Where independent offshoots offering credit services permeated, is now slowly being overtaken by traditional banks and financial services firms. One such offering is from JPMorgan Chase called the Chase Credit Journey. The bank is offering businesses their VantageScore produced by TransUnion, all free of cost. Furthermore, the business doesn’t need to have an existing relationship with Chase to access this offering. Below we dive deep into what benefits the service offers to businesses, how do you get access to it, whether it is truly free, what entrepreneurs may need to be careful of.
Having access to capital is a major factor contributing to the success of a business. Most businesses that fail do so often because of a lack of funding. As a result, access to capital and its prudent management is often at the top of mind for most entrepreneurs. As a result of this basic business need, products and services have thrived that offer tracking personal or business credit scores and advice on how to improve them. Rightfully so, funding is primarily extended at reasonable rates to those businesses or persons that have stellar credit scores.
What is the Chase Credit Journey?
Chase Credit Journey is a service offered by Chase Bank that lets any person check their credit report for free. It can be checked as many times as possible by logging into the Chase Credit Journey account, however, the report will only refresh weekly. This regular checking of your credit score through Chase Credit Journey does not have an impact on the person’s credit score.
It is important to understand that Chase Credit Journey does not show a FICO score, the score that creditors use to evaluate creditworthiness, which is also impacted the more it is used. What Chase Credit Journey lets users monitor is their VantageScore credit score.
VantageScore is the credit score used by TransUnion, one of the three main credit reporting bureaus. VantageScore is a relatively new methodology being used for credit scoring, however, it does not diverge too far from the traditional FICO score, thereby should be a close reflection of what is primarily used by the creditors.
How does one enroll in Chase Credit Journey?
If you are already a Chase customer, simply sign in to your account online and then click on the icon for Chase Credit Journey.
If you are not a current Chase Bank customer, you will need to provide information about yourself that can verify and match your identity to your credit reports. This will include information such as your social security number.
Feature of Chase Credit Journey
On top of VantageScore, Chase Credit Journey also offers other services. These include:
Credit Alerts – this feature allows users to see any changes to their credit report and score at TransUnion, including:
- Any new inquiries for credit
- Opening of new accounts or any changes to the status of existing accounts
- Alerts for fraudulent activity detected
- Changes to your address
- Notices of delinquency
- Any additional public records updated to a user’s credit report
Credit Score Simulator – this tool lets users see the impact on VantageScore based on specific actions.
Credit Score trend – see how your credit score has changed over time, especially since it is updated weekly.
Pre Qualified Offers – Offers of credit cards from Chase that a user is prequalified for.
The Pros and Cons of Using Chase Credit Journey
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Let’s start with the benefits offered by the Chase Credit Journey service.
The service is truly free. Yes, Chase may have found a way to get the foot in the door to another potential customer, but it is still a free service that lets you monitor and build your credit report and score.
Your credit score is not impacted by regularly using the Chase Credit Journey service. Since it is not FICO that is regularly pulled but rather the VantageScore, the service lets users continuously monitor a score that is a very close replication of the FICO score.
The drawbacks that accompany this service should be evaluated as well.
VantageScore isn’t exactly the FICO. It may not be that different, but there are some differences, nonetheless. That may have an impact on specific users depending on what they may have relied on to build up their credit profile.
Although Pre-qualified offers may be touted as a benefit and new sources of credit is exactly what business owners may be looking for, they may be inundated with spam with all the various offers that you get alerted for.
Running a business is a difficult prospect. There are so many different headwinds entrepreneurs are continuously sailing against. How much office space do you need? Which bank should you choose? What type of investors should a business bring on? These are all questions that businesses contend with at the early stages, but many also do so throughout various other phases of the business lifecycle. All of these questions and whether a business can survive and even thrive are also shaped by the level of credit score the business has, or its founders have.
Capital resources are vital for businesses and the answer to all these questions. Credit, often being the Siamese twin of access to capital, percolates in these decisions, and numerous third-party credit specialists have thrived in offering services offering to improve their credit or prospects of accessing it. JPMorgan Chase, the parent company of Chase, offers its iteration of this credit service called the Chase Credit Journey. Business should clearly understand their options, how they can benefit them, and when they may need it.
