I used to be big fans of Credit Karma and TrueBill but both have sold out to companies I really dislike (essentially the Intuit family of companies). I really dislike Intuit lobbying the US government to keep taxes complicated as well as their mediocre software.
I tried Monarch but it didn’t really help me at all; it felt very incomplete. As for credit monitoring I know just about every bank offers gimmicky services but I’d like to avoid those if possible (don’t even get me started on personal banking).
Instead of credit monitoring, freeze your credit. It’s free to thaw it whenever you want. And you can look at a lot of details on the websites of the credit agencies including score. TransUnion offers the least before asking you to pay.
And many banks and credit card companies offer the same service for free.
I don’t necessarily want to freeze it though as it’s improving.
AFAIK freezing your credit doesn’t stop it from building up.
Oh I see, essentially you’re just locking access to it. I looked it up because I didn’t really know what I was talking about.
Freeze it, it’ll still build but keep anyone from using it. And then when you want to use it you thaw it for however long and it’ll freeze right after.
My credit card company provides my TransUnion score. I can request of the others directly for free per the normal rules.
Have you looked into Rocket Money?
I was a TrueBill user before it was bought out and rebranded Rocket Money; that’s exactly why I stopped using it.
Ah gotcha, I didn’t realize that. Can I ask why you dislike Rocket? I didn’t think they were anywhere near as bad as Intuit
I wish I could remember what I read up on them. I have a habit of learning tons of information about a company, labeling it “bad/good” then forgetting why.
Generally speaking I ditch companies as soon as they’re bought out because the quality goes downhill shortly after. It’s always the same thing: Simple sold out to BBVA and was discontinued, ONE Finance sold out to Walmart and now it’s clunky/gimmicky as ever, TrueBill sold out to Rocket and it went downhill.
Honestly there is so much with banking I want to automate and I’m dying to develop a fintech app simply to act as a money manager but I’m just some guy without banking certifications or millions to throw at life’s problems.