2020 Experian IdentityWorks and CreditWorks Review

Experian is pricier than the competition, but both of its products—CreditWorks and IdentityWorks—offer detailed, comprehensive coverage.

These days, credit monitoring services offer more than just a free credit report or a brief glance at your credit history. Experian CreditWorks—Experian’s credit monitoring service—has detailed coverage that includes account balance changes, credit inquiries, credit utilization, and a daily Experian report.

That’s handy if you have experienced identity theft and need to keep a close eye on vulnerabilities or if you’re trying to build credit for big purchases like a new home or car.

Experian’s main drawback is that it’s more expensive than its competitors. It also has less positive customer feedback than either IdentityForce or Credit Sesame.

Experian offers two tiers of credit monitoring services. Its no-cost package, CreditWorks Basic, doesn’t offer much, but it’s great if you just want to keep an eye on your credit.

• Monthly Experian credit report
• Monitoring for credit inquiries and new accounts

CreditWorks Premium is more inclusive and a great plan if you’re looking to get more serious about your credit security or want to get frequent feedback on your efforts to build credit before a loan. For $24.99 per month, you’ll get everything from the Basic plan, along with more monitoring.

• Three-bureau credit monitoring*
• Daily Experian credit report
• Monthly three-bureau credit report with FICO scores
• Account balance change monitoring
• FICO score alerts
• FICO score simulator

The premium package also offers extensive identity theft monitoring and protection, including the following:

• Dark web monitoring
• Identity theft insurance up to $1,000,000
• Lost wallet assistance
• Access to a fraud resolution specialist
• Social Security number monitoring
• Identity validation alerts

If you’ve recently had your identity or credit info stolen or are worried about identity theft, this plan gives you the tools to react quickly to suspicious activity.

Experian CreditWorks is one of the only credit monitoring services that tracks your FICO(R) Credit Score**, which can be a good get if you’re looking into a serious loan in the near future. We also trust Experian’s accuracy and like the idea of getting information about your credit straight from the source—in this case, one of the three credit reporting bureaus.

Standout feature: Experian security freeze

Experian offers a credit freeze to prevent credit, loans, and other services from being approved in your name.

The Experian security freeze service is free—technically, all credit freezes are free, thanks to a new nationwide law enacted in 2018—and it’s easy. You can place a freeze on your Experian credit report through the Experian Freeze Center by calling in or submitting your request by mail. If you’re an Experian customer, the Freeze Center is a great way to take care of all your credit concerns in one place.

Experian IdentityWorks is Experian’s identity theft protection service that offers credit monitoring at its highest tier (much like CreditWorks offers identity theft protection at its highest tier).

IdentityWorks is a little pricey, but it offers detailed monitoring at a fair price. Plus, it can help prevent identity fraud and alert you to suspicious activity— like when you’ve misplaced your driver’s license.

A subscription to IdentityWorks Plus is $9.99/month with a no-cost 30-day trial***. We suggest it for anyone who has basic concerns about identity fraud. You’ll get some basic identity protection and a bit of credit monitoring.

What comes with IdentityWorks Plus

• Dark web monitoring
• Identity theft insurance up to $500,000****
• Lost wallet assistance
• Social Security number monitoring
• Address change verification
• Daily FICO score
• Credit inquiry notifications
• Account balance change notifications
• New account notifications

Of all Experian’s offerings, we like the IdentityWorks Premium plan best. It’s great for someone looking to take serious action against identity fraud, whether they’ve been a victim of identity theft or not.

At $19.99 per month with a 30-day trial, the Premium plan gets you everything from IdentityWorks Plus, along with a few extras.

What comes with IdentityWorks Premium

• Up to $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance
• Bank account and credit card monitoring
• Identity validation alerts
• Payday loan monitoring
• Social network monitoring

IdentityWorks Premium also offers most of the same perks of CreditWorks Premium, including credit reports monitored by all three bureaus and a daily Experian credit report. The main difference is that IdentityWorks offers only a quarterly three-bureau credit report, where CreditWorks offers that service monthly.

Both IdentityWorks plans offer a FICO Score simulator, which can help prevent or catch identity theft. It also can help you manage and improve your finances, whether your identity is stolen or not.

Although Experian offers accurate and comprehensive services with CreditWorks and IdentityWorks, many users describe a negative customer experience.

Some users complain about being given the runaround when trying to cancel their subscription. Some reports say that getting in touch with an actual person can be complicated, often taking hours.

For most people, we recommend Experian IdentityWorks Premium. It’s the most comprehensive plan, puts together the best parts of Experian’s monitoring services together for a fair price of $19.99/month, and is a great choice if you’re looking to keep track of your finances.

On the other hand, we have serious concerns about Experian’s customer service. If that’s important to you too, we recommend IdentityForce. It has great credit monitoring and identity theft protection services and would make a good fit for most users looking to make both their credit accounts and identity more secure.

>>Decisions, decisions. Ready to make yours? Check out Experian's subscription plans.