All About Cookies is an independent, advertising-supported website. Some of the offers that appear on this site are from third-party advertisers from which All About Cookies receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear).
All About Cookies does not include all financial or credit offers that might be available to consumers nor do we include all companies or all available products. Information is accurate as of the publishing date and has not been provided or endorsed by the advertiser.
The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
- All About Cookies makes money when you click the links on our site to some of the products and offers that we mention. These partnerships do not influence our opinions or recommendations. Read more about how we make money.
- Partners are not able to review or request changes to our content except for compliance reasons.
- We aim to make sure everything on our site is up-to-date and accurate as of the publishing date, but we cannot guarantee we haven't missed something. It's your responsibility to double-check all information before making any decision. If you spot something that looks wrong, please let us know.
Experian is a superior free credit monitoring service because it provides your FICO® Score. Along with daily updates to your Experian score, you'll also get tools to help build your credit, tips on how to improve your score, and an analysis of your current credit standing.
However, Experian's free service includes pushy prompts to upgrade to its paid subscription, open new credit cards, or take out a loan. You'll have to weigh your tolerance of these prompts against the importance of checking your credit score.
Read on to learn about our experience testing Experian's free credit monitoring service.
- Well-organized dashboard
- Helpful credit-building insights
- Access to FICO® Score
- Constant prompting to upgrade or apply for a new line of credit
- Appears to only use SSL encryption
Our experience
Experian prices and subscriptions
Experian features
Is Experian safe to use?
Experian customer support
Top alternatives
FAQs
Bottom line: Is Experian good?
At a glance
Price | $4.99-$24.99/mo |
Free plan | Yes |
Financial account monitoring | Yes |
FICO® Score | Yes |
Credit score | Yes — Experian |
Credit score update frequency | Daily |
Credit report | Yes — Experian |
Credit report update frequency | Not specified |
Credit lock | No |
Credit analysis | Yes |
Credit building | Yes |
Extras | Free dark web scan, checking account, score simulator, score planner, and more |
Learn more | Get Experian |
How we test and rate credit monitoring services
To review credit monitoring services, we sign up for the service several days prior to our review. This allows the service time to begin populating our dashboard with credit monitoring information and send us real-time alerts. During this time, we also evaluate the service's ease of use, contact customer support, and play around with the extra features.
After spending some time with the service, we use our proprietary grading rubric which calculates a star rating based on cost, credit monitoring features, and other criteria.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full testing methodology here.
We last tested Experian on July 22, 2025.
Our experience
Experian gave us a lot with our free credit monitoring service, but we were a little annoyed by the push to sign up for credit cards and loans.
We appreciated the tools that helped us understand our credit better. Even though there weren’t a ton of action items from the credit evaluation, Experian did give us better insights to make smarter money decisions.
Signing up for Experian was similar to signing up for many other credit monitoring services. We had to input our Social Security number (SSN) and provide basic information.
The Experian dashboard displayed our credit score and some offers for raising our score and getting a better rate on car insurance.
We were able to explore a few other areas. The Money section monitored our accounts and gave us practical advice, while the Protection section mostly wanted us to upgrade to the identity theft protection service.
We also had the opportunity to peruse credit cards, loans, auto, and insurance. Each category’s main focus was to sell us something, which is likely how Experian makes revenue since credit monitoring is free, but it felt a little predatory.
This push to apply for additional lines of credit or to upgrade to the paid identity theft protection service popped up repeatedly during most of our actions on the site. When we logged back in, we were immediately met with a screen prompting us to upgrade. Another login yielded a bevy of credit card offers.
Overall, the service is an easy way to keep an eye on your daily credit fluctuations and spending, but the pushiness to sign up for new accounts and services was off-putting.
We liked the credit analysis tools but wished there was a way to freeze our credit with the service. Experian is worth using, but we suggest ignoring all the upsells.
Experian prices and subscriptions
Experian credit monitoring is a free service with some useful features. There are upgrade options if you want to add identity theft protection services.
We’ve extensively tested Experian IdentityWorks services if you want to learn more about the paid product.
Experian features
This free service offers plenty of features to monitor and improve your credit. They include:
- Experian reporting and alerts
- Credit monitoring
- Credit analysis
- Credit building tools
FICO® Score
- Money management
- And more
Credit monitoring
The credit monitoring feature was ready as soon as we logged in to our dashboard. The top displays our Experian credit score, recent changes, as well as our Equifax and TransUnion scores.
Credit reports and scores
We could check our free credit reports from all three bureaus, but only if we upgraded to IdentityWorks. While it didn’t tell us how frequently we could see our Equifax and TransUnion reports, our Experian report was updated daily.
In fact, Experian Alerts notifies you about real-time changes to your credit report, so you’re always in the know.
Credit analysis
Experian offers line items on what’s affecting your credit and a breakdown of your debit, utilization, and other factors. Since each credit item is listed separately, it was easy for us to check for anything we may want to dispute.
