I've done a brief search through the forum and found scant information about Credit Monitoring services being offered. I would like to get the best deal for unlimited reports and scores for all three. I currently subscribe to Experian's My Plus Score (about $10/mo - I pay annually and pay $89.95 I think) and TransUnions TrueCredit ($14.95/mo). I used to subscribe to Equifax's service ($9.95/mo), but it didn't include scores, so I dropped it and tried the ScoreWatch product, but it only gives you 2 score pulls per year and you're paying $8.95/mo for 'monitoring' so they can send you alerts. Basically, all of the above services are CRAP. TransUnion has the best deal at face value in that they give you unlimited reports AND scores for all three CRAs. The only thing is, they filter the scores through their own little twisted scoring system, so they report my Experian score as 595 while Experian reports it as 637. Both of those numbers are bogus because when I go to get a loan, the commercial product the lender pulls will most likely bring up a completely different score. (By the way, TransUnion also gets the Equifax score differently, but not by as much.) Experian's My Plus Score gives me only their reports and scores as part of the deal. I can order the other two for a fee each time. I never have quite figured out just what Equifax is offering. They don't seem to offer any product that includes both their own report and score simultaneously - without paying per. I did Suze Orman's MyFico deal, but that cost me $49.95 and only gave me the 3 reports with scores and then had to pay just under $14/each for reports after that. It was a decent product in that it had good information, but not cost-effective at all. Now I'm really only looking for one of these services to show me trends, but I would really like their score to be a little closer to actual. Has anyone been able to get a good $10-$15/mo product that gives them all 3 scores and reports? I've been pulling daily lately to monitor things that are supposed to be falling off. Any suggestions?
I currently have TrueCredit. However, their scores are bogus! The score they give you for TU is correct (inasmuch as any consumer product accurately reflects your true score), but the problem is they must run EX and EQ through TU's score formula because they're all off. Right now, I have a 628 according to TU, 637 according to EX, and 656 according to EQ. TrueCredit reports them as 628, 595, and 649 respectively. As I said in the original post, they're fairly close on EQ (at least in my example), but they're way off on EX. TrueCredit then does me no good except to monitor TU's score. I'm looking for something that I can pull all three reports and compare side by side (which TrueCredit does), and have it accurately reflect the consumer representation of my score (which TrueCredit *doesn't*). Oh - and about the last question - No. It does not hurt your score when you check it yourself.
Scores Here are my scores all pulled on the same date where CRA= The score bought from that actual Credit Reporting Agency: ---- CRA ---- MYFICO ----TRUECREDIT EQ -- 605 ---- 580 --------- 654 EX -- 722 -------------------648 TU -- 729 ------------------- 671 Interestingly enough, I thought MYFICO.com was the same as the score Equifax uses......Is this not correct? And the TU score is different from the Truecredit. Really strange.
First, label each score with what that source calls it. If a CRA is providing an actual FICO score, they will call it that, and it runs up to 850. If it is some proprietary "FAKO" score, they may have their own trademarked name, it may not be directly comparable to FICO scores, and you would want to at least check that its range was the same as the FICO 850 range to make any semblance of comparison possible. If it is the new "VantageScore" score the CRAs are touting, it should be called that. It's range goes up to 990, so those scores are numerically not comparable to FICO. Even if the ranges match, different proprietary scores may not be comparable since the weighting of different factors, and manner of calculating, may be entirely different.
These inquiries are coded as "ACCOUNT REVIEW" (AR) inquiries; which don't appear to anyone except for you.
--QUOTE-- ---- CRA ---- MYFICO ----TRUECREDIT EQ -- 605 ---- 580 --------- 654 EX -- 722 -------------------648 TU -- 729 ------------------- 671 --ENDQUOTE-- Isn't that just crazy? TrueCredit isn't even matching TU's score. I guess TrueCredit can help you identify trends, but when it's not even close... There has got to be a source out there somewhere that doesn't cost an arm & leg to monitor. I know that we'll (consumers) always get a different product than the lenders see, but it's a base to work from. One other thing. A lender I was talking to said that CRAs give different scores for different types of loans. Like a mortgage would get a different score than an auto loan, or another type of tradeline. Anybody know how that works?
