ExtraCredit Review 2023: All-in-One Credit Building and Monitoring

ExtraCredit is a credit building and monitoring package offered by Credit.com. They tout their service as offering “unmatched credit coverage for one, low monthly fee.” But does it live up to the hype?

In this ExtraCredit review, we’ll take a look at each of the services their package offers and evaluate where you are getting a good value for your money and which services fail to deliver. 

What is ExtraCredit? 

ExtraCredit is an all-in-one credit building and monitoring service built by the company behind Credit.com. This package allows users to pay a single subscription fee for access to a variety of features, including:

• Credit report & score monitoring
• Full credit reports
• Credit profile building offers
• Utility payment reporting
• Rent reporting
• Dark web monitoring
• Identity theft insurance
• Rewards earning potential
• Discounts on credit repair

All of these services are accessed through your credit.com account. 

The ExtraCredit package, which is an upgraded version of Credit.com’s free credit monitoring service, was designed to give customers access to multiple credit services in one location for one flat monthly fee. 

☝️ But while ExtraCredit claims to offer 5 different core services, some of these services may not deliver as promised, and not all elements in the package may be useful to you.

How Does ExtraCredit Work? 

ExtraCredit combines five different credit services.

BuildIt – one service for reporting rent payments and another for reporting utility payments to the credit bureaus. This service also comes with credit profile building offers.

GuardIt – dark web monitoring, alerts on security issues, and $1 million in identity theft protection.

TrackIt – access to 28 different FICO scores from across all 3 credit bureaus, full reports, and alerts for changes to your credit.

RewardIt – Credit.com splits credit product referral fees with you.

RestoreIt – discounted access to creditrepair.com and other credit repair service providers.

How To Setup An ExtraCredit Account

Let’s take a more detailed look at how to set up and use an ExtraCredit account.

To begin using ExtraCredit you will need to sign up for a Credit.com account.

There are four steps to the process.

1. Enter basic account info: name, email address, and password. 
2. Enter your contact info: address, phone number, etc.
3. Verify your identity.
4. Select/confirm your service: here, you’ll select whether you want credit.com’s free basic credit monitoring service or the ExtraCredit package.

Once you have completed the signup process, you’ll immediately have access to your credit scores, reports, and all of ExtraCredit’s features. 

💡 If you already have a Credit.com account, you can upgrade your existing account to the ExtraCredit package. 

How to Use Your ExtraCredit Account 

You can now view all of the features and services associated with your account. 

Each of the main categories will have its own separate page where you will find all associated information and settings. For instance, the TrackIt page will contain access to all 3 of your credit reports and your credit scores. 

You can view all of your credit information and use any of the resources and tools available, including setting up alerts for credit and/or identity monitoring. 

👇 Some features, like rent reporting and credit restoration services, will require a separate setup process.

How To Setup A BuildIt Account

Once you have signed up for your ExtraCredit account, you will then be able to set up your BuildIt features. Here is how. 

1. On your dashboard, go to BuildIt page. 
2. Select the feature you would like to set up (utility or rent reporting). 
3. Enter key information, i.e., landlord, utility company, payment amount, etc.
4. Link to the bank account you make payments from (so that ExtraCredit can verify the payments). 
5. Wait for verification to be completed and the tradelines to be added to your reports. 

👉 Note: if you want to enable utility reporting and rent reporting, you must complete this process twice. 

How to Close A BuildIt Account 

Once BuildIt is enabled, there is no quick way to turn off the reporting services. 

You have two options: you can email support with your desired changes, or you can close your ExtraCredit account. 

How to Close An ExtraCredit Account 

When you choose to close your ExtraCredit account, what you will really be doing is downgrading your service. 

You can select the downgrade your service option from the Settings menu, or you can email support with a request to downgrade your account.

👉 Note: you cannot remove your billing info. 

You can upgrade/downgrade your account as needed. 

Additional ExtraCredit Features 

Some of the features that ExtraCredit offers are pretty standard across the credit building industry. For instance, most apps, sites, and services offer basic credit monitoring that includes notifications of changes to your credit file. 

But there are some areas where ExtraCredit has expanded its service to include features beyond what their competition might offer. Below are a few features unique to the ExtraCredit package.

• Credit Scores – receive access to 28 FICO scores, including the most commonly used model, FICO 8, as well as industry-specific credit models like your Auto Score, Bankcard score (for credit cards), and the scores used in mortgage lending. 

• Credit Reports – download full copies of your Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax credit reports. These are refreshed once every 30 days. 

• Rent Reporting – have your ongoing rental payments reported to TransUnion and Equifax. Previous payment history is not reported. 