Credit builder
Experian Boost aims to help raise your credit score by counting things you do every day, like paying your bills, rent, and other accounts.
Experian does mention that not all creditors will check this FICO® Score, nor will they always pull your Experian report. There could be a discrepancy between what you see on your credit report and what a potential creditor may see.
Money management tools
By linking our bank and credit cards, Experian could track our spending habits and make suggestions on how to save some money.
It’s also a central dashboard for us to see charges, so we can dispute anything fraudulent that may pop up.
Bonus features
There aren’t a ton of bonus features with this service, outside of applying for new lines of credit or doing a privacy scan. The privacy scan is aimed at getting you to sign up for the identity theft protection service.
Is Experian safe to use?
Unlike Credit Karma, Experian didn't advertise which encryption method it uses. After doing some research, we found that Experian uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption. We consider AES-256 to be the gold standard of encryption, considering SSL is easier to crack.
Experian at least offers two-factor authentication (2FA) during login by sending you a code via text or phone call. You’ll then need to input that code when you log in.
As far as its privacy policy, Experian collects lots of information including:
- Contact and identity information
- Information provided for identity verification and/or to use features in products and services
- Payment information
- Application, user registration, third-party account login credentials, and other information from applying for insurance products/services
- Information provided during customer support communication
- Device information
This is a lot of information, though we're not shocked because Experian is providing a free service. Beyond providing you with its services, Experian also uses your data for marketing purposes, which is also to be expected from a free service.
If you want to opt out, Experian outlines how to opt out of promotional emails, push alerts, and texts.
Experian customer support
Support type | Experian |
Email or live chat | |
Phone | |
Online guides or forums |
We spent a decent amount of time clicking through the Contact Us prompt in the help center, only to be met with online guides. There are numbers available, but they’re more geared toward specifics like your Experian membership. For the most part, you’re on your own.
Top alternatives
If you need more robust identity theft protection than Experian offers, consider one of our other tested recommendations below. Staying on top of your credit means getting the best interest rates and deals when you need your credit score to work for you.
Service | ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Star rating | |||
Price | Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $7.49/mo for first yr (billed annually) | Starts at $7.00/mo (billed annually) |
# of people covered | 1 - 5 adults, unlimited children | 1 - 2 adults, up 5 children | 1 adult |
Credit monitoring | * Alerts from all three bureaus * Monthly VantageScore update * Yearly credit report from all three bureaus |
* Alerts from all three bureaus * Monthly score update from all three bureaus * Daily credit report from all three bureaus |
* Alerts from all three bureaus * Monthly VantageScore update * Monthly VantageScore report update |
Types of identity monitoring | Identity and SSN, account breach, home and auto title, criminal and court records | Identity and SSN, dark web, phone takeover, home title, social media | SSN, identity, dark web |
ID theft insurance | Up to $1 million | Up to $3 million | Up to $2 million |
Details | Get Aura Read our Aura review |
Get LifeLock Read our LifeLock review |
Get OmniWatch Read our OmniWatch review |
FAQs
Is Experian credit monitoring really free?
Yes, Experian's credit monitoring service is free. If you’re prompted to upgrade, it’s because Experian is trying to upsell you.
You never have to upgrade to use Experian’s credit monitoring service. The free service includes real-time alerts about changes to your Experian report and access to your Experian FICO® Score.
You can also see all the factors helping and hurting your FICO® Score, along with tips to improve your creditworthiness.
Is Experian a good credit monitor?
Yes, it’s less spammy than competitors like Credit Karma and provides useful insights into your credit.
Is it worth paying for Experian?
IdentityWorks, Experian’s identity theft protection service, may be worth paying for if you want to improve your identity security.
However, if you only want to monitor your credit, staying with the free service is better. You can get more protection from a comprehensive identity theft prevention service.
Is it safe to get a free credit report from Experian?
Yes, you’re entitled to a yearly free credit report from each of the three major reporting bureaus, including Experian.
Bottom line: Is Experian good?
Despite the constant prompts to upgrade or apply for new credit, Experian credit monitoring provides useful tools and information. This is a good service if you’re serious about monitoring your credit and want helpful tips on improving it. The best credit monitoring services always offer base features for free.
Upgrading to identity theft protection is a choice, but keeping an eye on your credit should be something you do regularly. Experian makes this easy. To see how two free credit monitoring services compare to each other, read our Experian vs. Credit Karma comparison.
/images/2023/10/11/best-data-removal-service.png)
/images/2023/12/05/aura-vs.-lifelock.png)
/images/2025/05/08/a_closeup_of_a_person_checking_their_credit_on_a_mobile_app.jpg)
/images/2025/03/09/aura_credit_monitoring_review.jpg)
/images/2025/02/24/vantagescore_vs._fico_score.jpg)
/images/2025/01/30/best_free_credit_monitoring_services.jpg)
/images/2025/01/29/myfico_vs._credit_karma_1.jpg)
/images/2025/01/11/experian_vs._credit_karma.jpg)