Best Credit report site for the $$$

[Anonymous]

Whats the cheapest but trustworthy   to get your score ?  Also whats the best site for monthly monitoring ?

[Anonymous]

One thing you will want to do is to balance at least three different things against each other.  The three that come to my mind immediately are simplicity vs. cost vs. comprehesiveness.

If a zero cost solution is preferred, let the folks here know and we can give you one.  The likely recommendation would be getting a free FICO 8 monthly Experian score, some tools that will give you free monthly credit reports from all three bureaus, and some tools that will give you free Vantage 3 scores from all three bureaus.  You can in addition avail yourself of the $1 Credt Check Total offer and then cancel -- perhaps twice a year, three times a year, whatever.  There are many approaches that are zero or ultra low cost.

If you are fine paying $15 per month for Credit Check Total, that has a real nice simplicity aspect to it.  You will get free monthly FICO 8 scores and credit reports from all three bureaus, and I think you'll get Experian updates on a daily basis rather than monthly.  There's a "one stop shop" quality to that approach and you don't ever have to think about cancelling.

The most comprehensive solution would be myFICO.  They have a new package now that gives you about two dozen different scores once a month and a monthly 3B credit report for $40 a month.  Contributor SouthJamaica is a subscriber to that I believe as are others.

[Anonymous]

Cheap and trustworthy? Creditchecktotal.com for sure. You have to do the $1.00 trial trick though..... but it's simple. 

1. Go to website.

2. Pay $1.00 for your 3B score and report.

3. Call the 1-800 # and cancel. (It really is quick and painless. They give you ZERO hassle about it)

4. Check back in 7 days.... You get ANOTHER free updated 3B report with scores.

5. Wait 3 weeks, then go back to step 1.

Using this method, you get 2 full credit reports from all 3 bureaus, every month, for only a buck.

[Anonymous]

Every time I see one of these threads I feel the need to stop in and support the recommendation of the $1 trial(s) at CCT.  I do 1-2 of these a month, so I spend $1 or $2 a month depending on if I want my scores twice that month or once a week.  Once a week for $2/mo is a very solid deal from my point of view.

I still think it's extremely bogus that with a "full membership" from CCT you only get your scores once per month, but if you do two $1 trials you get your scores 4X per month for $13 less.  I think the least CCT could do is match what they provide their trial members with for their full membership customers with respect to scores, that is, provide them weekly instead of monthly.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Whats the cheapest but trustworthy   to get your score ?  Also whats the best site for monthly monitoring ?

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Hey DaveMan!  The other folks who read this thread will be able to steer you best if they know more about your situation.

For example, how many credit cards do you have right now?  Which ones?  Do any of them offer free FICO scores?

I encourage you to try the the $1 CCT pull.  That's a real nice place to start.  It will give you all three reports and three FICO 8 Classic scores.  Then work with the folks here to articulate your goals and develop a plan to achieve them. 

Those three conceptual ways of thinking about a credit monitoring approach are pretty key (cost, simplicity, comprehensiveness).  They are values rather than facts and therefore they can't be right or wrong -- you just need to assess what you value most. 

I also suggest you let the folks here know how much you feel like you understand about what credit reports and credit scores are.  What they are, how they work, etc.  Before you can really choose the best approach for yourself you also really need to make sure you understand Credit 101 backwards and forwards.  That initial $1 pull would be a good place to start.

To give you an example of how a couple similar people might make choices, there's a guy named Thomas Thumb on here and also myself.  He and I over time have decided that what we personally value most is cost (as long as we can get quality cost-free options).  So he and I use zero cost tools and we almost never avail ourselves of the $1 CCT solution (the signing up and cancelling thing all the time wasn't the right fit for me, though every once in a great while I do that with myFICO).  TT and myself just get free reports whenever we need them (possible now) and get monthly FICO and Vantage scores.  That works for him and me.  But is that the "right" approach?  No.  There's no right approach.  It's just the right approach for him and me, based on the things we happen to value and our personal needs and our unique credit plans.