• long running

FREE Monthly Credit Score (Experian) @ Credit Savvy

524

Previously I posted this deal over a half a year ago and it generated a lot of awareness that you could get your credit score monthly for free.

If you didn't see or haven't heard, it's basically a lender's risk assessment based on your credit application history, and they provide you a score and a rating (eg. below average, okay, good, very good and excellent). If you have previously registered, this is a good reminder to go check your score.

You can use this tool as a guide to decide whether it's a good time to apply for another card with success or maybe you should wait around a bit in case you get rejected. It's very useful especially when there are credit card deals going on.

Experian and Veda only provide you a free credit report once a year otherwise they charge you. That's why I think this is a great deal! Also I've been using this for over a year (and so has many OzBargainers) and nothing dodgy has come out from it.

Basically you can:

  • Find out your Expedian credit score
  • See the contents of your credit report ie. a list of credit enquiries and if applicable: defaults, serious credit infringements, bankruptcies and court judgements.
  • See a history of your credit score.
  • Compare yourself against others in Australia, your State, your Postcode, the same age or the same gender.

As other users have previously pointed out, Get Credit Score is another free tool which I have posted as a separate deal. Credit Savvy provides you an Experian score while Get Credit Score provides you a Veda score. Majority of credit companies use either systems or both for risk assessment.

You can use both tools to better evaluate your borrowing power.

Mod: Referral codes/links not permitted, please use the referral system below. Please see guidelines & Announcement

Related Stores

Credit Savvy
Credit Savvy

Comments

  • So the only "cost" to this is if you want another credit report within a year?

    • +1

      you get a rolling score update every month

      i think they earn their money from advertising credit card deals and taking commissions

    • +1

      Is it a credit hit? Commonwealth bank allows me to check my credit like in 3 seconds through the app. I don't see a credit hit, I can check every day it seems.

      • +2

        Doesn't affect your credit score.

        also AFAIK CreditSavvy is owned by CBA or something like that.

  • +1

    A little more info for anyone interested:

    • You have to register on the website with an email address, and you will have to create a password.
    • They will send you an email every month, reminding you that they have just calculated your credit score.
    • You have to login to see if your credit score has changed.
    • -4

      Breaking news - creditsavvy.com.au has been hacked! XD

  • Out of interest, does anybody know how businesses like these make money? Is it the personal data they get, or just fees they charge for additional services?

    • +1

      Marketing - They have your credit score on file anyway - it is at no cost to them to provide it to you - however you consent to marketing in which they calculate your score, and send that to credit providers to sell things to you.

      • Experian are a credit bureaux that hold white data and black data about you. They calculate a generic credit score but most financial institutions including banks will use customised scores that utilise data they hold about you (e.g. how you transact, turnover, relationship depth, deposits) plus the bureaux credit score. So on its own, the bureaux credit score is a good indicator but it's generic and not used in isolation. By signing up, they may be able to profile you in new ways which is valuable to the make up of your score and makes the score more robust. Social profile for instance. What's the benefit to you? Possibly only when you want to get credit but otherwise not sure.

    • +1

      credit bureau, including Experian, sell their data to financial institutions, telecommunication companies, etc. (any company who wants to know your credit worthiness)

      all bureau wants your personal data so they can data match them in their systems and cross reference to any transactions that exist. This is a cheap way for them to 'enrich' their data so that they can sell it to companies for each enquiry.

  • I heard, if you check credit score too frequent , can also bring down some points
    Is that true?

    • +7

      That's false.
      Personal credit file enquiries have no impact on your credit score.

    • +4

      Applying for several credit cards or accounts in quick succession is bad for your credit rating - dont apply for credit unless you know its a good deal and want it (not need it)

      • Thx a lot for clarifying it :)

        • +1

          Only apply for a credit account (card) if you think you qualify for it. An enquiry from a bank stays on your record - you dont want 100 credit enquiries on your account and 2 successful credit cards - you look too risky.

          You can look at your own score at no cost - there is a 'file note' that stays permanently that shows you enquired on your own score but this rarely negatively impacts your score.

          Credit score typically works in a negative fashion - if you can show you have a credit card for 5 years with no adverse, you are okay. It would be smart for people to apply for credit early ( without using it ) to show they are responsible

        • @Wickadz:

          As we haven't moved to Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR)across the board yet, how long you've had a credit card or the age of credit doesn't have an impact as it's not recorded. Only a small number of institutions have moved over to CCR and hence most institutions will only mark that you have opened a line of credit but will not mark if you have closed it or when you closed it. This is all to change soon as Australia is now mandating CCR.

        • This is true, not sure where KaptnKaos got their facts from.

          I work in the finance industry and specifically in the credit area.
          There are credit rules for different products and the number of enquiries on your file may result in auto decline/refer/accept. These auto decline rules are more prevalent in the credit card/personal loan space, but will differ between financial institution.

          The logic is, if there are higher than average enquiries on a customer's file, it could mean the customer is shopping around or are getting rejected from all the previous financial institutions and are trying their luck with the next one.

