Even though it's FAKO, is the report legitimate?

[Nyru]

Hi everyone,

Curious, if you get a report from a FAKO website, even though the sore is inaccurate, is the report itself also inaccurate? I'm asking because getting your report is cheaper on other websites, and I'm more concerned right now with the report than the score itself

[DaveSignal]

Yes, most of those sites sell legitimate credit reports with information direct from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.  You pay more here for the FICO score, but if you don't need that, then you would save money by getting your reports somewhere else, such as ElminateIDTheft, USAA, etc.  Many users here use such sites in addition to finding ways to pull our true FICO score.  I use this sites Score Watch for my EQ score, in addition to another site for my 3-in-1 reports.

[llecs]

The reporting on some of these other CMSs can be a bit off in some cases. Definitely don't rely 100% (e.g. AAoA, util, stati), but for a basic level of where you stand per balances, reporting accounts, inquiries, etc., these other services are great. IMO, everyone should subscribe to at least one 3-in-1 that pulls daily or monthly just to get an idea of what is reporting and when they update. And if curious about the FICO impact, then you can always come back here (or whereever you get your FICO from) if that's important for you.

[thom02099]

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@llecs wrote:

The reporting on some of these other CMSs can be a bit off in some cases. Definitely don't rely 100% (e.g. AAoA, util, stati), but for a basic level of where you stand per balances, reporting accounts, inquiries, etc., these other services are great. IMO, everyone should subscribe to at least one 3-in-1 that pulls daily or monthly just to get an idea of what is reporting and when they update. And if curious about the FICO impact, then you can always come back here (or whereever you get your FICO from) if that's important for you.

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+1.  Please also keep in mind that some of these secondary monitoring sites, such as Credit Karma, don't report closed accounts.  You''ll get most of your current accounts, but if you want to also look at your "big picture" to include all accounts in your history, then CK isn't the site for you. 

[RobertEG]

+1

Any commercial credit repot that is produced requires a determination of what the report will or will not show.

No credit report ever provides a full showing of all information in your entire credit file, which is a huge amount of information, such as creditor business types, ECOA codes, etc., that most consumers have no interest in viewing, and would clutter a normal report.

Some vendors even omit vital information, such as the reported DOFD when the file includes a collection or charge-off.

In my opiion, the most complete CR available is the one you get from annualcreditreport.com, which is not a normal, convetional site.

It is the governent-sanctioned site approved to enable the CRAs to fulfill their obligation to provide one free report to consumers every 12 months..

As such, they seem to take a bit more effort to provide a complete report thruugh that site.

And its free.  It is only commercial to the extent that it also offers to sell a score, but you can decline that offer.

By staggering your pull of your free annual report from each CRA, you can get one free report every four months.