Can someone using USAA credit monitoring confirm this for me?

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by Kameleon, Jun 25, 2013.

  1. Kameleon

    Kameleon Well-Known Member

    Can anyone using USAA let me know the following:

    -Do you have to be a member of the military?
    -When getting your 3 reports and 3 scores every 30 days. Do you get a separate report with the Report # from the Credit Reporting agency themselves or is it a Tri-merged one report?
    - How far off are the FAKO scores?
    - Can you pull anything "daily"?
    - Have they missed any updates or changes or are they stable?
    - What are your pro's or CONS of using their credit monitoring service?

    Thank you for your time.

    -I've tested the waters and about to descend upon my Credit woes. But i'm not looking to spend $29.99 a month monitoring changes on ther upgrade plan, as i'll probably be dealing with all this for another year or so.

    I have Equifax 3-in-1 and pay $15.95 for the past few months

    At first i liked it. Now, not so much.
    - They missed a removal and found out they won't alert me when an account is removed
    - They only have Equifax that you can pull daily, any other CRA reports cost.
    - They monitor all 3, but for example, i got an alert saying an inquiry was done at Experian. There is no way to find out anything more other than paying for a EXP report or calling Experian.
    - I can only get score updates for EQ, no way to know how things improved when dealing with a TU or EX only account.

    So i'm looking to ditch them, thats why i'm asking for you advice
     
  2. jmc912

    jmc912 Well-Known Member

    I don't use USAA but you don't need to be a USAA member to use their credit monitoring service.

    I use EliminateIDTheft and I've been happy with it. It's $17 a month for both my husband and myself but I think just one person is around $12. You can pull reports from all 3 CRAs every 24 hours along with scores. It is a tri-merged report and doesn't have report numbers. It is very quick and right on line with when there are changes on the CRAs end. (I'll get an email from a CRA saying a dispute is done and something got deleted and it reflects the same day)

    FAKO scores are a little bit off... Example: My Fico Equifax score is 764 and my Equifax FAKO is 763 but they all use different calculations. You can update every day (or 24 hours) but you have to manually click and agree to it. They don't alert for deletions but I keep a really close eye on our reports and track a spreadsheet so I know when there have been deletions or changes.

    It has served it's purpose for me while I have been repairing my husband's credit it has been nice to track changes daily. After everything is settled (one more collection to go) then I will probably switch to MyFico tracking because those are the scores mortgage lenders will be using.

    Sorry I can't give you more info about USAA, I have heard mixed reviews.
     
  3. Kameleon

    Kameleon Well-Known Member

    I've checked eliminate ID a few months back and my notes said they gathered their information THROUGH TransUnion. a few forum post on the net alluded to them using mainly TU Reports and whatever info TU can gather (like how credit Karma works but with monitoring....). I'm worried USAA is the same coming through Experian instead of T.U. that's why i'm asking for a current user to respond.

    My Fico seems solid. but no big purchases in the future so no need for the Increased $ for accuracy on scores. I mainly need the reports then scores to see the impact.

    Thanks for the reply though!
     
  4. mindcrime

    mindcrime Well-Known Member

    Actually that is amazingly close. I would have thought from what I've read online that FAKO usually gives you a much higher number in the 30 - 60 range.

    With Eliminate can you dispute, or is it just a monitoring service?
     
  5. jmc912

    jmc912 Well-Known Member

    They may gather their info through TU, however, all 3 of my hubby's reports were VERY different and they reflected exactly correctly through EliminateIDTheft. There were never any discrepancies and each report was really different (all different accounts and collections etc when I started).

    I do know that if you update before 24 hours the only report that updates is TU, not sure exactly why.

    I looked into USAA also but I like seeing changes daily as he had so many collections etc it was just easier to keep track and check progress every day instead of once a month.

    You can't dispute though the site, just monitor, see reports, and get scores. I've been happy with it though. At first I didn't like it but once I got the hang of it I really like it. My husbands FAKOs there and his Fico were pretty close too (within 5 points)
     
  6. mindcrime

    mindcrime Well-Known Member

    And you are able to dispute without report numbers?
     
  7. jmc912

    jmc912 Well-Known Member

    I can still dispute, I just use the report numbers from the last reports that I got directly from the 3 CRAs (back in January) and they still work. Even though some CRAs say the report has to be in the past 60 days it's always worked for me. It's also a great back door way to get into your credit report too and check it out without paying or using your annual free one (even if you don't actually dispute anything)
     
  8. Kameleon

    Kameleon Well-Known Member

    I've not gotten to the point of the CRA rejecting my dispute because the # was wrong. Just from reading posts it seemed you needed to know it. I'm doing a HIPAA dispute and it seems like that is "essential" but somehow i think that info has to be wrong. When i think about it that would mean that you can only dispute for "FREE" once per year when you can get your annual free credit report. otherwise in 6 month you would be forced to pay the CRA's for another report just to be able to dispute....

    I'm really torn between USAA and Eliminate ID now.. PLEASE SOMEONE with USAA respond!!! lol
     

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