          Using historical data, the latter is more correlated to bad outcomes (i.e. loss for financial institutions) and as such its more prudent for financial institutions to auto reject these customers depending on their risk appetite.

          Note: What Trance N Dance said is true, as financial institution adopt comprehensive credit reporting (i.e. reporting of both negative and positive information), these rules may change as smaller financial institution will cherry pick the good customers from the 'not so good' pile. In order for CCR to work, the 4 majors need to participate otherwise there will always be a 'fog of war' on 80%+ of the market. It will eventually happen, but some of the majors are reluctant as they already control majority of the market and sharing this information will mean losing market share as small players will use it against them. i.e. it will be done when they are forced to by regulators or government bodies or on their terms.

        • @SeVeN11:

          Note that KaptnKaos specified "PERSONAL credit file enquiries".

          He's right - using products like this Credit Savvy deal doesn't impact your score. That's a totally different scenario to the COMMERCIAL enquiries that you reference in your post.

    • No, applications for credit will affect score if too many but no impact from just checking your score.

  • +1

    I was told this on reddit when discussing credit savvy
    I don't know if anyone might benefit from knowing this
    "credit savvy use experian as their credit agency, which has about half the data Equifax (Getcreditscore) has. I know this as I've compared my credit file from both agencies.

    for this reason most lenders use Equifax (getcreditscore) so not a lot of point getting the credit savvy score from what I can see"

    • +1

      Yeap. Pointless to get your score from Savvy as the credit agency they use isn't used by any lenders…

      • What would you recommend?
        Get credit score?

        • +1

          Yeah. If you want to know your score atleast find it out from a provider who gets it directly from Equifax. I know Get credit score does..

    • Experian are by far the largest consumer credit bureaux in Australia. They were created from an old style catalogue company in the UK in the 1970/ 80s where customers received goods but paid for those goods on a weekly/ monthly basis over a period of time. A simple form of credit assessment was required. From those early days, CCN was created. They changed brand to Experian in the 1990s, offering their bureaux data and analytics consultancy to financial institutions (FIs). FIs signed up but had to share data to get at the bureaux data… so the data grew and so did Experian. In the 1990s it was all about black data but that changed to include white data (the good things like paying on time). Equifax (veda) is a competitor on the consumer side but its size in Australia was initially constrained by the number of FIs that used them… less data .. less insights.. less reliable credit score.

      • you sound like you work for Experian. The following article - altough 2 years old says Veda/Equifax hold 85% market share in consumer credit. http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/equifaxs-…

        Also, the more people create these free accounts, the more individual consumer files these companies have to boast that claim.

        • I've worked with both companies in the past - worked at the NAB setting up credit scoring and automated decision systems. The article refers to 85% market share in its (meaning Equifax) credit bureau. And your bang on - its about the data but what you get is a generic score… a little useful but only a part of the parameters used when making credit decisions.

    • That would be right, Equifax (prev. Veda) is bigger but of the major institutions that check Experian are American Express and ANZ. So there's some use.

  • Not sure bout creditsavvy but if you use getcreditscore, beware.
    https://www.productreview.com.au/p/getcreditscore.html

    • +3

      Productreview is the scum of the internet. Any dumbo with a keyboard and an axe to grind can put up a review.
      Just look at all the one star reviews for Coles and Woolies- "Urr my cashier had an indian accent never shop here"

      • Is there a more legitimate, multi-category review platform that you recommend instead?

        • +3

          You're replying to a post that's 6 years old

  • -7

    signed up with it ages ago , figured it was alright , realized it takes months for any credit application to show up , provides false sense of security, kinda defeats purpose of getting monthly report.

    ( i applied and got a CC got approved got the card yet , the application did not show on my next 3 reports from credit savvy )

    • -1

      My application showed up by the next report. Take a neg.

    • That depends on which bank/institution initiated a credit report with - they probably don't use credit savvy and never got the information.

      • +1

        it showed up , my gripe is how long it took , 3 + months is pretty long for a service that claims to provide you a monthly update, if you believe that does not give a false sense of security , then have at it.

  • Most of these sites ask for ph numbers and sell off info to other providers

  • -7

    Don't make the mistake I made and do this. You'll get physical mail spam and email spam. Get your free credit report from Equifax instead.

    • -2

      Actually, you are wrong. You get neither. Perhaps you should check the notification settings in your account before negging due to your inability to use a computer.

  • For people contemplating a paid subscription, despite credit agencies saying you can only get one credit report per year for free, for the past several years, I've had no problems requesting multiple credit reports in a single year with Veda (now Equifax).

  • Thanks for this post, I've usually relied mainly on my credit reports from Dun & Bradstreet and Veda, I went on to this Credit Savy and identified an error on their listing on my credit report which shocked me (i.e. credit listing is incorrect). So I've emailed them to request a correction).

    Thanks OP, as I was planning on applying for a Credit Card this week and didn't realise Experian is another company I didn't know about.

