I'm so confused!!! Which Monitoring company?!!

pizza1 · ‎09-13-2014

I'm really overwhelmed by all the different monitoring out there, and I've wanted to sign up somewhere but just confused and don't know which one!!! Do I go for free ones or pay? Which ones are the best??? What about myfico and what they offer? I want to monitor all three reports, and be able to pull them if needed with a negative alert. Any advice please, or share your thoughts on who you use... I want the negatives and positives too thank you!!

jamie123 · ‎09-14-2014

Well...My thoughts on this have recently changed.

Since MyFICO has changed to the EQ FICO 08 model it has lost much of it's value IMHO. The 08 model is mostly used by credit card lenders and I guess when you first start building or rebuilding credit, the 08 score has value. Once you have 3 or 4 good credit cards the 08 score doesn't have as much value to a person because at that point we all pretty much know where we stand when it comes to credit cards and can get virtually any credit card we want. Our scores at that point aren't hurting for lack of credit cards in other words.

What are our scores hurting from at that point?

Not having an installment loan (auto loan) or mortgage. The FICO 08 scores that are offered by everyone now won't help you much there. This is usually the next step in a building credit or rebuilding credit scenario. Now that I have my credit cards, I want a new car or a house!

There really isn't a good place to get an auto enhanced or FICO 04 score that are used by the auto loan industry and mortgage lenders respectively. That leaves us as consumers in the dark and the dark is not a good place to be when taking on a loan the size of an auto loan or mortgage. We are at a distinct disadvantage when we don't know our scores for these loans during negotiations and it is to the sellers and lenders advantage that it is kept this way. I mean c'mon, it is 2014 and we can't find out our auto enhanced FICO score or our FICO 04 score? Why do you think that is?

Okay, just one more point before I get off the soapbox...

I think every car dealer and mortgage lender should have posted in their front window: We use FICO 04 (Or whatever scoring model they are using.) scores to help determine loan approvals. You can check your FICO 04 score for $4.99 at checkmyfico04.com. I mean really, how hard can that be? Why isn't it happening? Now, just because you have the score to be approved doesn't mean you will be approved because history and income matter too. But if you don't have the score you certainly won't get the loan so why even apply and be denied and take your scores even lower?

Now back to your original question...

I think you need to get a credit card that offers a free REAL FICO score like a Walmart or Discover card and there are others now to track your scores. You can then use the free version of Credit Karma for their excellent credit report monitoring services and you are set.

Why pay almost $200 per year for what you can get for free?

Starting Score: EQ 653 6/21/12
Current Score: EQ 817 3/10/20 - EX 820 3/13/20 - TU 825 3/03/20

lhcole77 · ‎09-14-2014

For freebies I like CS, Quizzle and CK. They all offer alerts and free monitoring and using those three covers all EX, EQ and TU bases, respectively.

i signed up for FICO 3B. It hasn't really started working as advertised, so the jury is still out on that for me.

Before switching to freebies and FICO I used Wells Fargo Enhanced ID Theft Protection. It was only $15.99/mo, pulled all three reports monthly, offered FAKO scores (which always wound up being within a 10 point range of FICO for me) and had a great score simulator.

takeshi74 · ‎09-16-2014

@pizza1 wrote:
Any advice please, or share your thoughts on who you use... I want the negatives and positives too thank you!!

Have you looked at the CMS thread? There's not only a list of options but discussion on the options as well.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Credit-Monitoring-Service-CMS-Guide/td-p/66254...

@pizza1 wrote:
Which ones are the best???

@pizza1 wrote:
I want to monitor all three reports, and be able to pull them if needed with a negative alert.

You need to clarify what you mean by best as best is always highly subjective regardless of topic. Monitoring and alerts really doesn't help to narrow down the options. You need to provide your criteria for best if you want assistance in selecting. What are you willing to spend? Do you want scores? Do you want daily pulls?

@jamie123 wrote:

Why pay almost $200 per year for what you can get for free?

Depends on what the individual is looking for. Scores aren't important to me when I want monitoring. Reports and daily pulls are. YMMV but make sure that the free option is taking into consideration whether the comparison is apples to apples.

The cards you mention only offer TU 08 scores and TU isn't the only CRA. Oddly you mention that the 08 model isn't of much use in your opinion so I don't understand why you're recommending the scores from Walmart and Discover.