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CreditBuilderIQ has a relatively straightforward model to help people keep track of their credit score. We’ve seen similar services in the past, though most of them are lacking at least one of the following:
- The ability to see your credit score from all 3 major credit bureaus
- Your full credit reports
- An easy way to dispute items on your credit reports
- Rent/Utility reporting
- Personalized plan to improve your credit
The nice thing about CreditBuilderIQ is that it includes all of the above, something you don’t really see in any other credit score-related dashboard.
Getting started with CreditBuilderIQ is pretty easy as I’ve signed up for it myself to show you exactly how it works and what it does.
This is the first thing you’re going to see once you click through to the signup page here (I’m on the desktop version, it looks a little different on mobile):
Just hit “Boost my score” or “Sign Up” in the top right, both buttons take you to the same signup form here:
You’ll put in your name/address information and create a login for your dashboard with your email address and a password. If you haven’t been at your current address for at least 6 months, uncheck the “I have been at my current address for six months or more” box and it will give you a previous address box where you can put in your old address. The ToS and privacy policy are pretty standard for any credit monitoring service.
As you can see, it’s a $1 trial for 7 days, followed by $24.46/month, you can cancel anytime. Note: Checking your own credit score like this does not hurt your credit at all. For the service that you get with CreditBuilderIQ, it’s worth it, especially if your credit is less than perfect. Once you’ve filled in all of the information, hit the “next” button and you’ll be taken here:
In order to access your credit reports, you’ll provide your social security number, birthday and phone number. Once you’ve done that, hit “next” and it will take you to this page:
From the first look at my account, everything looks right. I know I don’t have any negative accounts or late payments, but it shows a question mark, probably because it needs to run my credit once I complete the signup. The order summary goes over what the automatic renewal entails. If you decide you don’t want to continue past the 7 day $1 trial period, you can cancel.
Once you put in your credit card information, hit “submit” and you’ll be taken here:
In order to get your credit score and reports, you need to verify your identity. Hit “verify identity” and you’ll be taken to a page where it asks you a few questions. The questions I got were related to a street I lived on, the original amount of my car loan, an employer and the balance of my mortgage. Note: Don’t be afraid to answer “none of the above” if they don’t look right. One of my questions had no right answers and I just had to check “none of the above”. All of these questions are simple for you, but it would probably trip up someone trying to steal your identity. Once you’ve answered them, hit “next” which will take you to the dashboard here:
As you can see, it displays your credit scores, as well as your score factors, in the main part of your dashboard. On the left, you can see the credit report review, which shows you everything on your credit reports. For purposes of improving your credit score, the dispute hub, utility reporting and rental reporting are the main things that can really help you out.
Utility and rental reporting are exactly what they sound like – they report only your on-time utility and rental payments to the credit bureaus which can help improve your score.
The dispute hub is where there are inaccurate or negative marks on your credit and gives you a way to dispute them. Successful disputes can result in your credit score going rising and there is no limit to the number of disputes you can make. It’s also important to remember unsuccessful disputes do not lower your credit score.
CreditBuilderIQ also automatically generates dispute letters with AI you can send to the credit bureaus with the click of a button. There are other features in your dashboard as well, I just hit on the most important ones. This is one of the most comprehensive credit score services available, probably because it is relatively new and was built specifically to both monitor and improve credit. It takes about 5 minutes to sign up, see your scores and start improving your credit.