Credit Sesame Safe, Scam or Legit?

Credit Sesame is another online financial utility that lets you check “your credit score for free.” Of course, there are always more than a few caveats with these kinds of websites. So, let’s take a look at CreditSesame.com and see how it stands up.

Credit Sesame Review

Any reviews of Credit Sesame need to start with how much does Credit Sesame cost, and is Credit Sesame legit, or is it an online scam?

One catch comes during the signup process where you are asked to “do more” with your credit score by adding “goals”. Some clicks there and you’ll get targeted ads, and maybe more. There isn’t a way to skip this step, so choose something you don’t mind hearing about, and as always use your “store email” or “email list” email address. (You should have a separate email address that you never use for anything “real” that helps avoid hacking attempts and keeps your real inbox clean. If you don’t have one, get a free email from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or other service before signing up.) I chose rewards cards when I signed up and the first thing at the very top of my screen every time I log in is a message saying that I could save money with a rewards card. — Also, beware of those “Buy Now” buttons.

Credit Sesame is another in a growing list of online services that allow you to view and monitor your credit score for free. We’ve already looked at some of these services. First, we checked to see if Credit Karma is a scam. Then, we looked at whether Quizzle is a scam. Credit Sesame looks like these other online service on the surface, but let’s dive in an look deeper before we decide whether Credit Sesame is safe, legit or a scam.

credit sesame credit score graphicJust like we noted when doing our Credit Karma review, the credit score you get from Credit Sesame is not a free FICO score. While the Credit Karma score comes from Transunion, the Credit Sesame credit score comes from Experian. The Credit Sesame credit score is the Experian Credit Score, which is a real credit score, but not as widely used by lenders as the FICO score is. You can update your score monthly.  Credit Sesame credit monitoring a free service that sends you an email and alerts you when you log on if something negative gets added to your credit report.

The best use of a service like this is not to focus on the actual number. Your real credit score is the one the lender uses when you are trying to get a loan or credit card, or whatever. You almost never have access to that number. Even a subscription to myFICO only gives you one of the many different numbers that are available to lenders. Instead of worrying about what your actual number is, use Credit Sesame to track the direction your credit score is moving in. That way, you can see if you are doing the right things, or if a financial move ended up making things worse.

Like the others, the company makes money thanks to advertising from financial companies, like credit card issuers and lenders, as well as getting commissions on referrals to products. In fact, the company says that one of the service they provide is to “Optimize Your Current Loans.” If you sign up for Credit Sesame, you’ll know doubt be informed that you could save hundreds of dollars by signing up for other cards or loans that, of course, you can click on a link in order to get started right away. You do not have to enter a credit card to sign up for Credit Sesame. This is your best clue that Credit Sesame is safe enough to use. Without a credit card number they can’t charge you for something without you knowing. If you ever click on something that starts asking for a credit card number, close the window and start over. This is your key to not getting charged anything for your free credit score.

Credit Sesame vs Credit Karma

In addition to using different credit bureaus’ credit reports to calculate your credit score, there are some differences in the features between Credit Sesame versus Credit Karma.

Is Credit Sesame Safe?

It is always difficult to decide whether to trust an online service like Credit Sesame with your confidential personal information. At some level, if you are going to use their service you have to trust them, just like you do when you give a bank or financial institution your credit information, social security number and the like. There is never any way to know 100 percent for sure if something is safe, but there is a reality check that typically can show you the way.

For example, Credit Sesame was founded in April of 2010, so it hardly qualifies as fly-by-night. The company has also been profiled by several mainstream news publications, who, theoretically, would have noticed if the company was a bald-faced scam.

Second, the company has raised nearly $7.5 million in capital from some well known investors and venture capital firms. This isn’t a blank check for trust, but running an online scam generally doesn’t go hand in hand with raising several millions of dollars from investors. If you were trying to run off to Rio with a bunch of money, pocketing the millions you got from investors is probably faster and more lucrative than selling off the financial data of little old ladies.

Finally, the founder of the company has a real, verifiable track record as an entrepreneur who not only has founded financial companies in the past, but also sold them to very legitimate financial corporations.

In the end, Credit Sesame offers a useful service for most users.



11 thoughts on “Credit Sesame Safe, Scam or Legit?”

  1. I am really disappointed in Credit Sesame as a solution to anyone’s financial woes. The ads suggest they will help you borrow without getting your self deeper in debt regardless of your low credit score. What ends up happening is that Credit Sesame directs you to all the same shady loan organization who are only interested in collecting your personal information. They start out saying you can borrow up to 5000 dollars but gradually tell you that you are not qualified for that amount and they then refer you to another company who collects more and more of your personal info and after giving out every thing about yourself (minus the size of you underwear), you are then offered 300 dollars or less on your loan. Shame, shame, shame, for Credit Sesame to be a part of such a scam. I warn anyone thinking about making a personal loan through these people to not waste your time. They are all corporate crooks.

