Free Equifax Credit Alerts for Paypal Users

Last night when I logged into my Paypal account to do some transfers, I noticed this new service before I went to my account page:

Since I have accessed my Paypal account for a while, I don't know exactly when this new service is available. But this does sound a good service if it's really free. Following the link, I went to a new page with little more information for what is being offered:

Registration process

After clicking the Sign Up button, I was brought to Equifax registration page. The registration process has four steps:

1. I provided my name and address,
2. I gave my social security number, date of birth and selected user name and password
3. Equifax used the information I provided to verify my identity (in my case, it asked who's my mortgage provider and the monthly payment)
4. After verifying my identity, Equifax showed the final payment page

which shows that the total cost for this service is indeed free. After I submitted the order, I also received an email from Equifax which again confirmed that I don't have to pay anything for it. Logging into the newly created account, I found the following credit alerts are included in this free service:

• Balance Amount Change
• Balance Percent Change
• New credit inquiries

and I can modify the balance amount change and percent change thresholds to my desired level.

Summary

Overall, the free service is not as advanced as other fee-based services that Equifax offers. But for the purpose of monitoring credit inquires and credit cards usages, it seems to be enough. And since it is only an alert, you can't really prevent the fraud from happening as it doesn't put a stop when, for example, a higher than threshold amount is about to be charged on your credit cards. The registration process is also quite simple. The only concerned I had was when I was asked to provided my SSN and DoB, though I went to the page through a link in my Paypal account. The order confirmation email was sent from Member.Benefits@equifax.com.

If you want to try this free service, you may find the link on the left hand side of you My Account page. 

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