Barclays Sallie Mae MCs seem to have gotten on the Barclays' free FICO bandwagon in the last few weeks, but I noticed that my score hadn't been updated since January 21 (weeks before Barclays made it official) and I knew from Discover's free FICO that my score had gone up 25 points since then. When I asked via SM how often they update, this is the response I got:
"Dear ________:
"Thank you for contacting us regarding your Sallie Mae MasterCard. We can certainly address your concern regarding the FICO® Score on your account.
"We receive updated information from TransUnion once every 10 weeks, or whenever there are certain changes to your credit file (new account openings, new inquiries for credit, etc.). Whenever that updated information affects your FICO® Score, we will send you an email alert letting you know that your FICO® Score has changed."
Since I'd heard about people having their scores update multiple times per month at Barclays, I was among those hoping that this would be sort of a TU ScoreWatch. But if this is correct, it seems as if the updates are going to be very infrequent UNLESS our TU accounts have the particular kinds of changes Barclays likes to keep track of (new accounts and inquiries, primarily). All my recent changes have been related to account aging or util, so no changes in the Barclays TU. 
@Gunnar419 wrote:Barclays Sallie Mae MCs seem to have gotten on the Barclays' free FICO bandwagon in the last few weeks, but I noticed that my score hadn't been updated since January 21 (weeks before Barclays made it official) and I knew from Discover's free FICO that my score had gone up 25 points since then. When I asked via SM how often they update, this is the response I got:
"Dear ________:
"Thank you for contacting us regarding your Sallie Mae MasterCard. We can certainly address your concern regarding the FICO® Score on your account.
"We receive updated information from TransUnion once every 10 weeks, or whenever there are certain changes to your credit file (new account openings, new inquiries for credit, etc.). Whenever that updated information affects your FICO® Score, we will send you an email alert letting you know that your FICO® Score has changed."
Since I'd heard about people having their scores update multiple times per month at Barclays, I was among those hoping that this would be sort of a TU ScoreWatch. But if this is correct, it seems as if the updates are going to be very infrequent UNLESS our TU accounts have the particular kinds of changes Barclays likes to keep track of (new accounts and inquiries, primarily). All my recent changes have been related to account aging or util, so no changes in the Barclays TU.
Yes, welcome to the new era of account reveiwing. Where CCCs can review your score and changes to your accounts anytime and anyday.
Soon there won't even be a need for them to SP for account reviews because changes to accounts will be sent to them instantly.
All this free fico and monitoring services are good to have but the real beneficiary of these services are our creditors.
Imagine a world where all your creditors can grant $100K CLs. Imagine 5 creditors with a $500K cumulative available credit. Unfortunately the minute your UTIL ratio rises above 30% on any or all of the TLs all of the creditors could cancel your accounts.
This is where things are headed.
@Gunnar419 wrote:
Since I'd heard about people having their scores update multiple times per month at Barclays, I was among those hoping that this would be sort of a TU ScoreWatch. But if this is correct, it seems as if the updates are going to be very infrequent UNLESS our TU accounts have the particular kinds of changes Barclays likes to keep track of (new accounts and inquiries, primarily). All my recent changes have been related to account aging or util, so no changes in the Barclays TU.
For a free service though, that seems OK. The changes they claim they will notifiy you on are the ones that matter from a fraud/identity theft standpoint. For people who aren't micromanaging score, updates every 10 weeks is OK. This forum stresses score a little too much (unsurprisingly given the owners!)