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
September 11th, 2008 at 6:22 am
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.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thanks, I had planned on registering but lost the Newsweek ad.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Thanks for the reminder, I just signed up.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Good to know, this is great.
An unrelated question, has anyone use mint.com service? is it reliable?
September 11th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
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?!?
September 11th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
You’re awesome. Thanks for the reminder.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
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.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I registerd a few weeks ago. Haven’t received any followup info. Do they send an email or anything acknowledging your signup?
September 12th, 2008 at 7:32 am
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…
September 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
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.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
[...] [Reminder: 9 Months of Free Credit Scores + Monitoring @mymoneyblog.com] Tags: Bored Money, class action settlement, credit bureau, Credit [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
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.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
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!
September 18th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
[...] 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 [...]
January 5th, 2010 at 7:36 am
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.
January 26th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
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.