TransUnion Review 2024: Is It Worth Paying for Credit Monitoring? [Tested]

TransUnion’s credit monitoring is a paid service that promises to help you watch, track, and improve your credit score while also offering some identity theft protection. This was the most frustrating experience we’ve ever had testing credit or identity software.

Not only were we locked out of our account five times, but the number we were given to call customer service kept routing us to the main automated menu each time we tried to reach them. The dashboard and features themselves worked, but we were locked out again after several hours of using the service.

Below, we detail our full experience, along with the aspects of TransUnion we did like and our recommendations for premium credit monitoring services.

TransUnion review at a glance

Price	$29.95/mo
Free plan	No
Financial account monitoring	No
Credit score	Yes – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion
Credit score update frequency	Daily
Credit report	Yes – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion
Credit report update frequency	Unspecified
Credit lock	Yes – TransUnion
Credit analysis	Yes
Credit building	No
Extras	Debt analysis, debt calculators, collection resolution, password manager
Learn more	Get TransUnion

We last tested TransUnion on December 6th, 2024.

Our experience

The level of frustration we felt while using TransUnion credit monitoring would have made anyone else give up after the second try. But to make sure we could bring you the most accurate account of this service, we kept trying until we got all the information; we ultimately canceled and requested a refund.

Setup for TransUnion was difficult. We were asked to fill out several pages of information before being directed to the payment page. The submission buttons rarely worked the first time, and we had to press them multiple times to get the pages to submit. We used both the Safari and Chrome browsers and had the same problems each time.

Immediately after trying to purchase TransUnion, our credit card flagged the transaction as fraud. Even though we approved the purchase, TransUnion suspended our account and suggested we call customer service.

The first time, we waited on hold for over 30 minutes before a support agent answered. It was very difficult to understand her because the connection was terrible. Eventually, she understood our problem and said she’d have to transfer us. The next support agent manually confirmed our identity and said our account was unlocked.

We tried logging in and immediately received the same account suspension message. We called the number of the department we were supposed to have connected with the first time and had to be transferred four times until the case was escalated to a manager. The manager had to cancel our entire account. She told us to sign up using a different email and then canceled the pending charge on our account.

We tried signing up again and received the same suspension notice. When we called back, the next support agent finally let us into our account by manually taking payment over the phone.

Once we could finally look around the dashboard, we saw it was pretty extensive and offered some valuable credit and debt management tools. The debt analysis tool broke down our accounts and even offered to help us budget.

The credit calculator gave us helpful but generic steps to improve our credit in 6, 12, 18, or 24 months, depending on our goals. The credit card calculator allowed us to enter different amounts of debt, interest, and monthly payments to see how long it would take us to pay off our debt and how much additional interest we’d pay.

Since the service automatically logs you out after a period of inactivity, we tried logging in again in the midafternoon. We once again received the account suspension notification. After another hour on hold and being transferred between departments, we eventually gave up and requested our account be canceled and our credit card refunded.

TransUnion was a frustrating experience because of the obvious constant account suspensions. The portal tools are helpful as long as you can log in and access them, which we couldn’t do most of the time.

Ultimately, we wouldn’t use this paid service or recommend it to anyone. There are free credit monitoring services that offer similar features without the hassle.

TransUnion prices and subscriptions

TransUnion credit monitoring costs a flat rate of $29.95/mo. We feel this is way too high for the services you receive and the hassle that comes with it, especially when competitors like Experian are free.

TransUnion’s price is likely due to its identity theft protection features, such as dark web scanning and identity theft insurance. Other credit monitoring services are free, while other identity theft protection services cost less monthly.

We’ve tested all the biggest names in credit monitoring and identity theft protection and think most competitors offer better services. TransUnion doesn’t work well enough or offer enough extras to justify its price.

TransUnion features

TransUnion does have a few more features than some competitors but ultimately offers the same features as other less expensive or free competitors. These features include:

• Credit monitoring
• Credit reports
• Credit analysis
• Money management
• And more

Credit monitoring

Standard credit monitoring services are prominently displayed on the dashboard, but one of the best features is the CreditCompass. It lets you choose the credit score you want and the time frame you want to achieve it, giving you action items to get there.

Credit reports and scores

You’re legally guaranteed a free credit report annually, so we weren’t sure why TransUnion was trying to charge us for it. Please don’t pay for this. Just get your yearly free credit report instead.

Credit analysis

We were able to manually enter our financial account information so TransUnion could monitor our spending and give us insights into our debt and credit analysis.

 

Credit builder

While TransUnion has a designated service offering credit building, the company was quick to match us with loans, credit card offers, and other new lines of credit from its extensive network of partners.

Money management tools

The money management tools in our dashboard were focused on the debt-to-income ratio and explaining how debt affected our credit score. We didn’t find these to be particularly useful or comprehensive and found that they required a lot of manual setup.

 

Bonus features

One feature we did like was the ability to challenge items on our credit report. This was actually a useful feature that gave us specific advice and tools for challenging suspicious or inaccurate items on our report.

Is TransUnion safe to use?

While the privacy policy does not raise glaring red flags, we started to feel uncomfortable with the amount of information we had to give to customer support repeatedly. You really shouldn’t have to tell people your full social security number (SSN) over and over in the same call.

On paper, TransUnion seems safe. However, we didn’t like having to repeat our sensitive information to multiple people.

TransUnion customer support

Support type	TransUnion
Email or live chat	Yes – live chat
Phone	Yes – (855) 681-3196
Online guides or forums

The live chat was faster than some of the other live chat experiences we’ve had, but they weren’t able to help us with our suspended account. The phone support was lengthy, frustrating, and full of people with poor phone connections. Over the course of five phone calls, we were transferred to no less than eight people who all repeatedly asked us to confirm sensitive information like our SSN.

This was the biggest reason we wouldn’t continue with TransUnion as a credit monitoring service.

Top alternatives

There are much better identity theft services available that include free credit monitoring. We suggest using one of these as they offer better value for the price, are user-friendly, and are undoubtedly reputable. We've tested many services, and these offer top-notch credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.

FAQs

Bottom line: Is TransUnion good?

No, TransUnion is not a good service to use. Not only does it charge you for its credit monitoring services when competitors offer theirs for free, but it’s also glitchy and requires way too much interaction with customer support. Anyone concerned with monitoring their credit has better options.

We were endlessly frustrated with TransUnion repeatedly locking us out of our account and forcing us to call customer service to unlock it. The amount of information you have to give each TransUnion support member made us uncomfortable, and the features found in the service are available for free from some competitors. This is definitely a service to avoid.

Monitoring your credit is an essential part of good financial health. The best credit monitoring services help you do this for free. You should be comfortable with a service that stores this much of your personal information, and TransUnion is not a service that has our trust.