Aura Credit Monitoring vs. SoFi Coach: Credit Score Comparison Guide

What Is SoFi Coach

SoFi Coach is an AI-powered personal money guide that’s available to all SoFi members, 24/7. Members can link checking, savings, credit card, loan, property, and investment accounts to Coach, ask questions about everyday money questions and get step-by-step guidance based on their linked account information. Free credit score monitoring is included, and Coach can offer guidance to help you maintain a healthy credit history.

Benefits of SoFi Coach

You can connect SoFi Coach to your financial accounts — including accounts outside of SoFi — so the tool can help you monitor expenses, debt, investments, and net worth in real time. Key features of this tool include:

•   A built-in budget planner that’s available anywhere you go, via mobile or desktop

•   AI-powered financial analysis to help you make the most of your money

•   Free credit score monitoring and credit insights to help you improve your score (free credit score check includes access to VantageScore® 3.0)

•   Linking capabilities for 12,000+ financial institutions for a comprehensive view of your net worth, spending, investments, and debt

•   24/7 chat guidance, with the option to connect to human support seven days a week

SoFi Coach is also built to take direct action, with your approval. For example, you can use Coach to set up a new savings vault, transfer funds between accounts, or open a new SoFi Checking and Savings account.

Recommended: What Is the Starting Credit Score?

What Is Aura Credit Monitoring?

Aura is a digital identity and credit protection service that monitors credit reports across all three credit bureaus for a set monthly fee of between $9.99 and $24.99 (paid annually). Aura specifically looks for credit report changes that could affect your credit score and alerts users in real-time. This credit monitoring tool also tracks information beyond the credit bureaus to spot identity theft and fraud.

Benefits of Aura Credit Monitoring

What is Aura best at? This comprehensive credit monitoring tool alerts users to several specific categories of credit report changes, including new inquiries and new accounts, changes to your personal information, negative information, and updates to public records. Aura claims to detect fraud faster and more accurately than its competitors.

Other key benefits of Aura Credit include:

•   Instant Experian® credit file locking

•   Financial transaction monitoring, including credit cards, investments, and bank accounts

•   Monthly VantageScore credit scores

•   Dark web and data breach monitoring

•   Bank account, auto loan, and home title monitoring

•   A minimum of $1 million in identity-theft insurance with all plans

There are certain things Aura cannot do. For example, Aura does not stop skimming or fraudulent credit card charges, nor does it dispute credit errors or file fraud reports on your behalf. Aura will not freeze your credit for you and doesn’t safeguard your personal information from data breaches.

SoFi Coach vs Aura for Credit Monitoring

SoFi Coach and Aura are credit monitoring tools, and both include free VantageScore access. In terms of how they differ, Coach monitors your TransUnion® VantageScore 3.0 credit report while Aura tracks changes at TransUnion, Equifax®, and Experian. SoFi Coach is designed to help you improve your entire money situation, while Aura is primarily credit-focused. You won’t pay a fee to use SoFi Coach, while Aura requires a monthly subscription.

Explore the differences between VantageScore vs. FICO®, then read on to learn where SoFi Coach shines.

SoFi Coach Advantages

SoFi Coach works to guide you toward more informed financial decisions. Free credit monitoring is an important and helpful feature, and Coach can deliver tailored recommendations to help you cultivate good credit and pay off debt, based on your linked account information.

For example, you can ask Coach how to build credit, what affects your credit score, or how to create a realistic debt repayment plan. You can get tips on how to lower credit card utilization or ask finance questions based on your personal budget like “can I afford to buy a house this year?” or “how can I build an emergency fund?” And you can use SoFi Coach to build a better, more efficient budget so you have more cash to fund your financial goals.

Pricing is another advantage, since SoFi Coach is free for SoFi members. You might appreciate that if you’re interested in learning how to check your credit score without paying. By comparison, Aura charges $9.99 per month for individual monitoring, $17.99 per month for couples, and $24.99 per month for families. These rates assume annual billing; monthly rates range from $12.99 to $47.99.

Recommended: FICO Score vs. Credit Score

Tips to Maximize SoFi Coach Benefits

If you’re new to AI-powered financial planning tools, a few simple strategies can help you make the most of SoFi Coach.

•   Link all of your financial accounts: SoFi Coach uses your account activity and history to answer your questions; the more accounts you link, the more accurate the advice.

•   Ask targeted questions: Use Coach to get answers to specific questions, like “how much did I spend on dining out in the last 30 days?” or “how long would it take to save $5,000, based on my current budget?” or “why did my credit score drop after a dispute?”

•   Activate free credit monitoring: It costs nothing to monitor your credit with SoFi; you simply have to direct Coach to activate credit monitoring to start tracking your VantageScore.

•   Save time with direct actions: SoFi Coach can help you open new accounts, set up savings Vaults, and execute other tasks in less time, and with fewer headaches.

If you’re already a SoFi member, you can activate Coach through the SoFi app to start exploring its features. And if you’re looking for more help with credit, check out SoFi’s “How Much Will My Credit Score Go Up?” calculator to see how making small changes could affect your scores.

Recommended: How Long Does It Take to Build Credit?

The Takeaway

Both Aura credit monitoring and SoFi Coach can provide credit score updates, but they’re designed to serve different purposes. Aura is primarily intended to help you monitor your credit and financial profile for potential threats that could indicate identity theft or fraud. SoFi Coach is an AI financial guide that can help you track your credit scores and make more informed choices with your money.

Take control of your finances with SoFi Coach. You can easily view all of your accounts in one convenient dashboard: bank and investment balances, current debts, spending breakdowns, and credit score. Easily set up budgets and spot upcoming bills. And get personalized insights on everyday money questions and take action with Coach chat, the AI guide that’s powered by the playbooks of SoFi Financial Planners, so its guidance comes from expert knowledge.

Meet SoFi Coach, your smart personal guide to getting your money right.

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