Where do you monitor your fico scores from?

[Anonymous]

OK.  I'll describe an ultralowcost strategy, which is what I do.  Then I'll tweak it a bit at the end for someone like you who is interested in preparing for a mortgage.

So what everybody is interested is reports and scores.  I'll describe a bunch of tools for each that are free.

REPORTS

     * Credit Karma: this will give you your TU and EQ reports as often as once a week.

     * WalletHub:  this will give you your TU report daily.

     * CreditScore.com: this will give you your EX report monthly (plus your FICO 8 monthly).

     * Credit Check Total: sometimes it is nice to have a single merged 3B report.  Use the $1 trial and cancel.  I have never done this but lots of people love it.  You will get your FICO 8 from each bureau when you do that too.

SCORES:

     * I already mentioned CreditScore.com and Credit Check Total.

     * I have a number of credit cards that give me my FICO 8 free monthly from all three bureaus.

     * Karma will give you  Vantage scores and you can get those from Credit.com (EX) too.

The above approach costs you $0 per year, though if you do the $1 trial at CCT occasionally (say every three months) that would be another $4 per year.

MORTGAGE PREP:

My advice is for a person to see if he can remove all of his derogs and to get his CC balances reporting really nice (All cards at Zero Except One) before pulling one's mortgage scores, since there is no way to do that for free (and because your ought to do those two things anyway).

To do those two things all you need are tools that will enable you to frequently pull reports.  WalletHub is your friend, if you are crazy obsessed.  You can check that every day.  Karma will give you EQ and TU once a week.  CreditScore gives you EX report once a month.  And annualCreditReport.com will get your free EX report once per year if you want that too.

Then, when your reports are looking perfect (including the CC balances) sign up for one of the myFICO 3B products.  Personally I just choose Ultimate and then cancel.  But you might want to start with myFICO Premium if you think you might want to see your mortgage scores every month (not sure why you would but it may give you pleasure, which is fine).

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I've been paying a monthly membership for access to my credit reports and scores straight from EX, EQ, and TU's websites. About 40-45$ a month total. I wouldn't mind keeping it the same except I've just come to realize that I'm only getting vantage scores from TU and EQ. I want to find a way to regularly monitor changes in my credit report and fico scores. What is everyone here using?

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1. The Vantage scores are available for free from Credit Karma, updated weekly, so there's no reason in the world to pay for those.

2. The services I pay for are MyFICO 3B Premier + experian.com, equifax.com, and transunion.com. For me MyFICO & experian.com are the most useful.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

OK.  I'll describe an ultralowcost strategy, which is what I do.  Then I'll tweak it a bit at the end for someone like you who is interested in preparing for a mortgage.

SCORES:

     * I already mentioned CreditScore.com and Credit Check Total.

     * I have a number of credit cards that give me my FICO 8 free monthly from all three bureaus.

     * Karma will give you  Vantage scores and you can get those from Credit.com (EX) too.

The above approach costs you $0 per year, though if you do the $1 trial at CCT occasionally (say every three months) that would be another $4 per year.

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- Which CCs give you EQ & EX FICO scores? For me Synchrony/Wallmart, Discover & BoA give me a monthly TU FICO. Cap One CreditWise gives me the same weekly TU Vantage that I get from CK. Barclays gives TU Vantage only every couple of months, so I've stopped bothering with it. None of my CCs give me EQ or EX, FICO or Fako, so I use CK for EQ Vantage weekly, credit.com EX Vantage bi-weekly, and an occiasional CCT $1 trial.

[Anonymous]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

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- Which CCs give you EQ & EX FICO scores?

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For Equifax:

*  Citi gives you FICO 8 Bankcard Enhanced.  I used to worry that this was BE rather than Classic, but now I kinda like seeing the BE flavor.  Thomas Thumb was helpful in convincing me that the two models tracked pretty closely all the way up to 780, and that therefore the fact that BE has a 900 ceiling vs. Classic for 850 doesn't make much practical difference with the lines in the sand an issuer draws for approval.

*  Somebody very recently found a really cool app for a smart phone that gives you a free monthly EQ FICO 8 Classic.  I can't remember what it is now.  Create a new thread asking about it and somebody may chime in who saw that post.

For Experian (FICO 8 Classic):

    * The Chase Slate card

    * Any full Amex card (not co-branded but actually issued by Amex)

    * Although it is not a credit card, remember that CreditScore.com will give you a free monthly FICO 8 Classic  drawn on EX data.  Plus you get your EX report as well.

