We are an independent publisher. Our reporters create honest, accurate, and objective content to help you make decisions. To support our work, we are paid for providing advertising services. Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Next” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. The compensation we receive and other factors, such as your location, may impact what ads and links appear on our site, and how, where, and in what order ads and links appear. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, our site does not include information about every product or service that may be available to you. We strive to keep our information accurate and up-to-date, but some information may not be current. So, your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms on this site. And the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.

This page may include: credit card ads that we may be paid for (“advertiser listing”); and general information about credit card products (“editorial content”). Many, but not all, of the offers and clickable hyperlinks (such as a “Apply Now” button or “Learn More” button) that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. When you click on that hyperlink or button, you may be directed to the credit card issuer’s website where you can review the terms and conditions for your selected offer. Each advertiser is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its ad offer details, but we attempt to verify those offer details. We have partnerships with advertisers such as Brex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Discover. We also include editorial content to educate consumers about financial products and services. Some of that content may also contain ads, including links to advertisers’ sites, and we may be paid on those ads or links.

For more information, please see How we make money.

Reader Request: Credit Score Monitoring Service Recommendations

  • Million Mile Secrets

    • Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

    Credit Sesame Score

     

    The best part about writing the blog is reading the comments and email from readers!  Aaron writes in about how he is getting to live his dream by covering the English Premier League soccer (football) games.  Congrats, Aaron, for having Big Travel with Small Money!

    Aaron wants to know: which credit score monitoring service to sign-up for?

    Hi Daraius,

     First, I wanted to share a bit of a success story with you, since I know you put a lot of work into making travel possible for your readers. 

     As a hobby, I do some sports writing in addition to my regular job.  The sports journalism world is not lucrative in any sense, but getting published is such a thrill to me (not unlike collecting miles!) that I find the time to do it regardless.  My ambition has been to cover English Premier League soccer games.  But, living in DC, this is obviously cost-prohibitive.  But, after doing the US Mint coin redemption system for about two years, some credit card sign up bonuses, and other programs, I’m going to England in April to four soccer games, and a popular sports website has agreed to provide press passes for me and publish my work. I’m confident the only reason I have this opportunity is because I was able to say “I can pay for all my travel and accommodations.” (Of course, the word “pay” isn’t accurate!) 

    Thank you for all your hard work with the blog and making an experience like this possible for me.  I’ll be among the luckiest of people who get to live their dream for a few short days. 

     With that, I have just one short question for you: now that I’m doing more credit card applications, I need to keep a closer eye on my credit score.  What do you use to monitor your credit score?  I’m more than willing to pay for a service, given the benefit I extract from the credit cards, it seems like a worthy investment.  Any recommendations you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

    I’ve always used Credit Karma or Credit Sesame, which provide proxies or substitutes of my TransUnion and Experion credit score because they are free. But I’ve been thinking of signing up for a credit score monitoring service too.  That’s because I get thousands of dollars worth of miles and points from credit card sign-up bonuses and want a more accurate credit score than what Credit Karma and Credit Sesame provide.

    I used to use Citi Identity Monitor for $1 a month for the 1st 30 days and then cancel the service, but I haven’t researched any other credit monitoring services.

    Which credit monitoring services do you use and which ones should Aaron and I use? Please let us know in the comments!

    Or like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

     
    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)