My wife and I put ourselves on a budget two months ago.  It’s been amazing to see where all of our money is actually going.  It turns out that we were paying $7.95 per month for a service from Equifax.  Until this evening, I had no idea what this $7.95 per month was providing me.  In addition, I had no idea where to go or who to call to cancel!  (I do vaguely remember signing up for something earlier this year when pulling my free credit report.)

So I did the only thing I knew to do.  I googled “equifax.”  This lead me to their member’s center where I requested a forgotten password and user name, and a few minutes later, I had logged into my account.

It turns out that I’m not going to cancel just yet after all.  I’ve only browsed this site for 5 minutes, but I already know:

• that my credit score is 741
• that my score has ranged from 714 to 741 over the past year
• when the score changed
• why the score changed

I also found an error.  Equifax had the credit limit on my lone credit card at $3,451.00.  In reality, this card has a $6,100.00 limit.  This may not amount to a big difference in my score, but it can only help.  (For a few tips to increase your credit score, check out Liz Pulliam Weston’s article, “7 fast fixes for your credit score.”) I have already placed a phone call to my bank’s credit bureau dispute department. They are currently closed but I plan on following up tomorrow afternoon to have them correctly adjust my limit with Equifax.

While I may eventually cancel this monthly service, we are beginning to think about purchasing a house in the next one or two years, so I am somewhat intrigued by this convenient way to monitor my credit. I’ll actually use what I have been paying for this past year and let you know what I think a few months down the road!