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    • went though the same. They had a lawyers site to help build credit. They said they they could get the bankruptcy off my credit report.Really I knew it was a scam. Its impossible. Cancelled my credit sesame account. Useless better ones out there. Including Experian which they draw your credit score from. Anyway they are free

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  2. I started using this app and it was great, then one day I couldn’t log in. The password I was typing in was the correct password because I had just logged on 10 minutes prior but it kept telling me that my password was wrong. I emailed someone from Credit Sesame and they reset my password after about 2 weeks. Well wouldn’t you know…..resetting my password worked but a few days later the same thing happened only this time, not only did my password not work, they also did not recognize my email address. This site is a scam and am so glad that at least I haven’t paid for anything.

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  3. You say: “Like the others, the company makes money thanks to advertising from financial companies, like credit card issuers and lenders, as well as getting commissions on referrals to products.”

    Then like other companies they also have OTHER ways to make money off of you!

    I was having some credit issues in 2000 with some past due items and legal issues beyond my control. I needed access to credit scoring and monitoring of credit related entries on my history so I signed up with Credit Karma, and wouldn’t you know within 72 hours the telephone started ringing THOUSANDS of times per day to the point that the telephone became useless, you could not make a call out (even for 911) because it was constantly ringing, it was collections agents, even though I only had a few collections to deal with at least a dozen collectors were calling using computers that can dial your number on several lines at once in a fraction of a second, the result was the phone line was always in use.

    This would not have been such a problem if it were my phone, but I had accepted a job in New York and was staying at a friend’s house when I signed up for Credit Karma. He was a socialite and businessman who could not have his phone tied up like that and had had the same number for decades, everyone he knew through most of his life had that number and it was simply not feasible for him to change it. It nearly ruined our friendship and all these years later I still feel bad about it.

    Why did it happen? Because Credit Karma sells your information to the very same creditors that you may be trying to avoid while you get your problems sorted out. My email address was useless with hundreds and HUNDREDS of spam and threatening mails per day. That account still exists by the way and has well over 600 thousand e-mails awaiting review.

    It goes without saying that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has NOT kept up with advances in technology or communications. I suspect the love affair with cell phones will not last much longer as every single cell phone number existing will have been used at some point by someone who owes someone else money, every time I have changed my location/number I get inundated with collection calls from the number’s former owner. Trust me, no matter how many times you say you are not that person they are going to disbelieve and still harass you. And they break every rule in the law, call you names, accuse you of crimes like theft, say outright that you are a crook and unworthy person, barely human if at all, etc. In fact the type of person that works for such collections companies either does not do it for long or they excel at it because they are fundamentally sadistic misanthropes, and they have exactly zero fear of the law. In fact they seem to enjoy the aspect of their work in flouting the law because they will tell you that they are going to hound you for life and the law is no hindrance. They have multiple shell companies that buy and sell your debt for fractions of a penny several times per day so that they can ALWAYS legally claim they do not hold your debts. Not that anyone even asks anymore anyway.

    It is enough to make a person never want to deal with any company at all. But it is not just credit accounts that can land you in this hot water/sewer of debt practices. Any claim against you even if it is mistaken because of a typo in some dentists office, even getting a new phone number can buy you a trip down debt collections Avenue to hell. You do not even have to owe anything to anyone yourself.

    Reply
    • Buyer beware. If you had credit issues why would you offer contact information willingly knowing collectors are trying to reach you? Rather than blaming a company for your issues, look at yourself and ask what you need to do differently. Would you give your phone number, address and personal information to a perfect stranger? Probably not, but you trust a web based company because they appear legit? For less than 10 bucks, anyone can create a site that looks very professional and link to enough resources that it appears 100% authentic. It’s because of people such as yourself that these phishing sites, scammers and con artists are successful and why legitimate business get blamed for your shortcomings.

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    • Nowhere in their terms of service does it state they would perform that action. An attorney may assist with the aggregious actions they have instigated.

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  4. Why doesn’t CreditSesame respond to requests to unsubscribe? They make this very difficult, and their contact service doesn’t recognize the password I created (and carefully noted down) several weeks ago. I see that at least one other customer has the same complaint. You need to check on their reliability more thoroughly

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    • I am just seeing this for the first time 10 months later, and I just want to comment that I signed up with Credit Sesame about 18 months ago after Credit Karma did the same thing to me. I had gone on Credit Karma for several years, used the same password and was told it wasn’t right. Now this is why I left that site completely: In order to get another password, they wanted me to send (yes, mail) them copies of two forms of ID including my social security number. I’m too old to get stupid now. It’s bad enough we have to put ourselves at the mercy of trollers, they apparently can operate with little or no oversight.

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      • im upset and angry with credit sesame they claim to be a safe secure credit monitoring yet two days ago at 853 pm pst on 3/12/2019 they easily allowed a THIEF to takeover log into my account get my personal information put me at risk for identity theft I have contacted them via email over 10 times no response nothing i will sue this company if my credit is damaged CONSUMERS BEWARE !

        Reply

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