• Utility Payment Reporting – have your ongoing utility payments reported to TransUnion. 

• Rewards Offers – earn cashback when approved for a new credit account when applying through the ExtraCredit dashboard

👋 While you can find these individual features offered by other companies, you will not see all of them provided on a single platform outside of Credit.com. 

How Much Does ExtraCredit Cost? 

To sign up for a basic Credit.com account is free. But this service only offers you limited credit monitoring features and provides a VantageScore. 

The upgraded ExtraCredit package costs $24.99/month plus tax. 

Credit.com offers a 7 day free trial of their ExtraCredit package for new customers. 

You can cancel your subscription at any time to revert to the free basic service. 

ExtraCredit Customer Reviews 

ExtraCredit seems to be a service that has been successful in helping its customers improve their credit.

This review from Trustpilot shows a customer who is more than satisfied with ExtraCredit. 

Or this review, which appears on the Google Play reviews page. 

Other customers have been less satisfied with the limitations of using the service to build credit or the seeming lack of customer service. 

Here is one example from the Google Play reviews of a customer who had difficulties canceling their subscription.

Unfortunately, this is just one of many negative complaints regarding the difficulty of canceling your subscription. Here is a second one from ExtraCredit’s BBB page, where Credit.com received a 1 out of 5 star rating. 

In general, many of the negative reviews of the ExtraCredit service center around cancelations, lack of customer support, technology issues (i.e., app crashing), and the limitations of their rent and utility reporting services. 

The positive reviews of ExtraCredit tout the ease of using the tools and the convenience of having all the credit monitoring and building tools in one place. 

ExtraCredit Alternatives 

The ExtraCredit service is unique in the number of credit monitoring and building tools they offer for one flat fee. This means there is no direct competitor offering the same level of services. 

Below are a few alternatives to ExtraCredit that focus on one or two particular services. 

While these companies only offer one or two services, the service they offer in those categories is often superior to what ExtraCredit offers. 

For instance, ExtraCredit’s rent reporting service only reports rent payments to TransUnion and Equifax, while Boom sends the information to all 3 credit bureaus. 

💡 So if there is a specific credit-related service that you are looking for, then it might be worthwhile to look at an alternative company that specializes in that area. 

Is ExtraCredit Worth It? 

If you are already paying for separate services for monitoring your credit and building your credit, then it is worth looking at switching to ExtraCredit. 

This is particularly true if you are already paying for expensive services. For instance, MyFICO offers you access to multiple credit scores, including industry-specific scores, for all 3 credit bureaus. The cost for this service is $39.95/month. 

But ExtraCredit provides you with the same 28 FICO scores plus all of their other features for just $24.99 a month. 

On the other hand, if you are specifically looking to build your credit using rental history or utility payment history, what ExtraCredit provides might fall short. Their rent reporting feature only reports to TransUnion and Equifax, and there is no option to include your past payment history. 

Other companies like Rent Report Team and BoomPay offer expanded features for reporting rent to all credit bureaus, including past payment history at a price point that is cheaper than ExtraCredit. 

And Experian BOOST™ will add utility payment history to your Experian credit report for free, while ExtraCredit charges you and only sends ongoing payment history solely to TransUnion.

👉 While ExtraCredit does deliver on its promise of offering several services in one easy-to-use, convenient location, their package is only worth it if your focus is on monitoring your credit reports and scores. 

Verdict 

ExtraCredit has the potential to be a very valuable tool for many of its customers. Having access to all of your credit scores, reports, and credit building services in one centralized location is great. 

There is no keeping track of multiple logins and payment methods, and everything in one location can help you see the results of building your credit faster. 

But, not all of the services that they offer meet with the hype. 

The whole RestoreIt portion of the package requires you to purchase a separate 3rd party service. RestoreIt is not a service but instead a discount program. 

And the RewardIt program doesn’t actually reward you for improving your credit; they only offer to split their referral fee with you if you apply for new credit through their site. 

The final drawback worth noting is their free trial period. It was previously 30 days but has been shortened to 7 days. Unfortunately, this brief period is not enough time to utilize any of the features except TrackIt. 

Many other features, like BuildIt, RestoreIt, and RewardIt, require processing times longer than 7 days. 

But even though there are a few areas where ExtraCredit falls short of the expectations, It can still be a worthwhile tool for monitoring and building your credit. 

If you’re considering using ExtraCredit, we’d suggest evaluating each component and deciding how valuable it will be to you. Compare each component to competing products.

If you’ll only be using a few of the components, it may not be worth the price for you. If most or all of the components seem valuable to you, the package could be a worthwhile deal.