Thursday, June 25
Posted 11 a.m.
Bankrate reporter Leslie McFadden contributed this entry.
Starting in early July, Equifax will roll out a new debt management product called Debt Wise. Currently only existing Equifax subscribers have access to it.
Four Equifax credit reports and FICO scores a year come with the product, as well as monitoring of key file changes and a FICO score simulator. But the main attraction is its debt management tool, called Fast Pay Plan. It imports the account information from your credit report, and you can add any debts that aren't on there. From there you can choose which accounts to include in your pay-down plan, and the calculator tells you in which order to pay off the accounts, estimates the total interest saved and gives you a debt-free date. It uses a "debt-stacking" strategy, which targets the most expensive loan first and the least costly one last.
It also keeps track of your monthly balances via your credit report, and will alert you if you've fallen out of sync with the pay-off plan.
What I like about it: It's fairly easy to use, as it plugs in most of the information for you using the data from your credit report. It also comes with a real FICO score, and not some "educational" score that lenders don't use.
I'm not entirely sold on the price, though. It's $14.95 per month starting July 1. For the money, you get a sophisticated calculator and some enticing extras.
In comparison with other Equifax credit products, it does hold up well. This one offers the most FICO scores in one year; Score Watch, also from Equifax, gives you two.
Suze Orman's FICO Kit Platinum, at a flat $49.95, also offers a debt reduction planner, plus three scores and reports from either TransUnion or Equifax.
If anyone has or does try Equifax's new Debt Wise product, let me know how it works for you.
Bankrate offers a free debt pay-down calculator using the same strategy of tackling the debt with the highest interest rate first. You will need to plug in your own account data by hand though -- no information gets pulled from your credit report.
Questions? Comments? E-mail Plastic_Rap@Bankrate.com.