Annual Credit Report vs myfico

[pritchardhallhokie]

A bit of clarification please.  I've looked all over and can't get a clear-cut explaination of what I'm searching for so maybe you guys can help.

I have purchased the two reports from here on myfico and looked them over and these are what I'm using as my credit report.

I tried to get the free one but EQ and EX said I already got one this year for free and I could call and get a new one, but isn't this what the one on myfico.com gives you?  I mean to say, the purchase I made on this website for 15 bucks a pop is the actual, real, valid credit report, correct?

And the monthly myfico watch thing, that's really my true no joke FICO score it's showing me?  So these automatic updates/changes I'm receiving are the legitimate changes in my FICO score?  When I DO in fact get something succesfully removed and my FICO moves up, I still have to pay again to see the new report itself, right?

Thanks guys, sorry for such a stupid question, just wanted to make sure I was using the right tools.

[Lel]

Yes, what you get from this site are you actual credit reports, with information obtained directly from Equifax and Transunion.  Experian credit reports, unfortunately, are not available from this site.

The alerts that you get from Score Watch are actual changes to your Equifax FICO score.  If you do subscribe to Score Watch and have your notification parameters set correctly, then you will get updated when your score changes.  However, if something gets removed (e.g. a 6 year-old late payment) that does NOT result in a score change, you won't get a Score Watch alert.  SW alerts you when new stuff appears on your report, but not when things fall off.

If you want to see what exactly changed on your credit report to result in an increase (or decrease) in score, then you might have to buy a new credit report.  Sometimes the SW alert will tell you what changed (e.g. a CC balance went up), so it's not absolutely necessary to pull a new report to see the change.

[llecs]

The reports pulled directly from each CRA (or via annualcreditreport.com) are a little more comprehensive as per information. These reports have more info than you'll find from any 3rd-party reseller like myFICO, freecreditreport.com, TrueCredit, and many, many others. These reports have more info like a full 7-year history (vs. FICO's two), soft inquiries, drop off dates for most baddies (on TU and EX), DOFD on EQ, detailed demographic info, balance history (esp. on EX) and others.

IMO, separate in your mind FICO reports from your full report. Both are needed when fixing your credit and both have info the other doesn't have. I use the full report from each CRA for the full history, DOFD and drop off dates. I also look at the soft inquiries to see who has been snooping around. FICO doesn't offer this info. On the flip side, FICO reports have info that you cannot find on your full report like a FICO score (obviously), rank in order of what helps or hurts the most, flags on baddies to see what aspect of a given TL hurts, and other scoring details (e.g. see Glance page).

ScoreWatch? Yes, it is an EQ FICO score, same as what the lenders would use. If your score is changing, then yes, your FICO score is changing. Unfortunately with SW (well any FICO product) you have to purchase a new one in order to see the new report. They don't automatically update. Now SW will update and give you a general idea of what changed, but it doesn't pick up on everything like dropped baddies. Now SW will allow you to pull a new EQ report for $5 off. That helps. There are also myFICO discount codes floating around so google for that.

IMO, and depending on your level of activity or commitment, you may also benefit from subscribing to a credit monitoring service. I have SW and pull both FICO scores regularly, but I'm always tackling baddies it seems and I like to know what fell off or what was added in real time vs waiting for an alert. A CMS allows me to pull my credit reports on a daily basis (in my case for the service I use) and I can see changes daily. Whenever a change happens, I come back here and pull a new report to see the FICO score change. Of course, these services come with scores, but ignore them. They are not FICO scores.

ETA.......slow typing syndrome strikes again. What Lel said.

[pritchardhallhokie]

WOW!

Thanks guys for the great and VERY fast responses.  This forum rocks.

I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing for a few months now which is:  Stay signed up for the montly SW with myfico and pull my reports once a month from here.  I also called to get my three reports sent to me through the automated number, I'm assuming these are the most recent reports, and will not count as hard pulls but rather as a pull I made on myself.

THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!!!

[MarineVietVet]

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@pritchardhallhokie wrote:

WOW!

Thanks guys for the great and VERY fast responses.  This forum rocks.

I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing for a few months now which is:  Stay signed up for the montly SW with myfico and pull my reports once a month from here.  I also called to get my three reports sent to me through the automated number, I'm assuming these are the most recent reports, and will not count as hard pulls but rather as a pull I made on myself.

THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!!!

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You are correct. Pulling your own reports from any source will never count against you.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800, 10/10-813
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work