Overview: Credit Sesame Reviews Is Credit Sesame a Scam? Is it Legit and Accurate?
Most brilliant financial minds agree that it’s vital to know your credit score. That way, you can be sure to improve it. There are plenty of companies offering to inform you of your credit score. Credit Sesame, including its Credit Sesame app, is one of those companies.
What do Credit Sesame reviews say about the legitimacy of this business? We’re going to help you take a look by highlighting the creditsesame.com reviews online and offering a full Credit Sesame review of our own.
By the end of this article, you will know the answer to the question, “Is Credit Sesame legit?” and if it is the right choice for you.
What Exactly Is a Credit Score?
Before we dive into a creditsesame.com review, it is important to make sure you fully understand what a credit score is.
Your credit score is a number typically ranging from 300 to 850. This number allows lenders and credit card companies to know your background. If you’ve made poor financial choices in the past, they may not want to give you that mortgage loan, or they might offer it at a high rate.
Image Source: Credit Sesame
Factors used in creating a credit score could include:
- Your payment history
- How much time you’ve been earning credit
- The amounts you still owe
- What types of credit you have used
You are considered to have good credit as long as your score is over 690. The worst credit scores are anywhere between 300 and 629.
See Also: Is Credit Karma Safe to Use? News Report – What You Should Know
Credit Sesame Review: How It Works
The main focus of Credit Sesame is credit score monitoring. When you sign up for an account, you are enrolled in its free membership service that gives you monthly reports of your credit number.
Credit Sesame will then keep you updated on any offers it feels may benefit your credit score or particular financial goals. Credit Sesame will suggest anything from credit cards to refinancing options to meet your financial needs.
You can receive free Credit Sesame identity theft protection up to $50,000 as well as fraud resolution assistance.
You can take advantage of all these services online through your personal computer or on the Credit Sesame app.
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The Credit Sesame App
Available for both Apple and Android devices, the Credit Sesame app is free. Once you download the app, you can see your credit score report directly from your device. All the updates or notifications that Credit Sesame sends you regarding new offers will ping on your device as well.
Beyond checking your credit score monthly, you can also get added features. See if you qualify for a loan directly with the Credit Sesame app. Home Buying Power is a feature of the app that allows you to see how much you can actually afford.
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Does Credit Sesame Hurt My Credit Score?
A common fear is that any monthly credit report monitoring will hurt or even damage your credit. However, getting these monthly credit score reports from Credit Sesame or any other service will not hurt your credit, according to Experian.
The Four Big Questions
Anytime you are using an online company to help you with your finances, it is important to ask four specific questions:
- Is Credit Sesame legit?
- Is Credit Sesame safe?
- Is Credit Sesame accurate?
- Is Credit Sesame free?
Since this is a matter regarding your finances and identity, you need to feel entirely comfortable using a service like Credit Sesame before starting. You want to ensure there is no Credit Sesame scam affecting your money. After providing all the answers to your questions, we will take a peek at what the online Credit Sesame reviews say as well.
Is Credit Sesame Legit?
Credit Sesame has been around for over 5 years and is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). On its website, the BBB gives a Credit Sesame review and a grade of B.
BBB clearly states that the reason Credit Sesame has not received an A grade is the fact that BBB has received over 50 complaints about Credit Sesame. Those complaints are broken down. The top Credit Sesame review complaints have to do with “Problems with Product/Service” at 28 complaints and “Advertising/Sales Issues” with 11 complaints.
There are four customer creditsesame.com reviews on BBB: two are negative, one is neutral, and one is positive. One negative Credit Sesame review suggests, “I used this service, CreditKarma (free) and MyFICO and Credit Sesame was routinely the last one to get information and even though I paid for Premium service.”
So is Credit Sesame Legit? In simple terms, yes. It is an actual business, but are the services it’s providing legit? The jury is still out on that matter.
Related: Is Credit Karma Legit? Is It a Scam? What You Should Know About Credit Karma
Is Credit Sesame Safe?
Credit Sesame promises to not sell or share your information as part of its privacy policy, but it does use your Social Security number when you create your account. So, is Credit Sesame safe despite using your Social Security number online? Maybe.
Its website is Norton Secured. When you go to the Norton website, it confirms Credit Sesame is secured with encrypted data transmission. It has also been identity verified with a malware scan and vulnerability assessment. In addition, Credit Sesame is certified as McAfee SECURE, which we verified for this Credit Sesame review.
Image Source: Credit Sesame
At the time of this Credit Sesame review, Credit Sesame was using the “eTrust Privacy Cert” banner on its website. However, when you go to eTrust’s website, it clearly states that Credit Sesame is not certified and is using the seal without permission.
