Credit score and credit report of Borrowell are free. However, Rent advantage and credit builder has subscription cost of $5 and $10 per month respectively.
Borrowell: An overview
Borrowell is a Canadian company that was founded in 2014 and started out as a debt refinancing organisation. Overtime, associated with Equifax, which is one of the two credit Bureau giants in Canada. It then started offering products such as credit builders, credit scores, credit reports and rent advantages.
Advantages of using Borrowell
- Impressive website and mobile app interface
- A wide range of products and services cover all areas of personal finance, such as credit, personal loans, insurance, banking etc.
- Clearly outlines terms and conditions
- Association with Equifax
Disadvantages of using Borrowell
- Not a credit bureau in itself.
- No access to TransUnion
- Limited personal loan features
Is Borrowell free?
Borrowell credit score and credit report are free of cost. Credit score enquiries generally impact your credit score. However, an enquiry with Borrowell will not affect your score as it is deemed as soft by inquiry. Only hard enquiries that can be made with Equifax can have an impact.
To register with Borrowell Rent Advantage, you need to open your account, connect the Borrowell account with your bank account. Once done, Borowell reads your bank account payments to verify rent payments and report to Equifax. It is important that you maintain and report prompt rent payments to have a good credit score. With other rent verification companies, you will be required to get the signature of your landlord. For this, you must pay $5 in subscription fees. This will be billed and deducted from the linked bank account or credit card wherever your rent is paid from.
If you wish to improve your credit score, you can sign up with Borrowell Credit Builder. It tracks and reports all your credit re-payments to Equifax. The term for this is 36 months and is priced at $10 per month. From month 1 to 24, $5 per month is parked in your bank savings account and the remaining $5/month is the subscription fee. From months 25 to 36 the entire $10/month goes into your savings account. At the end of 36 months, $240 goes to your bank savings account and the remaining $120 is the fees for the 36-month term period.
Borrowell: To conclude
Thus, only the credit score and credit reporting product of Borrowell is free. The alternatives for Borrowell in Canada are Credit Karma, TransUnion, Mogo etc.