Am I wasting money? How do you monitor your credit?

[jologan79]

I'm trying to cut some expenses and I'm looking at cutting my credit montioring services.

As of now I have the following services:

1. myFICO - $29.95

2. Equifax - Family Plan $29.95

3. Experian - $19.95

4. Transunion - $16.95

so I'm paying close to $100 a month for credit services...

I only got these so I can keep up, update each report whenever I want to. 

What credit services are you all using?

[Anonymous]

I use my fico 3b because it monitors all 3 credit bureaus 

[jologan79]

Would you need to pull a report from the report bureau if you wanted to dispute something?

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@Anonymous wrote:

I use my fico 3b because it monitors all 3 credit bureaus 

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[thelethargicage]

Over $100/month on credit monitoring? Yes, you are definitely wasting your money.

Credit Karma + Experian backdoor = $0

[Thomas_Thumb]

For credit report summary information I use the following free services:

1) Credit Karma for Equifax and TransUnion

2) Credit.com for Experian

For monthly free Fico scores I have:

1) Discover card - Fico 8 Classic from TransUnion

2) American Express - Fico 8 Classic from Experian

3) AT&T Universal (Citi) - Fico 8 Bankcard from Equifax

[Anonymous]

$14.97/mo for CCT. Daily report/FICO 8 for EX and monthly updates for TU & EQ.

[Anonymous]

If you don't have a purpose to have those services, merely to see your credit score and nothing else (ooh ahhh look I gained 4 points), cut them all off. If you looking for the best credit score you can obtain so you can qualify for a new loan or open a new line of credit, keep whichever is the most used by creditors and cut off the rest.

[takeshi74]

Basically only CK and I pull reports and scores as needed which has not been all that often.

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@jologan79 wrote:

I only got these so I can keep up, update each report whenever I want to. 

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How often do you really need updates?  Are you really applying for new credit that often?

[JagerBombs89]

I use:

Credit Karma for TU and EQ - Free

Amex Experian FICO08 - Free

DCU Equifax FICO04 - Free

Discover Transunion FICO08 - Free

Total cost with tax - Free

[lg8302ch]

I am using all the free services and the scores from my credit cards but in addition I pay for EX credit tracker which gives me access to the reports for 9.95$ / mo.  Paying that many services looks to me that you are waisting money.  I would keep maximum 1 paid service which gives you access to the report (not only scores) and use the free services instead for the rest.  Imagine what you could do with the leftover money each month