@Anonymous wrote:
They're usually slower to report, but better in the sense that you can see your actual FICO score update based on whatever changed in the alert.
This is a big and common misconception on this forum. When you receive an alert, you receive a score update based on your profile at that moment in time. Any number of other things may have changed between your last score and current score that have absolutely nothing to do with the alertable event. Yes, the alert will be taken into consideration for the score update, but that event may not have any actual impact on score.
Example: Someone has their only major baddie age off their credit report on Monday. They do not receive a MF alert because of this. On Wednesday, they pay off a credit card that had a $5 balance to $0. On Thursday they receive a MF alert because they paid off a credit card and a new score is given. This person's score may have gone up 70 points, but it's all because of the major baddie falling off. If the person goes by just the alert, they'd believe that paying off a $5 balance on a CC results in a 70 point gain, when in actuality the chances of it impacting score at all are slim.
