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infinity88 Experian Wants You to Carry Its Debit Card Around. Be Wary.
In what universe would anyone want to whip out a debit card with the name of a credit bureau on it?infinity88
For the past year, Experian has been testing this question with its Smart Money debit card, which it advertises as a way to “build credit without the debt.” TransUnion has no such card, and neither does Equifax, which exposed the data of tens of millions of people to hackers in 2017.
These are the three credit bureaus that play judge and jury with your financial life. Their reports are the foundation for the all-powerful scoring system that fulfills or kills your dream of a decent mortgage or car loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regularly calls out their flaws.
Experian, however, is loud and proud. In one ad, the football player Travis Kelce wears a generic jersey and peddles the new card, calling it “cool.”
The company is not a bank, so it has a partner for the debit card and the direct deposit, A.T.M. access and other checking-account features that come with it. It has no monthly fee, and you can sometimes get your paycheck a couple of days in advance of when it would otherwise post, but plenty of other companies offer features like this.
Because this is a credit bureau selling what looks like an old-fashioned checking account, the most logical question a consumer might ask would be: If I use this card, do I get a boost on my Experian credit report that I wouldn’t get in any other way?
To answer that question, you need to understand a bit about the other Experian service that comes with the Smart Money debit card. It’s called Experian Boost, and my colleague Ann Carrns wrote about it in 2018 when the company was introducing it.
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