Since both Norton and McAfee have confirmed Credit Sesame’s security, it is likely that Credit Sesame is safe. However, it should be noted that the eTrust issue could be a potential Credit Sesame scam problem.
Is Credit Sesame Accurate?
Whenever you’re ready to purchase something and need a loan, the lenders will look at your FICO score, the main credit score method. The monthly update that Credit Sesame offers you is not an actual FICO score.
Often, companies like Credit Sesame, who offer credit score information, are jokingly referred to as “FAKO scores.” However, just because Credit Sesame is not giving you the exact FICO number your lenders will be using does not necessarily mean it is fully inaccurate.
When reading creditsesame.com reviews online, you will see that many people have had some discrepancies between their real FICO score and the Credit Sesame score. One Credit Sesame review on Savorocity showed that Credit Sesame gave an individual a score of 784, yet trusted Experian showed him a FICO score of 744. This 40-point difference is important because it places him in two different credit score categories depending on which score is used.
So, is Credit Sesame accurate? Not entirely. While it shouldn’t be off by the hundreds, its errors could confuse which credit score bracket you fall under.
Is Credit Sesame Free?
Credit Sesame offers an entirely free membership. However, like most companies, you only get a few perks with the free membership. One monthly credit score update and credit monitoring with alerts are free on Credit Sesame.
Credit Sesame also offers three tiered pay programs.
- Advanced Credit: $7.95 a month, billed annually
- Pro Credit: $12.95 a month, billed annually
- Platinum Protection: $15.95 a month, billed annually
Other benefits from these paid programs can include additional services, like three monthly full credit reports, 24/7 live experts or public records monitoring.
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If Credit Sesame Is Free, How Does It Profit?
Credit Sesame is not making all of its money off the low premium packages. Since the Credit Sesame app and basic service are both free, Credit Sesame has found a different way to profit.
This is where a conflict of interest pops up.
When Credit Sesame suggests one of these loans, credit cards or financing options to better help your score or financial goals, it gets a benefit. When you purchase what it offers, Credit Sesame receives commission.
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What Do the Online Credit Sesame Reviews Say?
Online Credit Sesame reviews are fairly similar in content. Here is an overview of what you will see online:
Image Source: Credit Sesame Reviews
- CNN Money: Back in 2011, CNN offered a Credit Sesame review and called it one of the “6 new tools to help you get out of debt.” Its favorite aspect was the free membership while the least favorite aspect was that “only creditors willing to pay Credit Sesame show up on the site.”
- TODAY Money: The NBC News correspondent for this Credit Sesame review tried both Credit Karma and Credit Sesame and preferred the former. His reason? Credit Karma did not require an entire Social Security number.
- Doctor of Credit: This Credit Sesame review concludes there is not much point to opening up a Credit Sesame account. In addition, the review warns, “The additional features Sesame offers are designed to drive more revenue and profit for them, rather than actually helping consumers.”
- Finance Gourmet: This Credit Sesame review offers Credit Sesame 3 out of 5 stars. It suggests that since you do not have to put in a credit card number to create the account, the safety of Credit Sesame goes up.
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What Reviewers Say About the Credit Sesame App
Since the Credit Sesame app plays such a big part in the company, no Credit Sesame review would be complete without seeing how people respond to the app.
- iTunes: Those downloading the Credit Sesame app for Apple products have mostly positive things to say. The current version of the app (2.9.2) gets 4.5 out of 5 starts with 31 ratings. All the versions combined receive 4 or 5 stars with 2963 ratings.
- Android: Those downloading the Credit Sesame App on Google Play have rated it similarly to the Apple users, at 4 out of 5 stars with 12,169 reviewers.
One negative Credit Sesame app review complained, “Scores are not accurate and when the app actually works, for some reason the app knows when you login and shortly after that, you receive tons of useless emails. Please don’t download, this is full of crap.”
On the other hand, a positive Credit Sesame app review stated, “You have to have the cash to pay down some credit cards or the ability to get more credit, but I followed their directions and my score is 100 points higher in just two months. Plus it’s free if you just monitor the one credit reporting agency.”
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Should You Be Using Credit Sesame?
You’ve probably asked yourself, “Is Credit Sesame a scam?” If you are using a free Credit Sesame monthly report as a method of primarily monitoring your credit, you might consider downloading the app – it could be a helpful guide. However, if you are hoping for entirely accurate scoring, skip it.
With the issues we have addressed on this creditsesame.com review, it may be best to also skip the paid premium services and ignore all of Credit Sesame’s “suggestions” for credit cards or loans that will only put you further in debt.
No matter what any Credit Sesame reviews say, the most important thing to remember here is that you are already legally entitled to receive a free credit report from each of the major bureaus each and every year: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.
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