The Best Credit Monitoring Services of 2026

Aura is the best credit monitoring service of 2026. It’s a robust identity theft protection service that includes credit monitoring and credit reports from all three major bureaus.

But we all have different financial goals, so we also recommend myFICO for monitoring your FICO® Scores, Credit Karma for its user-friendly app, and Experian for its extensive credit building and management tools.

Read on below for what we liked, what we didn’t, and what features may be the most important for your financial health. Plus, learn the difference between your FICO® Score and VantageScore and how they influence your creditworthiness. 

The best credit monitoring services of 2026

	Our Pick
Best for	Overall	FICO® Score monitoring	Ease of use	Money management
Star rating	4.8 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.4 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.4 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Starting price	Starts at $9.00/mo	Starts at $29.95/mo	Free	Starts at $24.99/mo
Free plan
Credit score	Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion	Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax	Yes — Experian
FICO® Score
Credit score update frequency	Daily	Daily	Daily	Monthly
Credit report	Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion	Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax	Yes — Experian (Upgrade to see TransUnion and Equifax)
Credit report update frequency	Annually	Monthly or quarterly	Daily for TransUnion, weekly for Equifax	Daily
Credit lock
Credit analysis
Credit building
Learn more	View Plans Read Aura Review	View Plans Read myFICO Review	View Plans Read Credit Karma Review	View Plans Read Experian Review

Aura: Best overall

Who it’s best for

Aura is one of the best services for identity theft protection, which includes credit monitoring. Parents will find the parental controls and child credit freeze features useful, but even if you don’t have children, you can benefit from the additional security features like real-time antivirus protection, a password manager, a basic virtual private network (VPN), and more.

What we liked

Identity theft protection services: We’ve been reviewing and retesting Aura for several years and have found it to be one of the best services for credit monitoring and identity theft protection. It provides a variety of alerts and keeps them in a central location that’s easy to read. Aura is thorough, and we like that.

Online protections for children: Aura is the only service on this list that gives parents tools to help keep their children safe. Online parental controls help monitor your child’s internet use, including a Safe Gaming feature, while the child credit lock helps protect your kids from identity theft. 

Child identity theft is more common than you’d think, and protecting your kids so they have a clean slate when they turn 18 is an important step.

What we didn’t like

Missing monitoring features: Aura is a robust service, so we were surprised it didn't share my FICO® Score. It’s an important number when applying for larger loans, so you’ll want to monitor it. 

We were also surprised that social media monitoring isn’t included with the child protection features.

Aura pros and cons

Read Our Aura Review

myFICO: Best for FICO® Score monitoring

Who it’s best for

myFICO is a worthwhile service for people who are looking to get a loan. Many lenders look at your FICO® Score, which most credit monitoring agencies don’t monitor. 

What we liked

FICO® Score reporting: All myFICO plans provide your Equifax FICO® Score. You'll receive alerts for any positive or negative changes, and you can keep track of these changes month-over-month in the myFICO dashboard. 

If you upgrade to a paid myFICO plan, you'll also receive FICO® Scores for Experian and TransUnion. If you’re working on improving your credit for a loan, apartment, or other service, knowing your FICO® Score will help you see what the potential lender sees.

Detailed credit analysis: myFICO also provides in-depth explanations of your credit score and the factors affecting it. You'll find the weights for each factor and personalized explanations detailing how your score is being impacted. 

What we didn’t like

Limited credit features: Although you can check your credit score and reports with myFICO, there are no tools to help improve your credit. For instance, you can connect your checking account to Credit Karma or Experian in order to build payment history and improve your credit. 

You also can't lock your credit with myFICO, so you'll need to set up a credit freeze directly with the bureau. 

myFICO pros and cons

Read Our myFICO Review

Credit Karma: Best for ease of use

Who it’s best for

Credit Karma is a free credit monitoring service with lots of features, such as light identity monitoring, access to a checking account, and plenty of offers for loans and credit cards. It also provides insights into your spending habits and can help you when it comes time to file taxes.

What we liked

Credit reporting: Credit Karma gave us access to our Equifax and TransUnion credit scores directly on the main dashboard. While having all three bureaus would be ideal, having two at our fingertips, especially from a free service, was a nice touch. 

In addition, we were given information that broke down the main components of our credit score. This helps you better understand what’s affecting your credit and what you can do to improve it.

