Credit "Scores" from USAA?

[Duke-of-Earl]

As a new member of USAA, I was considering their "CreditCheck Monitoring Premium" service.  In addition to unlimited access to reports from all three CRAs, it also includes "scores".  Does anyone know whether these might be FICO scores?  The name "FICO" does not appear on the web page describing the service, which is provided by Experian.  Both make me suspect these would be FAKO scores, but I'd like to hear from anyone who actually knows.

[RobertEG]

Definately not.  NO question.  They are not licensed FICO scores, until they porport to be.

Any FICO score must bear the moniker, and TM, of Fair Isaac.

[llecs]

+1 to Robert. They are FAKOs. Specifically, they are PLUS scores. Ignore them (and the advice too).

BTW, if you see any service that offers all 3 scores or an EX score, then know that they are all FAKOs.

[haulingthescoreup]

+2

The reports are fine, though. So if you want to monitor what's being reported, keep the service. Just be sure to tune out the scores and advice.

We get a lot of posts here from people who have hurt their FICO scores by taking the advice on FAKO score reports. Some of it can be reversed, but others can't. (Closing "too many" credit cards, for example.)

[chasmith]

I find the reports useful because I can update as often as daily, and they provide sa decent side-by-side report.  As others have said, ignore the score and the specific advice given.  But I find it useful to see what they say as plus/minus factors, and how the order changes as my score changes.  I wouldn't do anything based on a recommendation or simulation from that tool.

[Duke-of-Earl]

Thanks to all who responded.  The scores seemed too good to be true, and I appreciate the confirmations.  I guess the unlimited reports are worth it even if the scores are FAKOs; cost is about twice what I've been paying EQ for just the one report (theirs).  Not sure what to make of the comments about the advice, which isn't included in the website list of what's offered -- but hey, I come here for advice anyway.

If I may ask a further question, how about the monitoring?  Alerts about new accounts or inqs reported?  Are they complete?  I found the EQ alerts to be pretty good, TU less so.

[chasmith]

There's a small lag in monitoring, at most one day from when things first show up on my reports (I usually pull daily in early morning).

[Peach8321]

Hi Duke,

I think you've gotten good advice here...one thing to consider, if you don't need to see the reports every month, perhaps paying for them every quarter and using your free report (annualcreditreport.com) in combination would be better and you would get the real scores (from myfico.com of course).

One thing that has bothered me though, on your FICO challenge, you have a Goal score of 1000...I hope this is supposed to be hyperbolic because your highest score cannot go above 850....  and if your scores were already at 813, 842, and 823 then you are at that very very good high end... in which case, I'd be interested to know what happened to the two you can check after your mortgage hit :-)

[Anonymous]

i'm copying this from another post i just made, but it's even more relevant here...

fwiw, i use the USAA credit check monitoring service because i get daily pulls for a fair monthly price.  i bought my fico scores here at myfico and the usaa scores are consistently 20 points LOWER than myfico.  i've read about some that are consistently higher, so pay zero attention to the actual score, but the change in score as baddies fall off or balances decrease just might be proportional and will give an indication of whether you're helping your score and how much.

i like the daily pulls since i'm actively working on my balances and waiting impatiently for some disputes to be acted upon.  it's also nice knowing exactly which day each CC reports to the CRAs.