[DaveInAZ]

Thanks! For me EX. is the hardest to get, I've been using credit.com which gives you 2 different fakos every 2 weeks. Amex is prequaling me for BCE, I'm waiting until fall to app - if you look at my FICO scores in my sig, I got TU to early exclude all the accounts included in my 2010 BK7, EQ & EX are.32 pts lower because they won't remove them until June & july.

[Anonymous]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:
Thanks! For me EX. is the hardest to get, I've been using credit.com which gives you 2 different fakos every 2 weeks. Amex is prequaling me for B aCE, I'm waiting until fall to app.

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This is an easy way to get both your FICO 8 and your report from Experian:

    https://www.creditscore.com/

It's free.  There are other sites you can sign up for that give a free EX FICO 8, but this one is best since you get both score and report.

PS.  I like credit.com, btw.  It's a nice way to round out Credit Karma if a person is curious to track his Vantage scores (Karma giving EQ and TU, CC giving EX).  And unlike Karma, the "summary" software on the front end accurately computes your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) and your Age of Oldest Account.  Karma's Vantage scores thankfully accurately use the true Vantage algorithm -- it's just that its presentation software on the front end innacurately renders it.  CC is better in that respect.

[Subexistence]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@DaveInAZ wrote:
Thanks! For me EX. is the hardest to get, I've been using credit.com which gives you 2 different fakos every 2 weeks. Amex is prequaling me for B aCE, I'm waiting until fall to app.

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This is an easy way to get both your FICO 8 and your report from Experian:

    https://www.creditscore.com/

It's free.  There are other sites you can sign up for that give a free EX FICO 8, but this one is best since you get both score and report.

PS.  I like credit.com, btw.  It's a nice way to round out Credit Karma if a person is curious to track his Vantage scores (Karma giving EQ and TU, CC giving EX).  And unlike Karma, the "summary" software on the front end accurately computes your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) and your Age of Oldest Account.  Karma's Vantage scores thankfully accurately use the true Vantage algorithm -- it's just that its presentation software on the front end innacurately renders it.  CC is better in that respect.

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It seems quite redundant that so many places offer free EX08 scores ie creditscore.com, creditscorecard, and Amex. The app you told me about is Lenny. I'm in a position where I can view all my FICO08 scores for free.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!  I knew I had heard about Lenny in one of the forums.  Just couldn't remember its name.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Lenny-App-free-EQ-FICO-8/m-p/4858855/highlight/true...

I probably won't get it since I already have a FICO 8 BE through Citi.

Web sites that charge people a monthly fee for their scores and reports (e.g. myFICO, Credit Check Total, etc.) have been I suspect tremendously hard hit by the revolution in easy access to frequent reports and FICO scores.  It's really only been in the last 2-3 years. 

[Subexistence]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks!  I knew I had heard about Lenny in one of the forums.  Just couldn't remember its name.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Lenny-App-free-EQ-FICO-8/m-p/4858855/highlight/true#M14550?q=Lenny

I probably won't get it since I already have a FICO 8 BE through Citi.

Web sites that charge people a monthly fee for their scores and reports (e.g. myFICO, Credit Check Total, etc.) have been I suspect tremendously hard hit by the revolution in easy access to frequent reports and FICO scores.  It's really only been in the last 2-3 years. 

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Do you think scores like TU04,Ex02, or orther mortgage scores will also become available for free soon? I'm hoping when I get out of college and buy my own house, I don't have to buy the scores.

[Anonymous]

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@Subexistence wrote:

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Do you think scores like TU04,Ex02, or orther mortgage scores will also become available for free soon? I'm hoping when I get out of college and buy my own house, I don't have to buy the scores.

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I love you man, because finally somebody has appeared on these forums who is more tightfisted with his money than I am.  Woo-hoo!  I am no longer Ebeneezer Scrooge or even Jacob Marley!

Until very recently, a Wells Fargo credit card gave a person his EX mortgage score for free.  But I think I may have heard that WF has switched to FICO 9.... is that right, do you know?  I closed my WF card to avoid my first annual fee with them, and then one month later I thought I saw somebody say that WF had switched to FICO 9.

When do you think you will graduate, and can you make a guess as to how long after that you might buy a house?  If it is far enough in the future, you may find that the ancient mortgage models in use today are no longer the thing that Fannie Mae forces everyone to use.  (The Experian model is especially old -- from 1998.  Almost 20 years old!!!)

If I were you, I would consider buying all of your scores at myFICO once every two years, just for fun.  It only costs $30 and you'll get to see a ton of info, including all of your FICO 9 scores, which are hard to find.  You really like this credit stuff and a hobby that only costs $30 every two years is really cheap.