Not anytime, you have to wait exactly 24 hours and 1 min to update the report. I used the WalMart.com link and paying 11.24 per month.
Well, myfico emailed me today, and my score went from 580 to 584. So I updated True credit and it stayed the same from last week. The irony on all of this is that the credit report from True credit has no new activity and no new tradeline/dates, etc. I must have crossed some date threshold on one of my accounts with myfico that figures into a score increase, like length of time at address or length of time with a credit account. Silly isn't it? Im not gonna pay the CRA's any more money until the week before I go talk to the mortgage company again. As long as I can watch my tradelines via truecredit, the CRA's shouldn't change enough to justify a weekly pull from them just to buy their scores.
What does it cost for MyFico to send you updates, etc? I can't believe that there are so few products out there to do this and that they all suck!
I'd like to know how that works, besides letting you know quickly when some new derogatory information appears. In one of my Experian reports (a report from Experian that was the result of a dispute), it showed all my TrueCredit pulls under the "invisible" pulls (along with the promotional entries, etc.) So if they don't appear as a "visible" pull, how would it affect the FICO?
What does it cost to get scores directly from the CRAs? I know you can subscribe to Experian's Credit Expert and TransUnions True Credit, both of which you can also get a score through. Equifax however, doesn't seem to have a product that gives you unlimited scores as well as reports. By the way, I checked True Credit today and they're showing my Experian Score as 572 (down from 595). I went over to Experian's Credit Expert (My Plus Score) and the score is still showing 637 as it has for a month now. I have yet to analyze the True Credit report to see what may have changed from their perspective. I just don't know if it's worth the time to chase it down. It's all bogus anyway...
Credit monitoring is just that, monitoring. The info is fairly close, not 100% but you can surely watch it to see if something pops up on your report that you were not aware of. I have been able to use True Credit to a huge advantage, it gives me alert to changes which I can then plan a point of attack or jump for joy that someone has been either deleted or added. The scores are just a guide, my scores have been +-100 of the real FICOs. I use TC for monitoring for 11 bucks a month well worth it, then I pull the real FICOS about once every couple months or if there has been allot of changes. I see allot of people apply for credit and have not even looked at the real ficos scores. This is a disaster, only apply for those items inwhich your scores and info within the CRA dictate. FICOs can be bought for arund 38.00 for all three CRA's. Pulling daily credit reports can knock off inquiries at the bottom of your list, therefore adding points to your scoring. But, not everyone because you have to have a large enough file to ge things to move. Hey, they only have so much space for your info! Also, it takes at least 3 months of daily pulls to get anything to move.
For me TC is within a few points on my Tran Union score, I am thinking it is because it is ran by them. Exp and EQ are +-100. TC is for monitoring changes, not for anything else. Well worth the 11.00 per month if you are working on credit repair and need to know everyday changes, good or bad.
I guess I just have to change my mindset. I just wish I could tell exactly what my scores were in an economical manner. In my case, I've got scores in the 628-656 range (last 'official' check). Mortgage and some other lenders take the "middle score" from the three. That makes it important to know exactly what it is because you cross thresholds depending on what type of credit it is. 680 is a line I'm trying to cross at the moment because that score will allow me to get low docs or no docs investment loans. 720 will make me a shoo-in, but I've got quite a bit of work before that happens. I've got items coming off my report and status changing, so I'm trying to keep my finger on just how much it affects my scores. At $38 a whack, I'll either go broke or just won't check them as often - in either case diminishing my opportunities.
TC would be my choice until you see the large amounts of changes that wuld get you where you want to be. Daily changes are shown and that is what makes it nice. Plus, to get your scores up to that point you will need to add some decent revolving accounts, used them PIF every month and when the others drop off, add new TL's to get the score boost you need.
