrust litigation (MDL1409) with Visa- and MasterCard-branded cards during a time period mentioned at “ccfsettlement”. No word yet on the plan A to get $25. Are these settlements bogus; or, how long does it take after the sign-up deadlines to get the settlement check or offer?!?

  6. MikeinCali Says:

    You’re awesome. Thanks for the reminder.

  7. Chris Says:

    I’ve used Mint. Well, I’ve signed up months ago, and pretty much stopped using it.

    I ran into a problem where a lot of my credit card purchases were being reported twice to Mint. So you’d see the same charge as 2 separate line items, making the service horribly unusable.

    I know other people had similar problems on their forums, but no solution, besides manually deleting each offending double… manually.

    They might have fixed it since (this was a month ago I checked last).

    I honestly hope they do, as it was a cool service.

    Also, thanks for this original post regarding the TU site, I signed up for it today.

  8. Patty Says:

    I registerd a few weeks ago. Haven’t received any followup info. Do they send an email or anything acknowledging your signup?

  9. rr Says:

    I had the same issues with mint.com, double reporting..it yelled at me for such an abnormally high spending….wasnt the case with yodlee….diff. between mint.com and yodlee regarding security is that mint does 256k but yodlee doesnt..go figure…

  10. InspectorFox Says:

    MInt has improved significantly over time. I have been using them for over a year for all my checking, saving, 401K and investment accounts. I have faced no problems yet.

  11. Settlement results in FREE credit monitoring service for (almost) all Says:

    [...] [Reminder: 9 Months of Free Credit Scores + Monitoring @mymoneyblog.com] Tags: Bored Money, class action settlement, credit bureau, Credit [...]

  12. IVSPORT Says:

    Thanks for the tip. Just signed up for the nine months of service. Does anyone have an idea of what the timeframe is before we can actually start utilizing the service?

  13. Simon Says:

    I gave both Yodlee and Mint a try last year, and basically came to the conclusion that Yodlee is way better. Their interface isn’t as snazzy, they don’t have all of the charts (although they still have plenty), but their transaction reporting is a lot better than Mint.

  14. Polly Poorhouse Says:

    Sounds like a good deal. I’m almost afraid to look, but I suppose holding my hands over my ears and going “la la la la” isn’t really helping my financial situation!

  15. Happy Friday! *9.19.08* Says:

    [...] my favorite! Speaking of Free Credit Reports, one of my favorite blogs, MyMoneyBlog.com, had a nice write up about getting free credit reports and scores for nine months. Basically, anyone with a credit card [...]

  16. SanDance Says:

    I got my email this morning with my settlement Registration Number. The text of the email is as follows:

    From: “TransUnion Settlement”

    Dear Class Member:

    As part of the terms of your Class Action Settlement with TransUnion, you’ve received a six month subscription to TransUnion Credit Monitoring, fulfilled by TrueCredit. Register now and start enjoying the benefits of credit monitoring right away! You’ll get:

    The ability to lock your credit report so third parties, such as lenders or other companies, will not be able to access your credit report without your consent (unless allowed by law);
    Unlimited daily access to your Trans Union credit report and credit score; and
    Credit monitoring with email notification of critical changes to your credit report.

    Ready to get started?

    Your registration number is . Be sure to enroll soon as your registration number is only available for a limited time. Please note that our records indicate that you also registered for the potential cash benefit. A final determination as to whether there will be a distribution of the cash benefits and, if any, the amount of any distribution, will not occur before September 2010 and could occur as late as October 2011. You may visit the website http://www.ListClassAction.com for updates regarding this potential benefit.

  17. Troy Brown Says:

    I also just got that email and just signed up though I was hesitant and questioned whether it was legit. Thanks to Jonathan for confirming that it was real.

    I got one of the security questions wrong (it asked how much the credit limit was for a credit card account opened 3 years ago!) so now I have to wait til they snail mail me a tracking code.

    Looking forward to finally seeing what my credit score is once it’s all processed.

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