Credit reports and FICO scores

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the welcome! I will definitely post in the Rebuilding Your Credit board.

Could you direct me to where I can find out where I stand per FICO please?

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the welcome! I will definitely post in the Rebuilding Your Credit board.

Could you direct me to where I can find out where I stand per FICO please?

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There are several options.

FICO Standard

ScoreWatch

TU Quarterly Monitoring

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the welcome! I will definitely post in the Rebuilding Your Credit board.

Could you direct me to where I can find out where I stand per FICO please?

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Sure. The most popular FICO products are found at the bottom left of this page and include Score Watch®, FICO® Quarterly Monitoring, and FICO® Standard.

FICO Standard are one-time credit report and FICO score and you have the choice between TU and/or EQ. It'll give you your CR plus various FICO indicators w/ score to give you an idea of where your FICO score and CR stands.

ScoreWatch (SW) is a monthly subscription-based service focusing on EQ only. You get two FICO Standard reports for EQ with this service, with one being used when you first subscribe and the other to be used anytime. In addition, it'll monitor your EQ report for key changes like added inquiries, added accounts, increased balance, etc. It'll also monitor your EQ FICO at the time of those changes and reveal that to you, and if you don't have much happening on your EQ report, it'll also monitor your EQ FICO for changes about once per week. For more info, there is a ScoreWatch Guide found stickied in the FICO Product Feedback board.

Finally, FICO Quarterly Monitoring (often referred as TUQM) is a subscription-based service that is basically a pre-paid plan for 4 TU FICO reports and scores over the course of a year. Every 3 months, it'll give you a new TU FICO report and score. Unlike SW, it does not monitor for changes like added accounts, inquiries, etc., but it does monitor certain ID theft-like demographics like changes to your SSN, birthdate, address, etc.

With both TUQM and SW, you do get a discount on TU and EQ FICO reports respectively with each product at 20% and 30% discounts.

ETA....I'm a very slow typer.

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for your responses! (Don't worry about typing slow, I liked the extra information in your post, it really helped).

So now what I would like to know is what the difference is between the Annualcreditreport reports that I received and the FICO reports that you have listed. I noticed Acr.com's reports didn't have a score attached to them.

Let's say I want to enroll in SW. You said I get two FICO standard reports for EQ with this service with one being used when I sign up. Does this mean I get two reports a month, or two a year? I don't know anything at all about FICO reports. More information would greatly be appreciated!

Also, is it possible to sign up for a FICO product that gives you all 3 FICO reports/scores? and if so, what are the advantages/disadvantages of having that product?

Thanks for the help you two! I'm really learning a lot

[llecs]

ACR's reports, which are the same as if you purchased the report directly from the CRA, have much more info than myFICO, and include items like better demographic info, full contact info for your creditors, a 7-yr history vs. the 2 found on here, 2 years of inquiries, soft pulls, and other info like drop off dates for baddies on TU and EX and a detailed date of first delinquency on EQ. You can also purchase scores through ACR for a fee, but note that none of them are FICO scores. When starting repair, the initial reports through ACR are imperative, IMO.

On the flip-side, myFICO reports contain info not found elsewhere, namely a FICO, including indicators showing what helps/hurts your FICO the most including indicators showing which accounts are viewed as a negative by FICO and lenders.

SW has two reports per year. I think everyone would buy it if it were 2/mo.

There is no product anywhere in the universe that offers all 3 reports with all 3 FICO scores together, without the help of a lender's pull. Experian blocked access to your EX FICO score a few years ago and you cannot buy it from anywhere, though a lender can get it for you at the cost of an inquiry and there are some CUs out there that provide an EX FICO as part of a benefit or service.

[Anonymous]

From the looks of it I'll go with myFICO. I would love to see which accounts are viewed as negative by FICO and lenders and that other good stuff you talked about. Thanks for the help!

The only negative thing I got out of my ACR TU report was that I had a 30-day late payment on my Wells Fargo CC back in 2010. I was researching what to do in that situation and it looks like I'll be sending a GW letter. Thing is, I have ~80% util on the card (limit is $600). Should I wait until i'm about 40% (or even lower) to send in the GW? (Also I think this post needs to be in the Rebuilding My Credit board but I thought I'd ask anyway, given that you are such a big help!)