Score Watch will notifiy you of changes to your FICO score in certain circumstances, but there some score changes you're only going to see by buying an updated report and score.
Sound confusing? Well, I'll admit to being a bit confused myself so in the coming weeks after sorting this stuff out myself I'll be posting a more detailed description here of how the Score Watch alert system really works. For now, though, let's just say that some changes to your score generate alerts and some don't.
Basically, there a two kinds of score alerts: 1) the score that's posted on all alerts resulting from such activity as new accounts, inquiries, balance increases, etc., and 2) alerts generated from reaching/exceeding the 'target' score.
In these forums you'll see examples of folks receiving Score Watch alerts indicating score changes and you'll also see examples where the score changed but no alert was received. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive description of the Score Watch alert system.
So, the answer here is, no, you don't have to buy a new report/score to see every score change, but if you do buy a new one, don't be surprised to see a different score. More later.....
-Barry
