topic Re: Citi's Identity Monitor in General Credit Topics

Citi's Identity Monitor

keith021 — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:39:45 GMT

How accurate is the credit score part of the product? I do understand that it isn't my Experian FICO score, but I'm just curious as to how accurate or close it is to my Experian FICO score. Has anyone ever used this product before?

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

MarineVietVet — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:50:45 GMT

@keith021 wrote:
How accurate is the credit score part of the product? I do understand that it isn't my Experian FICO score, but I'm just curious as to how accurate or close it is to my Experian FICO score. Has anyone ever used this product before?

No one has been able to pull their own Experian score since last February. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only.

A web site might tell you can buy a "credit score" but if the word "FICO" is not anywhere it is NOT a true FICO score. Experian will sell you a "credit score" but it is what is called a Plus score. It is not an Experian FICO score.

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

keith021 — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:59:01 GMT

I understand that I'm not able to pull my own Experian FICO score as stated above, I was wondering how big of a difference is between the Experian FICO score and the 'credit score' that is provided from Citi's Identity Monitor product.

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:13:36 GMT

keith021 wrote:

I understand that I'm not able to pull my own Experian FICO score as stated above, I was wondering how big of a difference is between the Experian FICO score and the 'credit score' that is provided from Citi's Identity Monitor product.

In my own experience, and from what others have posted, it's all over the map. It might be higher, it might be lower, it might be kinda close (which is pretty much coincidental.)

One big problem with trying to compare FICO's and FAKO's is that FAKO's have different score ranges. For instance, Vantage scores range from 501 - 990. A 700 on a FICO score range of 300 - 850 isn't too shabby, but a 700 within a 501 - 990 range is definitely lower down.

And there are no reliable conversion equations to go from FAKO scores to FICO's. You might see some, but since FAKO formulas weigh factors differently from FICO formulas, a formula that adjusts for the score range differences still isn't going to come up with the same score.

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

MarineVietVet — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:31:17 GMT

@keith021 wrote:
I understand that I'm not able to pull my own Experian FICO score as stated above, I was wondering how big of a difference is between the Experian FICO score and the 'credit score' that is provided from Citi's Identity Monitor product.

It doesn't matter if the difference is 1 point or 100. The two scores do not correlate in any shape, form, or fashion. It's useless to compare them for scoring purposes.

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

AndySoCal — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:00:26 GMT

The Experian Plus score and Experian FICO are two different scores based on two different score criterias. There are very few places that have permission to sell the FICO score to the conusmer from Fair Isaac AKA FICO. MyFICO is one of those places. The primary reason for a credit monitering service is to make sure the credit data that has been reported is accurate. The most important reason to your credit for the early detection of idenity theft. It is the credit data that causes the score to change one way or the other to state the obvious. The credit score no matter is what model is on the credit report is a snap shot of your credit at the time the report was pulled. The credit score may / may not vary time each a creditor reports information on you. Once you have made sure the credit data is accurate the score is what it is. I am more interested in the credit data than the score. With the credit score comes four reasons that influenced that score. They are in order of impact. The reasons will be different from score model to score model.

Re: Citi's Identity Monitor

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:07:36 GMT

It's creditexpert product which is a experian I join back when it was 9.99 after after a year they wanted $11,99 called to cancel made me an offer for $6.95 and that's what I payed til 12/09 raised to $8.95

it gets me three reports a month

Message Edited by rbbyrbsn on 01-12-2010 11:07 AM