Credit Score

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Are most people paying the monthly fee to check their fico scores from all three bureaus or is there a way to check the score free? 

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No idea what most are doing.  You have to find what works for you versus going with whatever may be popular.  There are creditors that offer FICO's with their products -- some mentioned above.  Just keep in mind which scoring model is provided versus which one you're looking for.  There isn't just one FICO score per CRA.  See also the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum and its stickies.

[Anonymous]

BTW, there was a recent thread here in the myFICO forums that discussed one option for people who need a cost-free solution.  (It's already been alluded to here: a combination of Credit Karma and Credit.com.)  It's a pretty short discussion and it gets into the pros and cons later down.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Credit-Karma-question/m-p/4055972#M209945

[Anonymous]

I pay My Fico for monthly scores and until I settle a couple of disputes to clean my files, I subscribe to all three credit bureaus. It's overkill and expensive, but it has helped me clean up my files in less than two months. When that is done, I will cancel the three credit bureaus and just use MyFico.

Rebuilding since late 2013 following Chapter 13 in 2008. Barclay (Apple Rewards) 2000; Bank of America Travel 3500 and another Travel 3500; Amazon 700 (What’s up with that?); Care Credit 3300; Bank of America Platinum 2000; Capital One 1917 (secured); Discover 10,000; HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) 80,000. Five of these in 2015 after joining the forum. Total: $106,917. Still want: Venture and Quicksilver. In the garden (except for car purchase later this year) until November. Thanks to every single person who posts in this forum!
FICO Scores as of 5/6/15: EQ: 736; TU: 696; EX: 662.

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[Momof5]

creditchecktotal now advertises 3 FICO scores with 3 pulls a month for just under $30/mo.

[Revelate]

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@Momof5 wrote:

creditchecktotal now advertises 3 FICO scores with 3 pulls a month for just under $30/mo.

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Wagers that the monitoring there is 1:1 identical with MF?

For what it's worth I agree with takeshi: figure out what you need and go from there.  My own needs have changed over time, and I could make the argument my monitoring costs are just a cheap hobby but I know I'm not the norm there... but do I need it for any regular reason?  No not really as the bulk of my requirements are met by CK.  

Find whatever scores you want to use for a benchmark (I use DCU's Beacon 5.0, and even that leads to some suprises even if I think it's the best consumer available free score) and simply track that over time as in broad strokes all of the FICO algorithms react similarly to changes on one's credit report if not in same absolute point value, certainly on anything significant.  Points in the margin /shrug, small ups and downs are sort of meaningless over time, big picture is what matters.