topic Re: Am I over doing this? in General Credit Topics

Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 06:06:03 GMT

Hello fellow members,

So I have enrolled in the various monitoring sites when I started off building credit history just to ensure I receive alerts and updates about my credit reports. The list includes Credit Karma, Creditwise, Wallethub, credit.com and credit journey. More or the less all of them do the same job in providing alerts or keep a track of direction in scoring. However, the advantage I have here is the frequency at which it updates gives me more up to date information. For instance, CK, CW, Credit journey updates every 7 days. credit.com every 14 days and wallethub updates every day.

Am I overdoing or being extra with this credit thing setup? Are there anyone out there who are like me?

PS: I get my true Fico 8 from Disco/BOA. AMEX and CITI

Re: Am I over doing this?

stw715 — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 06:32:08 GMT

I don’t think you are over doing it. I have CK updates every Sat and credit wise every Wed. Daily Ex credit report thru Sonic Data breach. Credit dot com, freecreditreport, credit scorecard from Discover, plus general credit infos from here, in which I learned about my Marvel card breach here, day and half before I received the email from Synchrony!

Re: Am I over doing this?

SouthJamaica — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 12:27:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello fellow members,

So I have enrolled in the various monitoring sites when I started off building credit history just to ensure I receive alerts and updates about my credit reports. The list includes Credit Karma, Creditwise, Wallethub, credit.com and credit journey. More or the less all of them do the same job in providing alerts or keep a track of direction in scoring. However, the advantage I have here is the frequency at which it updates gives me more up to date information. For instance, CK, CW, Credit journey updates every 7 days. credit.com every 14 days and wallethub updates every day.
Am I overdoing or being extra with this credit thing setup? Are there anyone out there who are like me?

PS: I get my true Fico 8 from Disco/BOA. AMEX and CITI

Well there's no harm in it but I don't find Vantage scores to be of any use.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Medic981 — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:37:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello fellow members,

So I have enrolled in the various monitoring sites when I started off building credit history just to ensure I receive alerts and updates about my credit reports. The list includes Credit Karma, Creditwise, Wallethub, credit.com and credit journey. More or the less all of them do the same job in providing alerts or keep a track of direction in scoring. However, the advantage I have here is the frequency at which it updates gives me more up to date information. For instance, CK, CW, Credit journey updates every 7 days. credit.com every 14 days and wallethub updates every day.
Am I overdoing or being extra with this credit thing setup? Are there anyone out there who are like me?

PS: I get my true Fico 8 from Disco/BOA. AMEX and CITI

Information is power! I monitor the same sites. I too am hyperaware of credit file and credit score. For me, it all started after the Equifax data breach.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 17:18:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello fellow members,

So I have enrolled in the various monitoring sites when I started off building credit history just to ensure I receive alerts and updates about my credit reports. The list includes Credit Karma, Creditwise, Wallethub, credit.com and credit journey. More or the less all of them do the same job in providing alerts or keep a track of direction in scoring. However, the advantage I have here is the frequency at which it updates gives me more up to date information. For instance, CK, CW, Credit journey updates every 7 days. credit.com every 14 days and wallethub updates every day.
Am I overdoing or being extra with this credit thing setup? Are there anyone out there who are like me?

PS: I get my true Fico 8 from Disco/BOA. AMEX and CITI

I am just like you!

There's nothing wrong with being concerned about your credit. So as long as checking it does not affect your ability to function every day, you are just fine.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 17:07:16 GMT

Thank you all for sharing your honest opinions.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Pikaboo-icu — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:25:10 GMT

Ok so I gotta sheepishly admit that I use most of those; Wallethub, CK, Credit Sesame, Experion, I check the free score from my cards AND I have My Fico Ult 3B service that I pay for..

Sheesh, I'm a little OCD errr perhaps a LOT OCD but what the heck.. All but the My Fico are free so no harm no foul.

I say it's better to be over-informed than to be under-informed. No? Glad to read I'm not alone- LOL

There are many things far worse to be obsessed over- I traded my shopping addiction for a credit score addiction.

So far it's been a successful and wise trade.

CHEERS

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:28:57 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu...I’m glad I’m not the only one!!! 😂

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:17:27 GMT

There is nothing wrong with signing up with all of the free sites to get many copies/updates to your credit reports. The more data you have and the more frequent the updates the better. I stress reports, because many of these free sites provide VS 3.0 scores or cute "fluff" charts/graphs that can be misleading and manipulative. If you focus on the reports, you'll be just fine.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Medic981 — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:55:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
There is nothing wrong with signing up with all of the free sites to get many copies/updates to your credit reports. The more data you have and the more frequent the updates the better. I stress reports, because many of these free sites provide VS 3.0 scores or cute "fluff" charts/graphs that can be misleading and manipulative. If you focus on the reports, you'll be just fine.

@Anonymous of these sites exist to tout credit products. @Anonymous mentioned "misleading and manipulative" information which is there to get you to click on something and make them money.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 20:08:27 GMT

@Medic981 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
There is nothing wrong with signing up with all of the free sites to get many copies/updates to your credit reports. The more data you have and the more frequent the updates the better. I stress reports, because many of these free sites provide VS 3.0 scores or cute "fluff" charts/graphs that can be misleading and manipulative. If you focus on the reports, you'll be just fine.
@Anonymous of these sites exist to tout credit products. @Anonymous mentioned "misleading and manipulative" information which is there to get you to click on something and make them money.

It makes you question whether anything is really free.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:24:22 GMT

I'm waving my hand up in the air over here because I surely do it too. I love getting my updates and going over them with a cup of coffee in the morning.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:30:28 GMT

I agree with those who warn that the “free” monitoring services that provide non-FICO scores are there to earn money for their advertisers. Knowing that though, they can and do provide a service in the monitoring of various aspects of our credit. If we use them wisely and recognize them for what they are, they are another tool in the tool belt that we can take advantage of and use to our benefit.

Re: Am I over doing this?

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:09:48 GMT

100% true above. The problem is when you think about the percentage of people that use free tools like CK that come to forums like this to learn more about the pros and cons of such a service, it is extremely low. Maybe 1%? I'd say that 99% of people out there that use tools like CK take everything they say as being 100% true and accurate. It's actually very unfortunate, because these then 99% of the population (or however one quantifies it) are walking around very misinformed and mislead. They believe that their "credit score(s)" which aren't FICO scores are in fact the same scores a lender would use and will even refer to them as their FICO scores when of course they are not. They'll wrongly believe the fluff charts/graphs provided and think their payment history is perfect when it isn't, that their age of accounts are low when they aren't, that their number of accounts is too low when it isn't and that their utilization is in a great place when it's not. Being misinformed and mislead causes many of these people to make poor credit decisions, such as unnecessarily applying for credit cards and loan products that they don't need. This is great for CK, but often terrible for those that bite.