LendingTree Launches Free Credit Monitoring Service

Today, LendingTree launched a free credit monitoring service called My LendingTree. The platform allows users to check their credit score for free without a credit card, and provides tips for how to improve their current score.

My LendingTree is similar to Credit Karma and other free credit score providers. You sign up for a free account, and My LendingTree will alert you of suspicious activities within 30 minutes. The credit monitoring component is available through a partnership with TransUnion.

Many seemingly free credit monitoring services require a credit card during signup because they come with a paid monthly subscription plan—you sign up for a free account, but then you are automatically billed for identity theft protection after the first month. My LendingTree does not charge for the credit monitoring, but they do recommend loan products based on your credit score. This encourages you to sign up for other loans via the traditional LendingTree website. So LendingTree is using the free credit monitoring to increase traffic to their loan comparison site where they do generate revenue.

My LendingTree uses a soft pull to check each user’s credit, which will not lower the credit score. However, if a user chooses to pursue a loan product recommended by LendingTree, the resulting application would have a hard inquiry. This may lower the score temporarily, but usually only by a few points.