Myfico credit monitoring

[masscredit]

I'm trying to decide if the money that I pay for myfico credit monitoring is worth it.  I've been subscribed for about 6 months. The alerts that I receive are if my score reaches or goes above a number that I set. But if it goes down, I don't hear about that and I don't know anything unless I pay more to refresh my score.  So I'm wondering if I should cancel until I feel that I need it again in the future. Actually, at that point, I can just pay the one time fee and check it.  I have a Walmart card so I monitor my TU monthly.

[axxy]

I've heard that the Walmart TU is a different score than the MyFICO TU.  The MyFICO TU is said to be the 1998 version of the FICO scoring system, and the Walmart TU is said to be the 2008 version.  But I don't actually know these things; they're just what I read in a forum about them.

[foofighter74]

The transunion score here is useless.  It's incredibly outdated, and nobody uses it.  The Equifax score, however, is the same score mortgage lenders will pull so it's a useful number to keep track of.  I believe you can set score watch to alert you if your score drops where it might impact a potentional mortgage interest rate.  Even if you're not in the market for a home, this could still alert you that your score dropped. 

[masscredit]

There is a section that says -  Alert - Whenever a FICO® score change could qualify you for a different interest on a:  (then you pick one).  But this is just a range.  When my score goes up, I have it set to alert me when there is a 1 point increase so I know there is movement there.  When it goes down, it might have to move by 20 points before I'm alerted. 

[Gunnar419]

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@masscredit wrote:

But if it goes down, I don't hear about that and I don't know anything unless I pay more to refresh my score. 

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That's odd, masscredit. I've been a scrorewatch subscriber only a couple of months, but I've gotten alerts when my score has gone up OR down.

Sometimes it seems that the factors that trigger alerts are quirky -- for instance being able to get alerts if our balances go up by $5, but not getting alerts if we pay our balances down by $1,000. And I definitely wish MyFico would provide more detailed, lucid explanations of the various things that do or don't trigger alerts. But I know for sure that SW does give both up and down score results; it just gives them with triggers that sometimes seem mysterious.

[masscredit]

When I go into the setting, I can be alerted when balances go up or down by a certain amount.  I can see that stuff by viewing my accounts.  I would just like to be able to be notified when my score goes up or down. When it goes up, I have the alert set to notify me when the score goes jumps up by at least one but when it goes down, it has to get to a certain point, like to affect a loan % before I am notified. 

[Gunnar419]

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@masscredit wrote:

When I go into the setting, I can be alerted when balances go up or down by a certain amount.  I can see that stuff by viewing my accounts.  I would just like to be able to be notified when my score goes up or down. When it goes up, I have the alert set to notify me when the score goes jumps up by at least one but when it goes down, it has to get to a certain point, like to affect a loan % before I am notified. 

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Oh, yeah. I see what you're saying. I looked again and althought I have been notified of my score going down, it appears to be because my score has been sitting very close to one of those points (loan percentage rates) the entire time I've been here.

I don't, however, see a setting that lets me get an alert when a balance goes down -- only up.

It does seem as if a product called ScoreWatch should notify us of all changes in our scores, and this one doesn't seem to.

[llecs]

FYI, two different products are being discussed in this thread.

ScoreWatch monitors your EQ report and FICO score for changes. It'll alert to items like added accounts, added inquiries, change in stati, etc. and will alert you via a credit alert. At the same time of the credit alert, it will give you your latest EQ FICO. It won't alert you to dropped TLs, dropped lates, or dropped inquiries. Absent credit alerts, it will monitor your EQ FICO for changes and will only alert you if your target score in your settings is hit or exceeded. So, if nothing is happening on your CR and your score drops (e.g. a dropped account), then you will not get alerted if your target score is set above your latest score. For best practices, always set your target score to EXACTLY match your latest EQ FICO, that way you'll get alerted if it goes up or down. As the score changes, then reset that target score to match. Read the ScoreWatch Guide found stickied within myFICO Product Feedback.

FICO Quarterly Monitoring monitors TU only. It's not like SW. It's basically a pre-paid plan for your TU FICO report. Any alerts are quarterly (hence the name). You don't get interim score alerts, though you could get credit alerts for some items (I think added TLs or ID-theft related changes like name changes, address changes, etc.).

[masscredit]

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@llecs wrote:

FYI, two different products are being discussed in this thread.

ScoreWatch monitors your EQ report and FICO score for changes. It'll alert to items like added accounts, added inquiries, change in stati, etc. and will alert you via a credit alert. At the same time of the credit alert, it will give you your latest EQ FICO. It won't alert you to dropped TLs, dropped lates, or dropped inquiries. Absent credit alerts, it will monitor your EQ FICO for changes and will only alert you if your target score in your settings is hit or exceeded. So, if nothing is happening on your CR and your score drops (e.g. a dropped account), then you will not get alerted if your target score is set above your latest score. For best practices, always set your target score to EXACTLY match your latest EQ FICO, that way you'll get alerted if it goes up or down. As the score changes, then reset that target score to match. Read the ScoreWatch Guide found stickied within myFICO Product Feedback.

FICO Quarterly Monitoring monitors TU only. It's not like SW. It's basically a pre-paid plan for your TU FICO report. Any alerts are quarterly (hence the name). You don't get interim score alerts, though you could get credit alerts for some items (I think added TLs or ID-theft related changes like name changes, address changes, etc.).

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Thank you very much for the info! I have my Score Watch open in a different window now.  Looking at the first alert, it says - " Send an alert"  and then I have the option checked for - "Whenever your FICO® score of 671 reaches a target score of". I have it set to 672.  I was at 693 a few months ago and had the alert set to let me know when it reached a target score of 694.  My score went down when utilization went up but I wasn't notified.  I had to pay to refresh my score to get the current one. That is on top of paying for Score Watch.  I understand what you say about the settings but looking at it, seems like the only time a notification will be sent is when a target (higher) score is reached. 

[llecs]

If balances went up, and the increase in those balances went above your settings (I think it'll alert for an increases on CCs of $5 and/or 5% depending on your settings), then you'll get an alert. Your alert will say something like "A balance increased on one or more of your credit cards" or something like that, and it'll show what that increase was. And it should show your latest EQ FICO at the time of the increase, assuming it changed (not every CC increase will drop a score). On the flip side, if util increased because of a CLD or because you paid off a closed CC, then you wouldn't get any increase at all, for the credit alert or for the score alert. You wouldn't get a score alert in that scenario because your score is set one point higher.