Credit Sesame vs SoFi Coach: Credit Score Comparison Guide
By Janet Siroto
Credit Sesame and SoFi Coach℠ both can provide insight into credit scores, but each has a different focus. Credit Sesame is a free tool (at the basic level) that allows for a credit score check and credit monitoring, while SoFi Coach is a money tracker with free access to your credit score and an AI guide built in. SoFi Coach aggregates an array of financial information (including your credit score) for budgeting and tracking, and to help you assess your progress toward your money goals.
Here, learn more about these financial tools so you can decide which one may best suit your needs.
- Key Points
- • SoFi Coach is a free AI-enabled money tracker, offering personalized insights, credit score tracking, and expertise powered by AI.
- • Credit Sesame is a free financial wellness platform that focuses primarily on credit score tracking, offering users tools to help achieve or maintain a healthy credit profile.
- • Both use VantageScore® 3.0 data.
- • SoFi Coach provides a broader view of personal finances beyond just credit, and users can link accounts for a complete view of their finances, including spending, saving, and tracking against budget goals.
- • Credit Sesame offers a tiered service model, providing free basic credit tracking while offering premium subscription options that include expanded credit score access and identity protection.
Your money questions, answered.
What Is SoFi Coach?
SoFi Coach is an AI-enabled money tracker and financial guide available at no cost through the SoFi app and website. It can pull data from more than 12,000 financial institutions, and users can chat with the tool to get personalized information on how to manage money effectively. The AI is trained on the same playbook as SoFi’s team of financial planners, which helps deepen this money tracker’s insights.
In terms of credit scores, SoFi Coach can provide users with their VantageScore 3.0 credit score, as well as intel about key factors impacting their credit health so they can work to maintain or build their three-digit number.
Benefits of SoFi Coach
Using SoFi Coach’s chat-based financial guidance can have several benefits, from tracking spending to online budget planning to determining and working toward big-picture money goals. When it comes to the realm of credit, here are the key benefits of SoFi Coach:
• Credit monitoring via weekly updates on your VantageScore 3.0 credit score (which is powered by TransUnion℠, one of the big three credit-reporting bureaus)
• Personalized advice on which factors are influencing your score and possible steps to nurture your score
• Insights into how different scenarios (such as taking out a personal loan or paying off a credit card balance) might impact your credit score
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What Is Credit Sesame?
Credit Sesame is a free financial wellness platform that helps users track and understand their credit score. The free version of Credit Sesame provides credit score updates using VantageScore 3.0 data plus personalized recommendations on how to maintain and/or positively impact one’s credit profile. There are premium tiers of Credit Sesame available for between $12.99 and $24.99 a month that offer additional features, such as reports from three credit bureaus and identity theft insurance.
Benefits of Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame can offer the following benefits to its users:
• Free daily credit score updates. This can be helpful for those trying to cultivate a strong credit score before applying for a loan. Those with higher credit scores can often qualify for more favorable interest rates when borrowing.
• A credit score report card, evaluating a person’s creditworthiness on an A to F scale. This breaks down the factors impacting a credit score and offers guidance on how to positively impact one’s rating.
• Updates on activities that could indicate fraud and/or identity theft, such as new inquiries (hard credit checks) being made using an individual’s name
• AI-powered recommendations about financial products and services that reflect a person’s credit profile
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SoFi Coach vs Credit Sesame for Credit Scores
SoFi Coach and Credit Sesame both offer users a free way to check their VantageScore 3.0 credit score and get guidance on how to maintain or strengthen credit. The key differences between the two options are that SoFi Coach offers budget planning and financial tracking in its free tool, plus a spectrum of chat-based, personalized financial guidance, while Credit Sesame provides (at its free tier) access to your credit score and tips on how to strengthen creditworthiness.
SoFi Coach Advantages
Here are the upsides of SoFi Coach, both in terms of credit score monitoring and its other features:
• Powered by AI and the expertise of SoFi financial planners, SoFi Coach provides weekly access to credit score updates, customized insights into your score and how to maintain or build it, as well as modeling about how different financial moves can impact your creditworthiness. “Working to build your credit score before applying for a home loan could save a borrower a lot of money in interest over time. Lower interest rates can keep monthly payments down or help you pay back the loan faster,” notes Brian Walsh, CFP® and Head of Advice & Planning at SoFi.
• In addition to tracking spending, saving, and big-picture money management, users can enjoy chat-based, AI-driven financial guidance in response to questions about getting your money right.
• Users can also take action with SoFi Coach directly from the chat, like setting up a transfer between accounts, opening new SoFi checking and savings accounts, and more.
By comparing the offerings and advantages of SoFi Coach vs. Credit Sesame, you can determine which one best suits your credit monitoring and other financial needs.
Tips to Maximize SoFi Coach Benefits
If you decide that SoFi Coach is a good fit for you, here are ways to maximize its benefits:
• Consider connecting as many external accounts as possible (SoFi supports over 12,000 of them) to help get the fullest possible picture of your financial profile and understand your spending categories.
• Use SoFi Coach’s AI-driven chat feature to ask targeted budgeting questions.
• Request weekly credit score updates and ask SoFi Coach to tell you how your credit profile is evolving.
• Ask the AI-powered financial guide to help you review simulated scenarios, such as what size home loan you might likely qualify for given your current earnings and credit report.
• Use the tool to learn how to build a budget and follow how your spending and saving are tracking against your goals. If you’ve been using a free monthly budget template to track your spending manually, SoFi Coach could help you take budget monitoring to the next level.
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The Takeaway
Credit Sesame vs. SoFi Coach: Either free tool can help you monitor your credit score and gain insight into how to maintain or strengthen it. Credit Sesame is a free tool that provides daily credit updates, a credit report card, and identity monitoring, while SoFi Coach offers SoFi users free weekly credit updates, chat-based personalized credit intel, and guidance using the power of AI. If you are interested in more than simply tracking your credit, SoFi’s suite of financial tracking and AI-enhanced money management tools will probably appeal to you.
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.
FAQ
What are the main benefits of SoFi Coach?
The main benefits of SoFi Coach include an aggregated view of all of your connected financial accounts (SoFi Coach can connect with over 12,000); customized chat-based guidance on credit scores, spending and saving, and debt management, and free credit score tracking all rolled into one. Unlike many other apps that provide financial tracking, SoFi Coach is free to SoFi users.
How much does Credit Sesame cost?
Credit Sesame offers a free plan for daily updates on the user’s VantageScore 3.0 credit score, credit report cards, and credit monitoring (the app will flag changes to your credit file). Premium plans are available for $12.99 to $24.99 a month.
How does Credit Sesame work?
Credit Sesame is a free tool that allows people to track their credit score on a daily basis, as well as understand their credit profile and monitor some credit details. It uses data from TransUnion to fuel its insights.
What is the difference between Credit Sesame and SoFi Coach credit scores?
Both Credit Sesame and SoFi Coach use TransUnion’s VantageScore 3.0 to share credit scores. Credit Sesame provides daily updates, and SoFi Coach provides weekly updates.
Is SoFi Coach free?
SoFi Coach is available for free through the SoFi app and website.
How to sign up for SoFi Coach?
You’ll automatically have access to SoFi Coach when you’re signed in to the SoFi app or website. You will need to connect external financial accounts and activate the free credit score monitoring feature. Once you do this, you’ll be able to start using the chat interface to help manage your credit profile and keep tabs on your spending, savings, and budget goals.