Identity monitoring: Another impressive feature that Credit Karma provides is light identity monitoring. While an identity theft protection service will go in-depth with identity monitoring, Credit Karma can alert you to certain issues about your identity, accounts, and credit. 

What we didn’t like

Data collection: Credit Karma collects a lot of data, and, as stated in its privacy policy, it shares it with third parties. We don’t love that, but free services often do this, so we aren’t surprised. Credit Karma says it will never sell your information, but that doesn’t mean it won’t share it with its affiliates.

False claims: We also found that Credit Karma had deceptive marketing practices. The FTC found that Credit Karma told users they were pre-approved or had a good chance of being approved for credit, but when people applied for those credit cards and loans, they were denied. 

As a result, the FTC required Credit Karma to pay consumers $3 million after complaints about the company were registered.

Credit Karma pros and cons

Read Our Credit Karma Review

Experian: Best for money management

Who it’s best for

Experian can help you stay on top of your long-term financial goals. You can link your bank and credit cards to Experian to keep track of spending habits and you'll receive advice from Experian on how to save money. 

What we liked

Money management tools: Linking your financial accounts to your Experian account can help you better manage your spending. There’s a helpful dashboard that we liked that gives a breakdown of your finances coming in and going out. If you’re saving for a big purchase, monitoring your money can give you insight into how and where to make changes to reach your goals.

FICO® Score reporting: Experian provides a free overview of your FICO® Score based on your Experian credit report. (You can upgrade to access your FICO® Score from all three credit bureaus.) The overview includes your score, the “score ingredients” — or the factors that impact your score, a breakdown of the key factors with an explanation of how they are helping or hurting your score, and a debt summary.

What we didn’t like

Annoying marketing: Experian constantly prompts you to update to its premium plan, Experian IdentityWorks. It doesn’t make the service unusable, but it is annoying. 

No credit lock: We were also surprised that Experian didn’t offer a built-in credit lock feature. Even Aura includes the ability to enable Experian credit lock.

Experian pros and cons

Read Our Experian Review

Credit monitoring vs. identity theft protection

Credit monitoring is a service that looks at your credit history and activity and helps you track what is affecting your score. You may receive alerts that a new account has been opened or if a late payment has been reported to your credit. 

Most credit monitoring services also offer you credit card and loan offers. You may also find credit-building features to help you boost your score.

Identity theft protection monitors many credit, financial, and other personal accounts and services tied to your Social Security number (SSN). This includes credit activity but can also include your banking, savings, and retirement accounts. 

Different providers offer different features, but many include social media monitoring, home title monitoring, email checks for data leaks, and alerts about potential warrants or legal actions against your name — plus additional cybersecurity features and tools.

FICO® Score vs. VantageScore

VantageScore is the credit score reported by the three major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Your credit score reflects factors such as credit history length (including how long you’ve had credit and the types of credit in your history), credit utilization (the ratio of your available credit), payment history, hard and soft credit inquiries, collections amounts, and payment penalties. 

These factors influence your credit score, which banks, lenders, and even landlords use to determine if you are reliable and worthy of a loan, etc. There are a few different VantageScore models for lenders to use when determining your eligibility.

FICO® Score is also a credit model but differs from VantageScore regarding how the factors are weighted. This means your FICO® Score and VantageScore will differ. If you apply for a new line of credit, a mortgage, an auto loan, or a personal loan, it’s more likely that the lender will use your FICO® Score to determine eligibility and creditworthiness. In fact, 90% of lenders defer to an applicant’s FICO® Score.

There are also industry-specific FICO® Score models that depend on the loan type, though models typically consider your credit history length, how much you currently owe in total, your mix of credit (e.g., student loans, credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, etc.), payment history, and new credit lines (e.g., if several new accounts were open within a short period).

FAQs

Bottom line: The best credit monitoring services

Aura is our top recommendation for credit monitoring. On all plans, you'll receive credit scores and credit reports from all three bureaus. You'll also receive extensive identity theft protection, including identity monitoring, identity theft insurance, and restoration services. 

If you’re in the market for a loan, Experian and myFICO are two great options that share your FICO® Score. There's also Credit Karma, which can help you find new credit cards and loans.

If your goals differ from what these three services offer, you may want to consider the best identity theft protection services we’ve outlined below. We’ve tested them all and even use them ourselves.

3 best identity theft protection services of 2026