  • I believe you can go straight to the credit bureaux (Experian and Equifax) under privacy legislation and ask for the detail they hold about you. Scores will vary depending on who you apply for credit from, so the base data is most important, rather than the credit score.

  • +1

    please for the love of god - DO NOT FILL THIS IN

    1. you get added to a data base
    2. if more user wants a credit rating with a FIX number we will end up going to the USA And no one wants that.
  • What is a 'credit relationship'?

    Supposedly I have 0 defaults and a credit relationship with Lion Finance, and it is impacting my score. As far as I know I don't have any debts, or if I had any they would have been legally discharged.

  • Thanks again for posting. This is definitely one of the more reputable providers that I have come across with afaik no issues with my info being passed on.

  • Credit Savvy (Experian) shows me at "Very Good" (about 800/1000)

    Credit Simple (Dun & Bradstreet) shows me as "Average" (about 500/1000)

    GetCreditScore (Equifax) shows me as "Average" (about 500/1200)

    The three have nearly the same information. Experian and D&B show the same info. Equifax shows one more enquiry that Experian and D&B do not have.

    Experian gives the best score by far.

  • This is available any time.

    Their entire "business model" is based on giving away free, worthless credit scores from a foreign entity so they can promote credit products to you and earn a commission.

  • Credit Score ads do not make me trust them at all

  • +2

    Commonwealth bank users can check their score via banking app in a few seconds as often as they like for free :)

    • Commonwealth Bank owns Credit Savvy.

  • +5

    What's up with these long running deals lately being resurrected to the front page? Yesterday's was the 2017 free mulch one

    If not expired are they being reposted automatically on the 6 year anniversary?

    • +1

      Time travelling admin inserted code within the site's posts. We must solve the puzzle in order to prevent 9/11 from ever happening.

      • I liked it more when people thought it was me

    • This is a new feature. It was discussed here in this forum post
      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13878162/redir

      If for whatever reason you don't want to see reposts, there is a new setting we added that allows you to hide them. Go to this page here and scroll all the way down and untick the checkbox labelled [ ☑️ Show reposted long-running deals]

      • Thanks for adding that setting. I know it's not being developed, but the "Repost" tag still isn't showing in the app which can be confusing.

  • bump

  • +2
    • +1

      Same source, Experian! CBA owns CreditSavvy, but seems ClearScore is owned by Experian itself!

      • +1

        Huh? ClearScore seems to be entirely separate entity…. They now even have illion scores as well.

        • Yeah I think clear score bought credit simple, which was owned by illion…. so maybe they now check multiple bureaus?

        • From ClearScore FAQ
          We partner with Experian – one of main credit reporting bodies in Australia – and we get your credit report and score once a month from them. We’ll let you know when your report is ready and your score’s changed.

          • may be out of date!

          Btw, Experian tried to buy ClearScore, but it was blocked by UK Govt CMA (Competition & Markets Authority)! So it is not owned by Experian, sorry!
          https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/blog/money-saving/experian-clear…

  • Good to monitor your credit score and history.. but looks like recently they removed the option of downloading credit report!

  • Credit Savvy has an iPhone App now where you can also check your score, but it’s painful in that you have to log in with a PIN as I can’t find a way to use FaceID.

    It’s annoying how some of the banks leave accounts marked as open even those you closed them months ago. Have one for Virgin Money (NAB) that has been closed but says last reported ‘June’. It’s end of August now…

    • Virgin Money are the absolute worst. Theirs was the first non-bank credit card I got years and years ago and they screwed me around so hard closing that account. Ended up being nearly 12 months after I insisted they send me a Letter of Closure and the goddamn thing disappeared.

      Dealing with NAB is a close second.

  • How does this compare to the Credit Score you can get for free from the Commbank app?

  • Been using this I think since it got a plug from Barefoot.

    Was using another site previously but the app makes it super easy to request a credit file freeze, handy if you've been caught up in one of the recent data hacks.

  • my mortgage broker sent me my credit file. My credit score (670s) is quite different from my scores (800 - 900s) from Getcreditscore and Credit Savvy.

    Honestly i think GCS and credit savvy only have access to a handful of data and generate the score from there. Pretty sure a high score is always easier to convince their free users to sign up with more credit lines

  • Uhh. I'm confused, I get a free credit score and report (PDF) once every 3 months directly from each of the credit reporting agencies:

    Legally, each of these credit agencies must give individuals access to a free credit report once every 3 months, as per the OAIC.

    OP mentioned:

    Experian(experian.com.au) only provide you a free credit report once a year otherwise they charge you.

    This is definitely not true. I've been using the above links I provided above (including the Experian one) every 3 months for the last 1.5 years without issues.

    What's the point in going through a 3rd party when the credit reporting agencies provide credit reports directly?

    • You can get the report anytime.

      • Well fair enough, that answers my question.
        Still, I'm happy to wait the 3 months not to have to go through a 3rd party.

Login or Join to leave a comment