topic Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring? in Credit Cards

Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

GoldenloveNY — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:44:11 GMT

Anyone thinks it's a good idea to have both services? I am new to credit (only 10 months with cap 1 secured, Amex ZYNC, and Discover Student), and I am not sure what to do. For those new to credit, you think these services are essential?

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:46:03 GMT

I personally consider them to be wasted money, but it's a question of your own value judgment.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:54:29 GMT

@GoldenloveNY wrote:
Anyone thinks it's a good idea to have both services? I am new to credit (only 10 months with cap 1 secured, Amex ZYNC, and Discover Student), and I am not sure what to do. For those new to credit, you think these services are essential?

Essential? No. But I'm a bit obsessive about watching my scores change, so I do use ScoreWatch. There are plenty of things that I spend money on for things that I enjoy but aren't essential, and this is one of them.

What IS essential is being responsible with your cards. Use them, keep your balances within reasonable limits, and never, EVER be late with a payment. If you do these things, you scores will stay in good shape.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

calihlove75 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:28:29 GMT

@GoldenloveNY wrote:
Anyone thinks it's a good idea to have both services? I am new to credit (only 10 months with cap 1 secured, Amex ZYNC, and Discover Student), and I am not sure what to do. For those new to credit, you think these services are essential?

It just depends. If you plan on purchasing the TU fico here every three months than the quarterly monitoring is basically a discounted 'layaway' for the report..haha. If not probably not worth it since it does not give alerts. Personally now that I have the Walmart Discover free monthly fico, I will wait until it updates here in November to see the point difference than cancel the Quarterly monitor and just rely on the Walmart fico.I will save 5 bucks a month.

Now the scorewatch, once you get past the fact that changes are not an instant alert it seems VERY useful in keeping up with your score. I seem to get updates to my score about 4-7 days after the change actually occurs. I will keep this.

I just canceled my last two daily pull memberships. I was getting totally obsessed with my credit reports to the point if I received an alert text, I would rush to the nearest computer. It got exhausting. I have nothing negative on my reports but inquiries. At one point, I was spending close to $100 a month to monitor everything. Ridiculous, I know. I am obessive by nature.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Duncanrr — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:33:20 GMT

I use both. Im doing a major rebuild. My scores initially were around 540's. Im now between 680 and 700 depending on the score (not bad for 4 months of work ). I use both of them for a couple of reasons:

1. I like the alerts I get from SW (they can be a little slow at times but it gives me a good way of tracking things)

2. The SW alerts give me hard numbers of where my score is and with the tweeking Im doing to utilization and new accounts I can see how things impact my score.

3. Both SW and TU quarterly give me the ability to track my changes over time.

4. Since Im working toward refi (and earlier in my rebuild when I was getting items removed), the discount on score reports makes the products worth it. Once Im done with refi, I'll reevaluate which services I use.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Tonya-E — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:48:26 GMT

I personally don't think they are essential. If you don't want to see your FICO that often they can be unneccessary. I use both. I purchase scorewatch directly from EQ and I use the Quarterly monitoring here at myfico as well. It can be worth it but it will depend on how obsessive you are about knowing your score. Some here pull once per month and if that is you it saves you money. With the quarterly monitoring it still saves if you pull monthly because you get an automatic 20% discount if you pull on the months in between your including reports. Once you know how much you will want to see you score, you can make the better decision on what works for you. I am going to swich up in the near future. I may nix the quarterly monitoring because I don't pull as often as I did before. But I think I will keep scorewatch. I have had it for about 8 years now.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:17:44 GMT

SW is sounding more intruiging. I was under the impression they only offered two pulls a year. How are you getting frequent score updates?

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

calihlove75 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:22:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
SW is sounding more intruiging. I was under the impression they only offered two pulls a year. How are you getting frequent score updates?

They do give you the two full reports each year, but they also send alerts for changes to your fico score. So for example, if you add a new account it will alert you of the new account and the new score.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Duncanrr — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:23:09 GMT

You set your alert settings and anytime these settings are meet u get SW alert with current score. I set mine to alert if score goes up 1 pt and when balances change by more than $100.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Whereis750 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:30:04 GMT

I have both SW and Quarterly Monitoring. SW keeps watch on Equifax and Quarterly Monitoring reviews your TU. The score they give are FICO so the info is useful. But for alerts and all 3 reports I use, and highly recommend, USAA Credit monitoring Premium. The alerts have been instant for me and you can upgrade to daily pulls of all 3 reports for around $22 per mth. Call in for a discounted rate.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:46:44 GMT

Thanks for the heads up everyone. I guess I'll pull the trigger on SW then. I'm currently awaiting my WalMart card for the TU FICO goodness, and I am using the AMEX CS for alerts (which I believe is identical to USAA's service).

I was on the fence about going the DCU route for EQ FICO, but I'm liking the sound of adjusting the alert settings for score updates on SW. It will also save me two HPs...

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

migliogiorni — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:46:29 GMT

SW never updated for me I hated it followed all the tricks and still nothing, waste of money.

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

GoldenloveNY — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:36:35 GMT

Thanks for all the responses! It's greatly appreciated!

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

nicholasyud — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:51:43 GMT

@migliogiorni wrote:
SW never updated for me I hated it followed all the tricks and still nothing, waste of money.

set alert at your current points

your balance increase 1 dollars

5% of account balance..........by this way you get alert everytime your score go up or down.....i got my alert 3 4 times a months.....

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

Unique620 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 05:58:14 GMT

In rebuilding stage post bankruptcy and have both SW & QM. I find them both very help. If you are learning about how certain actions reflect your score the stimulators have been on the money for me.it taught me how to manage my utilization and after completing GW letters or disputes, it shows me how it affects my score immediately, and I receive immediate alerts by text and email. I totally love the alert settings. I set the alert at a goal and love when I met my score goals. Pretty cool!

Re: Anyone uses FICO Score Watch/Quarterly Monitoring?

beb86 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:06:24 GMT

I used both services from when I registered with myFICO until a few months after I purchased my home...I found them useful but once I closed I found I had no use for them anymore....I will probably pick back up the SW after the holidays. The TU quarterly monitoring gets trumped by the walmart TU FICO IMO.