A Look At Amex’s “MyCredit Guide” – A Credit Score Tool For Everyone

a close-up of a phone and a monitor

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American Express has new online tool to help people keep track of their credit score and to provide alerts when something happens to change their credit report. The new service from Amex is called “MyCredit Guide” and it’s free to use even if you’re not an American Express Card holder.

Most credit card providers now offer the option for cardholders to check their credit score – American Express offers this on a users main account page – but all you get with that is a your score and a chart showing how your score has changed over time.

a screenshot of a credit card
You can check your FICO score from your Amex account page

The MyCredit Guide tool goes quite a bit further.

MyCredit Guide uses VantageScore® 3.0 from TransUnion to show you your credit score as well as the key factors that affect your score (so it gives the score you see a bit more meaning).

It works in a similar way to sites like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame so you’ll get alerts when something in the world affects your score or when something on your credit file changes. These will range from simple things like address changes to new inquiries on your report and new account openings too.

Where MyCredit Guide differs from other credit score tracking sites I’ve seen is that it also offers a useful credit score simulator tool which will show you how various activities (like opening a new account or paying off some debt) could affect your score.

If you’re reading this blog you probably know better than to hold debt on a credit card but it can be extremely useful to know how your score may be affected if you open up a credit card you’ve had your eye on.a cell phone with a check mark and a green tick

MyCredit Guide updates your credit score weekly upon login and, most interestingly, American Express has said the following:

“[I]n the coming weeks, MyCredit Guide enrollees may receive prequalified offers and promotions for American Express products in the MyCredit Guide experience”

I have no information telling me what these prequalified offers may be but they could be something pretty simple – like an improved sign-up bonus – or they could be something more interesting – like an opportunity to get a second bonus on a card that you’ve held in the past.

Bottom Line

MyCredit Guide is pretty similar to Credit Sesame and Credit Karma which I know a lot of people already use…but it does offer a couple of things that those sites don’t and they could turn out to be quite useful.

Considering MyCredit Guide is free to use I can’t see any downside to signing up (using the tool won’t affect your credit score) and, if you don’t already use a credit score monitoring service, I’d seriously encourage you to do just that – after the recent debacle with Equifax everyone should be keeping a very close eye on their credit report.